Chief Information Officer jobs focus on tech teams, systems
If you ever apply for an information technology position at California-based social media company Meta, you’ll at minimum receive a virtual orientation from one of the savants of the industry – Chief Information Officer Atish Banerjea – who calls the company’s army of tech professionals “solution-seekers and bold builders who see problems as opportunities,” and who “operate important IT systems efficiently and securely, while providing reliable products, services, and meaningful insights to our team members.”
He shared the polished language with Forbes in 2022, but his sentiments say a lot about the Information Technology profession and the state of being a Chief Information Officer. The job is often tantamount to a company’s success.
So what does it take to be a CIO? Here are the nuts and bolts, or bits and bytes, to Chief Information Officer positions.
What is a Chief Information Officer or CIO?
There is some discussion, or even debate, regarding the CIO and Chief Technology Officer positions, which sometimes are used interchangeably, but there are subtle distinctions. For starters, the Chief Information Officer typically refers to the personnel that manage the information technology infrastructure of a company; and the CTO title sometimes places an emphasis on the technology and equipment needed to run an enterprise rather than the personnel. But more often than not, the CIO manages both the people and the technology that run an organization.
The Chief Information Officer is one of the highest-ranked leaders at a company, along with the Chief Executive Officer, Chief Operating Officer and Chief Financial Officer. Some may argue even more important if the company develops technology, like Meta, Oracle, Microsoft, Apple and the like. Bill Gates famously led Microsoft as an engineer and developer of office efficiency software, as well as its top executive, to great affect.
Chief Information Officers are found in every industry, but since the COVID-19 pandemic an acute need has surfaced for healthcare CIO jobs, remote CIO jobs, CIO jobs at hospitals and health systems, and similar Chief Information Officer positions.
Again, depending on the company, a Chief Information Officer directs the technology planning, strategy, implementation and personnel needed to power an organization, and may include all computer and digital infrastructure, cybersecurity, sales and accounting processes, supply chain, customer service, human resource functions and more. And with the rise of Artificial Intelligence, CIOs are scrambling to understand the impact AI will have on their organizations and to implement the best policies and practices for its use.
As you might imagine, there is considerable technology training, education and experience expected of Chief Information Officers, who at minimum will have earned a Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Computer Engineering, Computer Information Systems or a similar degree, and have worked within the industry for up to a decade or more as a Certified Information Security Manager (CISM), Certified in Risk and Information Systems Control (CRISC), Cisco Certified Network Professional (CCNP), or any of dozens of certified specialities. At the same time, these future CIOs possess excellent communication and people skills, and a holistic understanding of their companies and missions to make the leap to the C-suite. They are able to articulate sophisticated processes in an understandable way for leadership and show how technology adds value, return on investment and supports business operations.
What do Chief Information Officers jobs pay and are they in demand?
Chief Information Officers are both in high demand and they earn many times the national U.S. average. Because of their specialized training, education, people skills and overall understanding of the enterprise technologies, depending on the size of the company, CIO jobs pay anywhere from $350,000 to ten-times that amount or more. At the upper echelon of the profession, recent Forbes reporting showed 25 CIOs in the U.S. earning between $2 million and $13.3 million.
The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics places the median annual income closer to $200,000 per year with five years of Computer Information Systems experience, but most CIO jobs will expect 10 or more years of experience and earn much more. The BLS also shows significant growth in this area and anticipates demand for senior director and C-level positions to grow by 16 percent through 2031.
Are you ready to seek Chief Information Officer jobs? If you tick the boxes above, there are plenty of CIO jobs waiting for you.
