They should additionally be able to effectively delegate tasks to a team they have helped build and that they trust will do the work accordingly. In business, the area of product development is encouraging innovation, while building new and developing technology products for customers. The CTO’s is the public face of the technology team, so should be indicating how this technology can make their customer’s lives better.
- A CTO should have the business knowledge necessary to align technology-related decisions with the organization’s goals.
- As a member of the senior team, the Head of Technology is expected to be a strategic business partner and contributor, understanding key business drivers and building effective relationships throughout the organization.
- CTOs on average earn a salary of $163,309 per year, according to PayScale, a firm that provides a compensation platform to calculate compensation rates.
- Additionally, the CTO will have a close relationship with the CEO and other members of the company’s senior management.
- In the end, tech leaders will be prepared for the fresh challenges of their role not by being outstanding at the technical demands of their function.
- A chief technology officer (CTO) is responsible for overseeing the development and dissemination of technology for external customers, vendors, and other clients to help improve and increase business.
- Khalid is a director with Deloitte LLP where he leads the development of research and insights for the CIO Program.
In my eyes, the ultimate test of a great CTO is whether they can illustrate how technology helps drive the Enterprise Value of the company they work in. As mentioned previously, it is beneficial to have a single technology leader who is responsible for all of a business’s technology. They are often very technical and may hold the head of architecture position to guide the architecture of the IT innovations. Because a CTO needs to work with the CEO on strategy, and also advise other members of the C-Suite they should have broad business expertise, especially if they want to be credible at all levels of the company. A modern CTO needs to be well versed in UI/UX design, user research, agile, DevOps, and cloud-based software development methods. CTOs need to evangelise technology in order to inspire people inside and outside the company and drive change where necessary.
Deloitte 2023 Global Human Capital Trends
Chief Information Officer (CIO) and Chief Technology Officer (CTO) are two important executive roles in an organization. A leader who can lead a team of people and make them believe in his or her vision. A CTO should be a people person when needed and also be a ruthless executioner when it comes to executing his or her plans. IT Infrastructure may or may not be a part of CTO role, depending on the company. Large corporations often has a CIO who is responsible for IT infrastructure but CTO often is the part of the team. For mid to smaller companies, a CTO may direct manager project managers, software architects, and product owners.
Therefore, CTO positions are likely to be a step closer for enthusiastic and knowledgeable candidates who may not have the common 15-year mark of experience required for this role. Moreover, these developments have spurred the growth of tech companies, which has consequently led to a demand for building bigger teams that handle this field of work, and with great teams comes the need for good leaders in charge of the latter. 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.
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He will also build and maintain relationships with key stakeholders including clients, leadership, shareholders and more. Chief technology officers usually hold a bachelor’s degree in engineering, computer science, information systems or a related field. Many candidates also possess a master’s degree in computer https://www.globalcloudteam.com/ science or a related discipline, and some go on to complete a PhD. Upon graduation, professionals may work between 10 to 15 years in IT-related roles, with five years spent in a manager position. Relevant entry-level positions include technical support specialist, software developer and QA analyst.
He has to tackle team issues, debug machine learning codes, and technical debt accompanying often changing product necessities. Management and leadership roles are the best steppingstones to obtaining the CTO role in an organization. CTOs need at least a bachelor’s degree in computer science, information systems, or a related field, according to Indeed. Many chief technology officer responsibilities CTOs have at least a master’s degree, and some even have PhDs in IT or business administration fields. “As companies push to effectively drive technology transformation, we believe there is a very strong push to find technology leaders [who] bring experience and capabilities from hands-on leadership and stewardship of such activities,” Stephenson says.
Tools and Programs Chief Technology Officers Use
On the other side, a CTO should be able hire a team of people can build and execute his or her vision and strategy. You should have experience leading your teams to successful project development and delivery. To understand customers’ needs and business problems, a CTO often engage with customers business needs and communicate with them with possible solution. A strict top-down organization structure can hinder innovation and speed of delivery.
It is important that technology investments are governed well, policies and principles are set and resources are well managed. They will have to design a pragmatic operating model, working out how to structure their teams for maximum effectiveness, knowing what to outsource and what to insource in to get the best return on their technology investment. In a move central to the University of Houston’s ethos, strategic priorities and vision as a top 50 public research institution UH will launch an Innovation Hub in the center of campus, becoming the city’s epicenter for a thriving innovation ecosystem. As the innovation engine of the economic dynamo of the southern US, the University of Houston recognizes that society is on the cusp of a more sustainable future.
Chief Technology Officer Certificate Program at MIT Professional Education
Many large corporations need both a CTO and CIO, while smaller companies tend to have one or the other. The University of Houston will construct a new hub for innovation on its main campus. But a new study from the UBC Sauder School of Business shows many people have deeply held beliefs about who should be an EDI leader, and they are rooted in racial stereotypes.
In this position, the Chief Technological Officer also plays mentorship role to key engineering personnel, encouraging their professional growth, essentially readying them for the occupation of his position in the future. CTOs are responsible for translating the wishes, visions, and ideas of the company’s upper management into the realm of technology. In other words, a CTO is a go-to guy for the other leaders when they have technical issues like “how can we accomplish this? Like other senior executive officers, the CTO is accountable for the firm as a whole and not its individual products or services. Depending on the company’s industry, size, and structure, the duties of the CTO might look quite different from one organization to the next (service or product). A CTO is an executive officer supervising the organization’s scientific and technological operations but does not take part in the creation of individual tasks or projects.
Great communication skills
They must be well-informed about the latest technology, be innovative, and have the leadership skills to run all technological aspects of their organization. This executive plays a vital role in the conducting of research and in the development of new means of technical production. He or she works closely with other executive level employees to identify strengths and weaknesses in the current system in order to put a better technical plan in place. Other duties might also require the individual to take part in product development in order to implement the most cost-effective, revenue-generating ways of creating a new product.
In most cases, however, it’s the CTO who is charged with staying on top of emerging technologies that might be of value to the organization. These might include infrastructure modernization, resiliency, cloud services, extensive interactions with security teams, and continued partnership with the engineering/software teams focused on quality and release management, Stephenson says. That means CTOs are likely spending a lot of time working in collaboration with others. A CTO can’t lead a technology division unless he or she can think and have a broad vision of either adopting new technologies or creating own solutions.
Requirements & Skills 4
With the emerging trend of the Chief Product Owner who is responsible for developing a company’s products, their partnership with the Chief Technology Officer has never been more important. Having multiple technology executives as peers creates the wrong behaviours and often creates unnecessary friction. Due to the importance of technology in the modern business environment, it is the CTO who should be the most senior technology executive. Usually, in companies where technology is a core part of the customer proposition e.g. technology-led companies, software companies, eCommerce, the CTO is usually the more senior role. 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.
