CTO Job Description Template

CTO

[Intro Paragraph] The introduction of the CTO job description is where you provide an overview of the company. Write about how your company serves its customers, what makes it stand out, and its overall values and culture. The intro also serves as a place to market your company to candidates, so make the most of these three or four sentences by highlighting any industry awards your company has received, industry leadership positions, and customer recognitions.

Finally, this section of the CTO job description is a great place to provide a high-level statement about a key outcome you expect the CTO to generate for your organization. This can include goals like “lead the organization through digital transformation initiatives” to “develop best-in-class digital production and IT strategies that support employees and customers.”

CTO Job Responsibilities:

• Work with the leadership team to set clear priorities and goals for IT management and production, balancing the long-term and immediate needs.
• Develop and manage annual and quarterly budgets.
• Oversee data security, management, and governance.
• Manage strategic vendor and technology partner relationships.
• Manage IT resource allocation, goal/KPI setting, and performance metrics.
• Define the company’s overall technology strategy to support business objectives.
• Make infrastructure decisions, ensuring technical excellence, versatility, safety and soundness, resiliency and scalability in the architecting and engineering of product solutions, as well as managing all technical delivery.
• Facilitate the development and implementation of disaster recovery and IT security failure plans.
• Ensure tight collaboration across departments to drive strategic initiatives, including understanding of the alignment between technology strategy and various technology road maps.
• Create strategic plans and set timelines for evaluation, development, and deployment of all technical, web, and mobile services.

[Work Hours & Benefits]

The CTO is part of the executive team, so anyone interested in the role probably understands the need to be flexible when it comes to work hours. Also, depending on the types of projects that the company undertakes, the CTO may need to work during early mornings, evenings, or weekends to oversee IT projects that would interrupt business during normal operating hours.

Compensation structures for C-level employees vary and are often a hybrid of salary and performance-based bonuses. Benefits and perks vary by organization but generally includes traditional pre-tax health insurance and retirement plan contributions, paid time off, parental leave, and funds for professional development and networking opportunities. Highlighting benefits outside of traditional offerings in your CTO job description can help boost your organization’s chances in a competitive IT leadership marketplace.

CTO Qualifications/Skills:

• Strong department leader with skills in strategic planning, goal setting, processes development, budgeting, and creating opportunities for professional development within technology teams.
• Excellent communication, leadership, and strategic thinking abilities with a problem-solving aptitude.
• Solid understanding of broad technology trends and the ability to align innovation with business goals.
• Strong communication with ability to convey technical topics in easy-to-understand business terms and work collaboratively with cross-functional teams and external partners.
• Strategic smarts, including the ability to identify new opportunities, drive clarity, create focus, and make tough decisions in complex and dynamic contexts.
• Ability to track and identify new technologies to solve complex business issues.

Education & Experience Requirements:

• Bachelor’s degree in computer science, engineering, information systems or related field (master’s degree preferred).
• Previous experience as a CTO, director, or similar leadership role.
• Prior experience as a senior engineering leader overseeing architecture and engineering for enterprise-wide technology platforms and leading SaaS technology platforms.
• Broad knowledge of software engineering: languages, frameworks, techniques, and industry trends.

• Experience leading complex, major changes and initiatives; demonstrated skills in change management on an organizational and interpersonal level; experience with integrating teams across multiple business units and managing a geographically dispersed workforce.
• Experience designing and managing an effective IT governance framework across the spectrum of IT service delivery.

[Call to Action]

Like any effective marketing tool, the final purpose of the job description is to have qualified readers (in this case, potential applicants) take the next step in your hiring process. Be clear when describing the application process and set expectations for the interview process and timeframe for hiring if that information is available.