How To Become A Chief Development Officer: What It Is and Career Path

What is a chief development officer and how to become one

Updated January 8, 2025

4 min read

Companies are always evolving. Management teams ensure that their businesses are never stuck in one place for a long time. Members of the management team are assigned specific areas or functions. Some handle finance, some marketing, some human resources, among others. There are companies that have management team members who handle development. Often, the term development is holistic, such as both business and manpower.

In any case, the Chief Development Officer handles that. Chief Development Officers manage the development of the company. They lead the team that identifies opportunities for improvement. Upon identification, they create business development techniques to address these opportunities for improvement. They also manage the roll-out and cascade of tools and other techniques that will bring the company to the next level.

If you enjoy the process of business development, this could be one of your goals. Of course, you have to be responsible and accountable, aside from having high business acumen.

ScoreChief Development OfficerUS Average

Salary

8.0

Avg. Salary $116,047

Avg. Salary $59,228

Stability level

8.7

Growth rate 8%

Growth rate 0.3%

Diversity

4.5

Race

American Indian and Alaska Native 0.42%

Asian 5.14%

Black or African American 6.03%

Hispanic or Latino 9.18%

Unknown 4.67%

White 74.57%

Gender

female 33.27%

male 66.73%

Age - 41

Race

American Indian and Alaska Native 3.00%

Asian 7.00%

Black or African American 14.00%

Hispanic or Latino 19.00%

White 57.00%

Gender

female 47.00%

male 53.00%

Age - 41

Stress level

8.7

Stress level is very high

7.1 - high

Complexity level

9.4

Complexity level is advanced

7 - challenging

Work life balance

3.8

Work life balance is poor

6.4 - fair

Key steps to become a chief development officer

Explore chief development officer education requirements

Most common chief development officer degrees

Bachelor's

65.3 %

Master's

20.6 %

Associate

7.9 %

Start to develop specific chief development officer skills

Skills	Percentages
Kids	13.46%
Oversight	8.96%
CDO	7.27%
Strategic Plan	6.89%
Relationship Building	6.13%

Complete relevant chief development officer training and internships

Accountants spend an average of Less than 1 month on post-employment, on-the-job training. New chief development officers learn the skills and techniques required for their job and employer during this time. The chart below shows how long it takes to gain competency as a chief development officer based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics data and data from real chief development officer resumes.

Research chief development officer duties and responsibilities

Manage SDLC process, while participating in requirements gathering, functional documentation, data analysis, and implementation plans.
Collaborate with, and provide oversight for, community providers, vendors, and contractors.
Partner with architects and provide weekly construction oversight.
Serve as back-up for payroll processing and benefits administrator.

Get chief development officer experience

Generally, it takes 2-4 years to become a chief development officer. The most common roles before becoming a chief development officer include development director, executive director team lead and vice president.

Prepare your chief development officer resume

When your background is strong enough, you can start writing your chief development officer resume.

You can use Zippia's AI resume builder to make the resume writing process easier while also making sure that you include key information that hiring managers expect to see on a chief development officer resume. You'll find resume tips and examples of skills, responsibilities, and summaries, all provided by Zippi, your career sidekick.

Choose from 10+ customizable chief development officer resume templates

Build a professional chief development officer resume in minutes. Browse through our resume examples to identify the best way to word your resume. Then choose from 10+ resume templates to create your chief development officer resume.