What is a CIO?

A CIO is an executive who oversees an organization’s information technology (IT) department. One of their goals is to improve the organization’s internal technology processes. This often involves automating complex tasks. They also work to ensure the company’s technological resources support the overall strategic vision of the CEO.

Hiring criteria for a CIO

Many CIOs have bachelor’s degrees in information technology, computer science or another closely related subject. Some companies prioritize candidates with graduate degrees in technology or business administration. However, it’s not strictly necessary for a CIO to have a degree. You can assess a candidate’s decision-making skills during interviews.

If your company has a skills-first hiring program, you may want to hire someone who’s held several IT roles with progressive responsibility. Someone who’s worked as an IT project manager or IT director may have a desirable combination of technology skills and business acumen. Former enterprise architects and business systems analysts may also perform well in this role.

What does a CIO do?

A chief information officer ensures the IT department supports the organization’s broader costs and brand strategy.

Common responsibilities include:

• Approving the purchase of information technology equipment: CIOs are responsible for monitoring the IT department’s budget and deciding whether and how to procure the necessary equipment.
• Delegating tasks to increase productivity: A CIO takes large projects and divides them into segments for other departments to work on.
• Managing the IT department and employees: They answer employee questions, monitor overall department progress and ensure that every employee meets performance expectations.
• Overseeing new network and system implementations: They’re responsible for planning and overseeing each step in the implementation process with the help of the IT director and technology department managers. Common projects include deploying new content management systems and ensuring security compliance.

Higher-level organizational tasks include:

• Developing business relationships with IT vendors: A CIO maintains healthy relationships with vendors who produce or distribute IT devices for corporate use.
• Monitoring industry trends: CIOs read technical reports and research studies on new technologies that could be of use to the company. This helps organizations remain competitive even when market conditions change rapidly.
• Developing custom IT solutions: CIOs might be asked to create tailor-made technology solutions for a company. For example, you might want your CIO to identify the most secure way to communicate with remote workers living in other countries.
• Working closely with other company executives: CIOs collaborate with other executives, actively listening as they discuss business challenges, brainstorm improvements or determine how to communicate with employees about organizational change.

The exact job description of a CIO depends on the organization. If you operate a smaller business, your CIO may perform all of these duties. Larger companies may limit their CIOs to strategic duties and have other IT employees manage equipment purchases or oversee system implementations.

What skills does a CIO typically have?

A CIO typically has a combination of technology and business skills. You may want to include these skills in your CIO job description:

• Leadership: Executive candidates need strong corporate governance, strategic decision-making and high-level problem-solving capabilities.
• Communication: CIOs give presentations and disseminate information to employees at all levels of the organization. This makes communication skills helpful. CIOs can also be active listeners with the ability to manage varying personalities.
• Organization: Managing and deploying multiple projects across several teams and departments requires excellent organizational skills.
• Technical knowledge: As head of the IT department, a CIO relies on expert knowledge in technology, such as understanding networks and architecture. In some cases, the position uses more technical knowledge, such as object-oriented programming (OOP) or advanced coding in multiple languages.
• Budgeting practices: CIOs utilize corporate accounting and finance knowledge to allocate business resources and manage enterprise technology assets.
• Project management and execution: CIOs often manage complex IT projects, so they typically have skills related to resource allocation, conflict resolution, project scheduling and other relevant tasks.
• Risk management: They can identify potential areas that could be susceptible to cybersecurity breaches and practice preventive methods to make sure their company’s data remain secure.
• Vendor management: CIOs evaluate vendor proposals, conduct cost-benefit analyses and negotiate service-level agreements, pricing and payment terms.

The changing role of a CIO

The CIO role has changed to encompass technology, business management and marketing activities. CIOs contribute directly to organizational growth, which may involve these tasks:

• Moving away from infrastructure management: Modern CIOs protect brand reputation by selecting workplace hardware, software and systems that optimize employee performance.
• Leveraging emerging technology: Technology changes rapidly, so many companies are now using cloud applications, generative AI and blockchain technology. Rising cybersecurity risks have prompted a shift toward Zero Trust frameworks. Zero Trust prioritizes verifying users, setting minimum access levels and assuming that attackers have already gained access to internal networks. CIOs understand these trends and know how to apply them.