Chief Information Officer (CIO)

Chief Information Officer (CIO)

The job role of Chief Information Officer (CIO) is comprehensive, compared to other IT job roles. CIOs are responsible to play a comprehensive role on IT projects of the organization by taking care of all the project-related issues like planning, budgeting, looking after the procurement process, monitoring the development of the project as per the project lifecycle, and so on. IT is becoming an integral part of almost every business across the world and the enterprise-level success of any organization depends more on having a dynamic CIO, having the capacity of advanced thinking in order to interpret the actual business need of the company.

Expected academic qualification and work experience for the post of CIO may vary from organization to organization, depending on the type and the size of their business. Though, there are some common global standards, which the IT hiring managers are seeking within the candidates looking for an IT job in CIOs role. Some such common global standards are: having an agile strategic thinking process, possess excellent communication skills, ability to the team while working on a project and having an intelligent insight on both the business and the technology used for the business process. There are some individuals, who have some of these talents within themselves by born, though many IT professionals are spending countless hours to learn these processes and earn talents through proper and appropriate training.

Key responsibilities of a CIO

CIOs are required to have both the soft and the hard skill along with strong business foresight in order to accelerate their position. Followings are some regular activities that are common for almost every CIOs, regardless of the type of the business and the size of the organization they are working for.

1.     Prepare an appropriate procurement plan and look after the purchase procedure in order to implement and assess the risk of incorporating new technologies and IT Systems.

2.     Design, develop and deploy both the short term and long term strategy of the IT structure of the organization.

3.     Select the most appropriate vendor for the organization, in terms of quality and affordability with a purpose to foster the productivity of the business.

4.     Work in collaboration with the officers and the head of the other departments to come up with an IT policy which fits best for the business.

5.     Design, implement and monitor the budget allocated for the IT infrastructure of the business.

6.     Update the skill and experience of rapidly evolving IT practice and paradigm.

7.     Excellent communication skill (both the verbal and the written), relationship building capacity and the ability to develop and lead the team with an aim to foster the IT activities of the business.

Average Salary of CIOs

The gap between the entry-level IT position and the CIO position is really big, as the CIOs are considered as the top managerial level IT positions. The road to becoming a CIO is competitive and challenging at the same time. The average salary of CIOs is £177,476. Including other facilities, CIOs of globally reputed IT companies are even getting paid seven-digit salaries, as well.

Academic Requirement of a CIO

Usually, Chief Information Officers are expected to have at least a Bachelor’s degree. In most of the cases, CIOs are having a Graduate Diploma along with their Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science or Computer Engineering, and many of them have their Master’s degree (major in Management Information Systems or Computer Information System) and/or MBA (Master of Business Administration) completed. One of the key responsibilities of the CIO is managing the project. The term ‘Project Management’ sounds simple, but comes with many challenges. CIOs have to work with the technical heads and IT personnel coming from a wide range of IT disciplines like Programming, Application/Software developing, Website Designing and Developing, Computer Networking and many other fields. So, it is necessary for CIOs to have a comprehensive knowledge and relevant work experience to deal with diversified types of IT subject matter.

CIOs must have the capacity to deal with both the financial and technological challenges and that is why an MBA (Master of Business Administration) degree is considered as another key competency for CIO candidates. Almost every business across the world has started incorporating or already incorporated IT infrastructure as an integrated part of their business. That is how and why business process and IT merges together and the MBA degree validates the ability of the CIOs to deal with both IT and Business Process Management at one place.

Unfortunately, there is no shortcut way of becoming a CIO, though it is a dream job position for many IT professionals. You need to move gradually and adjust with the corporate suit in order to be considered for this post.

Training and Certifications

You will find training programs on subject matters that are relevant to the career path of CIO. We are also providing training courses similar to CompTIA Project+ and similar other courses offered by the Project Management Institute (PMI). Once you complete the training course from here, we will help you get a professional CV for better job placement. We are working in collaboration with a large number of IT companies across the UK, and chances are high for you to secure your position as a CIO through our job placement program if you have the required skill, experience, and academic background.