Chief Technology Officer Overview
Chief Technology Officer Careers
There is more than meets the eye when it comes to being a chief technology officer. For example, did you know that they make an average of $73.17 an hour? That's $152,196 a year!
Between 2018 and 2028, the career is expected to grow 6% and produce 150,600 job opportunities across the U.S.
What Does a Chief Technology Officer Do
There are certain skills that many chief technology officers have in order to accomplish their responsibilities. By taking a look through resumes, we were able to narrow down the most common skills for a person in this position. We discovered that a lot of resumes listed management skills, problem-solving skills and time-management skills.
When it comes to the most important skills required to be a chief technology officer, we found that a lot of resumes listed 7.7% of chief technology officers included infrastructure, while 7.2% of resumes included cloud, and 6.9% of resumes included architecture. Hard skills like these are helpful to have when it comes to performing essential job responsibilities.
When it comes to searching for a job, many search for a key term or phrase. Instead, it might be more helpful to search by industry, as you might be missing jobs that you never thought about in industries that you didn't even think offered positions related to the chief technology officer job title. But what industry to start with? Most chief technology officers actually find jobs in the technology and finance industries.
How To Become a Chief Technology Officer
If you're interested in becoming a chief technology officer, one of the first things to consider is how much education you need. We've determined that 44.7% of chief technology officers have a bachelor's degree. In terms of higher education levels, we found that 31.3% of chief technology officers have master's degrees. Even though most chief technology officers have a college degree, it's possible to become one with only a high school degree or GED.
Choosing the right major is always an important step when researching how to become a chief technology officer. When we researched the most common majors for a chief technology officer, we found that they most commonly earn bachelor's degree degrees or master's degree degrees. Other degrees that we often see on chief technology officer resumes include doctoral degree degrees or associate degree degrees.
You may find that experience in other jobs will help you become a chief technology officer. In fact, many chief technology officer jobs require experience in a role such as senior software engineer. Meanwhile, many chief technology officers also have previous career experience in roles such as software engineer or consultant.
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Chief Technology Officer Career Paths
In addition to switching up your job search, it might prove helpful to look at a career path for your specific job. Now, what's a career path you ask? Well, it's practically a map that shows how you might advance from one job title to another. Our career paths are especially detailed with salary changes. So, for example, if you started out with the role of chief executive officer you might progress to a role such as founder and chief executive officer eventually. Later on in your career, you could end up with the title founder and chief executive officer.
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Tell us your goals and we'll match you with the rights job to get there.
Average Salary for a Chief Technology Officer
Best Paying Cities
Recently Added Salaries
Job TitleCompany  | Company | Start Date | Salary |
|---|---|---|---|
Equinix Fellow, Technology and Architecture, Office of The CTO Fellow, Technology and Architecture, Office of The CTO | Equinix Equinix | 01/23/2021 01/23/2021 | $200,00001/23/2021 $200,000 |
Management Decisions, Inc. CTO CTO | Management Decisions, Inc. Management Decisions, Inc. | 01/23/2021 01/23/2021 | $200,00001/23/2021 $200,000 |
Viavi Solutions Principal Innovation Technologist-Office of The CTO Principal Innovation Technologist-Office of The CTO | Viavi Solutions Viavi Solutions | 01/15/2021 01/15/2021 | $135,00001/15/2021 $135,000 |
Equinix, Inc. Fellow, Technology and Architecture, Office of The CTO Fellow, Technology and Architecture, Office of The CTO | Equinix, Inc. Equinix, Inc. | 01/11/2021 01/11/2021 | $200,00001/11/2021 $200,000 |
Equinix, Inc. Fellow, Technology and Architecture, Office of The CTO Fellow, Technology and Architecture, Office of The CTO | Equinix, Inc. Equinix, Inc. | 01/11/2021 01/11/2021 | $200,00001/11/2021 $200,000 |
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Chief Technology Officer Resumes
Designing and figuring out what to include on your resume can be tough, not to mention time-consuming. That's why we put together a guide that is designed to help you craft the perfect resume for becoming a Chief Technology Officer. If you're needing extra inspiration, take a look through our selection of templates that are specific to your job.
Learn How To Write a Chief Technology Officer Resume
At Zippia, we went through countless Chief Technology Officer resumes and compiled some information about how best to optimize them. Here are some suggestions based on what we found, divided by the individual sections of the resume itself.
View Detailed InformationTop Colleges for Chief Technology Officers
1. University of Pennsylvania
Philadelphia, PA • Private
2. Northwestern University
Evanston, IL • Private
3. University of Southern California
Los Angeles, CA • Private
4. University of Texas at Austin
Austin, TX • Public
5. SUNY at Binghamton
Vestal, NY • Public
6. Lehigh University
Bethlehem, PA • Private
7. George Washington University, The
Washington, DC • Private
8. New York University
New York, NY • Private
9. Carnegie Mellon University
Pittsburgh, PA • Private
10. Pennsylvania State University
University Park, PA • Public
Top Skills For a Chief Technology Officer
The skills section on your resume can be almost as important as the experience section, so you want it to be an accurate portrayal of what you can do. Luckily, we've found all of the skills you'll need so even if you don't have these skills yet, you know what you need to work on. Out of all the resumes we looked through, 7.7% of chief technology officers listed infrastructure on their resume, but soft skills such as management skills and problem-solving skills are important as well.
- Infrastructure, 7.7%
- Cloud, 7.2%
- Architecture, 6.9%
- Python, 5.9%
- C++, 5.0%
- Other Skills, 67.3% See All Chief Technology Officer Skills
Best States For a Chief Technology Officer
Some places are better than others when it comes to starting a career as a chief technology officer. The best states for people in this position are Hawaii, Rhode Island, Washington, and Delaware. Chief technology officers make the most in Hawaii with an average salary of $213,190. Whereas in Rhode Island and Washington, they would average $187,573 and $170,834, respectively. While chief technology officers would only make an average of $168,142 in Delaware, you would still make more there than in the rest of the country. We determined these as the best states based on job availability and pay. By finding the median salary, cost of living, and using the Bureau of Labor Statistics' Location Quotient, we narrowed down our list of states to these four.
1. Washington
$170,834
Avg. Salary
2. Rhode Island
$187,573
Avg. Salary
3. New Jersey
$167,969
Avg. Salary
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