Chief Technology Officer jobs focus on innovation that powers success
They’re not always household names, but if you’re in the tech space and looking for Chief Technology Officer jobs, long-time CTO professionals like Werner Vogels of Amazon and Steve Chen, co-founder and CTO at video sharing platform YouTube, are inspiration if not the stuff of legend.
Chief Technology Officers often are the unheralded heroes underpinning company success. Vogels, who worked in academia at Cornell University before joining Jeff Bezos at what would become Amazon in 1999, played a large role in developing the enterprise architecture, the ubiquitous Shopping Cart, that would drive much of the company’s success it enjoys today. Similarly, the technology that Chen would develop in 2005 and 2006 with business partners Chad Hurley and Jawed Karim at YouTube would revolutionize the way we upload, store and share video content across the globe.
Are you a rising technologist and seeking Chief Technology Officer jobs? Here are some details to consider.
What is a Chief Technology Officer job?
In the cases of Vogels and Chen, they are masters of their craft and solely focused on creating innovative technologies that improve existing processes, or creating new products altogether. And like CIO or Chief Information Officer jobs, Chief Technology Officer positions involve leading teams of computer scientists, engineers and information technology specialists often working across departments to solve a company’s most pressing issues, creating efficiencies, and problem-solving. They are effective communicators who can explain technological solutions to fellow leadership such as the CEO, COO or CFO.
The Chief Technology Officer may be a founder of a company and is at minimum one of the highest-ranked leaders at a company, along with the Chief Executive Officer, Chief Financial Officer, Chief Information Officer and Chief Operating Officer. Chief Technology Officer jobs are found in every sector and industry but the past several years have also given rise to remote CTO jobs, Chief Technology Officer jobs in medicine, healthcare CTO jobs, and hybrid CTO positions.
How do you become a CTO and what is required for Chief Technology Officer jobs?
CTO jobs guru Samantha Searle told Forbes two years ago that Chief Technology Officers have become an amalgam of several roles, including being a digital business leader, IT innovator, commerce enabler, and “COO of IT.” Sounds about right. Those fortunate enough to secure a CTO job, obviously are exceptionally tech savvy and have worked in the industry for their entire career. Chen worked at PayPal and Facebook briefly before using his software engineering skills to partner with Karim and Hurley on YouTube. He earned a Computer Science degree at the University of Illinois before heading out into the working world. Like Chen, those looking for CTO jobs at minimum have Bachelor of Science degrees in Computer Science, Computer Engineering, Information Science, Cybersecurity, Software Engineering or a similar discipline. Information Technology Master’s and Doctoral degrees also are desirable.
A premium also is placed on communication skills since most CTO positions are at large, multi-national corporations with complex technology strategies. Because of this, Chief Technology Officers will work with multiple IT teams, in multiple locations, on any given project. At the same time, they are either developing or tracking significant technological innovation in their field or industry – cybersecurity and artificial intelligence, as examples – and conveying those challenges, changes or opportunities to fellow leadership.
Are Chief Technology Officer jobs in demand and what do they pay?
Like Chief Information Officer positions, CTO jobs are in high demand, according the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, which tracks employment data across all industries in the United States. Information Technology jobs of all types will continue to enjoy near record high growth through 2031 with nearly 20 percent more IT professionals needed across all levels as older workers retire and we continue to lead innovative technological breakthroughs in robotics and manufacturing, sustainable energy development and delivery systems, application and software development, communications, the defense industries and space exploration, and many other industries.
Expect an exceptional payday as a Chief Technology Officer, which averages $296,300 per year in the United States, according to Salary.com. Of course every CTO position varies considerably depending on the size of the company, demands on ongoing innovation and other key indicators, and CTOs at larger multi-national companies earn many more times the national average and includes stock and other incentives. Some CTOs who are founders are now billionaires like Chen.
If you dream of technology in your sleep and obsess over developing the next great innovative breakthrough, channel that laser-like focus on Chief Technology Officer jobs at Forbes.jobs and consult with one of their career coaches or executive recruiters today.
