Generally, a CIO is responsible for technologies that run the company’s internal operations and business procedures. The CTO is responsible for technologies that grow the business externally, implementing services and products that serve clients and customers. A chief technology officer (CTO) is the executive in charge of an organization’s technological needs as well as its research and development (R&D). Also known as a chief technical officer, this individual examines the short- and long-term needs of an organization and utilizes capital to make investments designed to help the organization reach its objectives. The CTO usually reports directly to a company’s chief information officer (CIO), but may also report to the chief executive officer (CEO) of the firm. The chief technology officer (CTO) is the senior executive who focuses on the technological requirements, opportunities, and challenges within an organization.
The CTO is the person who leads the technology function, innovation and, increasingly, product management. Roughly 15+ years of experience in a tech role are critical to climbing the corporate ladder and becoming CTO. Generally, the more years of experience and knowledge in an industry, the higher your chances of reaching a C-suite position.
What is the average salary for a CTO?
The most important role a CTO has is to use technology to generate value for a company and help it achieve its business objectives. At their core, they must develop a technology vision and strategy that will allow the company to thrive and build a solid competitive advantage. In a world driven by increasing developments and advancements in technology, your business’s ability to maintain a competitive advantage rests on the quality of your technology leadership. Usually, “technology leadership” revolves around the Chief Technology Officer (CTO). When a company doesn’t have a CIO, the CTO determines the overall technology strategy and presents it to top executives, according to the BLS.
- Although there is overlap between the two positions, since both deal with IT, CTOs generally look outward, using technology to improve the company’s customer experience—the use of the goods and services.
- IT is an ever-evolving field, and a CTO must enhance their basic skills to stay relevant.
- Many companies designated a CTO to serve as the technology czar inside IT, charged with ensuring the organization was taking advantage of the latest developments in infrastructure, data centers and network technologies.
- They also need to have a good understanding of what is urgent versus what is important.
- The two jobs often overlap in responsibilities, and your part of the equation may vary by where you work.
- Almost every CTO began their career by obtaining a bachelor’s computer science degree or a closely related subject.
To achieve better results, a CTO has to give the employees the necessary feedback. The duties of CTO as a major product architect and system administrator also include keeping an eye on emerging technological advances. One of the most challenging aspects of running a startup or a business is finding and hiring qualified tech professionals. The job of a CTO is to conduct interviews to assess candidates’ technological knowledge. A CTO must keep an eye on trends and decide whether to follow them in order to accelerate the startup’s growth. Furthermore, they keep an eye on competitors’ products to keep up with the latest developments.
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They work closely with Executives and IT personnel to remove outdated systems and replace them to maintain a competitive edge in their industry. Their job is to hire and train IT Directors or Managers to oversee the IT department and its employees. They may also be responsible for creating training programs to help employees adapt to new technology systems in their daily work environments. By comparison, the CTO role in a huge listed company is more about evangelism, choosing the right technology trends, and being the face of technology for the customers. In large organisations it’s common for the CTO to have little experience in, and new to working in a technical position. However, more recently, the expectations and job description of a CTO have changed; and they have become more externally focused on technology propositions for customers.
In other industries, security and compliance usually take a much higher priority. Understanding enterprise risk and standards can be painful but extremely valuable knowledge. People & negotiation skills and mentoring – For their departments to run effectively, the CTO should know their employees’ strengths and weaknesses and how to get the best out of the.
What is a Chief Technology Officer (CTO)?
The underlying role of technology in modern business means Harvey Nash is seeing more requests for COOs with a technical background. Even if they don’t take on broader responsibilities and become COOs, the career outlook for engaged CTOs is bright. The increased prevalence of technology is good news for those who hold the position. Haake says her anecdotal evidence suggests that CTOs are starting to move more towards reporting into non-technologists, such as the chief executive or the chief operating officer (COO). CIOs, on the other hand, tend to focus more on engaging with the business.
In this session, Beth will talk about the CTO’s role in identifying white spaces for innovation, the trends influencing BD’s innovation agenda, and BD’s approach to enabling health equity and sustainability. She what is the role of a cto will also share lessons learned from more than two decades of leadership experience in medtech. As Chief Technology Officer of BD, Beth McCombs leads end-to-end research and development for the organization.
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“The role of the CTO continues to evolve,” says Craig Stephenson, managing director for the North America Technology Officers Practice at organizational consulting firm Korn Ferry. As such, CTOs are among the most important hires organizations are making today, and it can be challenging finding the right person who possesses all the right skills. As has been written, CTO roles and responsibilities are not definable in a couple of lines. The Customer Champion is common within tech companies with a software focus.
Instead, we take the view that any large product-based company today must have someone at a CXO level who is explicitly responsible for understanding how emerging technologies will affect its customers and products. Salary research specialist PayScale says popular skills for CTOs include expertise in software architecture, leadership, IT management, product development, and project management. However, CTOs are increasingly prized for their knowledge of pioneering areas of technology, such as digital products, technical vision and research and development (R&D). This executive will improve a business’ products and services that focus on external customers by making the most of technology and developing a number of procedures and policies. A chief technology officer (CTO) is the highest technology executive position within a company and leads the technology or engineering department.
Severance Terms
As my IT contemporaries ponder their careers and how they can be most valuable to their own organizations in the future, they may find value in reflection as well. CTO as a service comes with reduced cost, lowered risk, increased growth, and heightened value. They support the technology issues facing a company and find better solutions for the software development phase. In my opinion, an organisation operates better when there is a single leader who responsible for all of the technology – because there is often friction when the CTO and CIO are peers. In a world where technology is core to customer propositions, it is the CTO, who should be the most senior technology executive.
Depending on company structure and hierarchy, there may also be positions such as R&D manager, director of R&D and vice president of engineering whom the CTO interacts with or oversees. The title chief technology officer (CTO) is a relatively new one, made popular in the dot-com boom of the 1990s. Its definition is incredibly fluid, as you would expect given the speed at which the IT industry is innovating, with the role meaning something different in every organization, never mind industry. Management and leadership roles are the best steppingstones to obtaining the CTO role in an organization.
Business IT
They found that it is important to know which CTO an organisation needs and where any gaps can be filled by other technology roles. In terms of qualifications, many organisations require an advanced degree such as an MBA, as the role involves a great deal of complex financial, business, and management skills. The vast majority of high-profile CTOs have a computer science degree or engineering degree but that is not a prerequisite. Because the CTO is the public face of technology for the company, they need to display their technical prowess and insight to the business, customers, and external stakeholders. This is important for attracting talent, getting the best from vendors, and driving valuations with investors and analysts.