Chief technologist vs information technology director

The differences between chief technologists and information technology directors can be seen in a few details. Each job has different responsibilities and duties. It typically takes 6-8 years to become both a chief technologist and an information technology director. Additionally, an information technology director has an average salary of $138,906, which is higher than the $105,294 average annual salary of a chief technologist.

The top three skills for a chief technologist include patients, patient care and infrastructure. The most important skills for an information technology director are customer service, project management, and cloud.

Chief technologist vs information technology director overview

	Chief Technologist	Information Technology Director
Yearly salary	$105,294	$138,906
Hourly rate	$50.62	$66.78
Growth rate	16%	16%
Number of jobs	66,399	87,765
Job satisfaction	-	4
Most common degree	Bachelor's Degree, 51%	Bachelor's Degree, 67%
Average age	47	47
Years of experience	8	8

What does a chief technologist do?

Chief technologists or chief technical officers deal with the technological needs of a company's research and development. They study the long and short-term effects of investments to help other organizations reach their individual technological goals. These technologists are required to have advanced knowledge in IT and analytical skills to excel in this position. They represent their company in academic, industrial, and government groups to publicize their organization and to collect valuable data for their research.

What does an information technology director do?

An information technology (IT) Director is an individual responsible for the management, strategy, and execution of an organization's IT infrastructure. He/She supervises a team of workers while working with the organization's management and external vendors and advisors. Aside from managing workers, an IT director should possess problem-solving skills and an aptitude for organizational thinking. An IT director must also identify new market opportunities and should lead an effort to improve the organization's IT process.

Chief technologist vs information technology director salary

Chief technologists and information technology directors have different pay scales, as shown below.

	Chief Technologist	Information Technology Director
Average salary	$105,294	$138,906
Salary range	Between $70,000 And $156,000	Between $97,000 And $197,000
Highest paying City	San Francisco, CA	San Francisco, CA
Highest paying state	California	California
Best paying company	Federal Deposit Insurance	The Tipping Point
Best paying industry	-	Technology

Differences between chief technologist and information technology director education

There are a few differences between a chief technologist and an information technology director in terms of educational background:

	Chief Technologist	Information Technology Director
Most common degree	Bachelor's Degree, 51%	Bachelor's Degree, 67%
Most common major	Electrical Engineering	Business
Most common college	Carnegie Mellon University	Carnegie Mellon University

Chief technologist vs information technology director demographics

Here are the differences between chief technologists' and information technology directors' demographics:

	Chief Technologist	Information Technology Director
Average age	47	47
Gender ratio	Male, 77.7% Female, 22.3%	Male, 88.1% Female, 11.9%
Race ratio	Black or African American, 6.6% Unknown, 5.2% Hispanic or Latino, 10.0% Asian, 12.7% White, 65.3% American Indian and Alaska Native, 0.2%	Black or African American, 6.6% Unknown, 5.2% Hispanic or Latino, 9.9% Asian, 12.7% White, 65.4% American Indian and Alaska Native, 0.2%
LGBT Percentage	11%	11%

Differences between chief technologist and information technology director duties and responsibilities

Chief technologist example responsibilities.

Lead the SaaS base product and technical vision for company.
Establish criteria and general operating procedures have been develop covering the nature and scope of the QA activities to be accomplish
Lead multi-year technology initiatives with several companies, universities and national labs.
Analyze requirements from DoD and the intelligence community and integrate into a single, common requirements sets achieving individual goals.
Bridge public and private sector initiatives for threat information sharing of national critical infrastructure and DOD acquisition plans and policy.
Guide ATG personnel's professional development.

Information technology director example responsibilities.

Lead the implementation of the ServiceNow ITSM solution.
Work with customers and internal management to create and manage acceptable SLA standards and measurements.
Manage the migration of email system for 400 plus users from Novell GroupWise to Google Gmail.
Manage the QA department and oversee the support of all storage for the company and its outsource customers.
Perform resource planning for a portfolio of projects via prioritizing the demand queue and successfully managing business relationships.
Lead the prototyping of a Microsoft SharePoint implementation that customize the look & feel to support the organizational requirements.

Chief technologist vs information technology director skills

Common chief technologist skills

Patients, 14%
Patient Care, 8%
Infrastructure, 8%
Architecture, 7%
Cloud, 5%
Radiology, 5%

Common information technology director skills

Customer Service, 10%
Project Management, 7%
Cloud, 6%
Network Infrastructure, 6%
Disaster Recovery, 3%
Windows Server, 3%

Chief Technologist vs. similar jobs

Chief Technologist related careers

Chief Technologist related jobs

What similar roles do

Zippia Careers
Executive Management Industry
Chief Technologist
Chief Technologist vs Information Technology Director

Updated January 8, 2025

Browse executive management jobs