Chief Technology Officer
A chief technology officer decides what technology the organisation invests in and makes sure its systems, teams and vendors can deliver it.
- Median salary*
- $200,200
4.3%vs last year, before tax
- People employed
- 4,600
0.0%vs last year
- Projected growth*
- +8.5%
to 2035
- AI exposure*
- Moderate
- automation risk
- Average hours*
- 50/wk
+10h vs all jobs
- Shortage status*
- Not in shortage
national
Chief technology officers set technology strategy and oversee how it is built, secured and scaled, usually reporting to the chief executive or the board. The role is easily confused with a chief information officer: a CTO looks outward at the technology behind products, services and growth, while a CIO typically runs internal systems and IT operations. They work mainly in professional and technical services, financial services, health and government, managing engineering teams, large budgets and vendor contracts.
How much do chief technology officers earn?
The median full-time salary for a chief technology officer is $200,200 per annum, before tax, up $42,200 since 2018.
Pay at this level depends on the size and type of employer, with listed companies, banks and large technology firms paying more than mid-sized private businesses, and part of the package usually arriving as a bonus or equity. Sector matters too, and the title is used loosely in startups, where a chief technology officer may lead a small team on a much smaller salary. Total pay is normally negotiated individually rather than set by an award.
What does a chief technology officer do day to day?
The list below is what fills most weeks; the exact mix shifts with seniority and whatever stage the current work is at.
- Setting the technology roadmap and prioritising digital transformation projects
- Making architecture and infrastructure decisions that engineering teams build against
- Hiring, structuring and scaling engineering, security and operations teams as the business grows
- Overseeing cyber security, data governance and compliance frameworks with the security team
- Presenting technology strategy, risk and spend to the board and other executives
What skills do chief technology officers need?
Employers look for strategy development, project management, cyber security, backed by AWS or Azure fluency and strong people leadership.
Specialist skills
- Strategy development
- Project management
- Cyber security
- Cloud infrastructure
Software and tools
- AWS or Azure
- Jira
- ServiceNow
- Enterprise architecture tools
- Tableau or Power BI
General skills
- People leadership
- Stakeholder management
- Problem solving
Is the job growing?
About 4,600 people work as chief technology officers in Australia, and employment is projected to grow 8.5% over the decade to 2035. That's modest growth: demand is steady rather than booming.
How do you become a chief technology officer?
Here's the path most chief technology officers take, step by step.
- 1Build a technical foundation
A bachelor degree in computer science, software engineering or information technology is the usual starting point, and about 52% of people in the role hold one.
- 2Work as an engineer, architect or operations specialist
Several years of hands-on delivery in software, infrastructure or service management builds the judgements the role runs on, and this stage is rarely skipped.
- 3Move into team leadership
Team lead, engineering manager or head of platform roles are where you learn to hire, plan and run a budget, which is the shift from doing the work to being answerable for it.
- 4Take on an executive or near-executive role
Head of engineering, IT director or general manager technology positions put you in front of the board and give you vendor contracts and multi-year plans to answer for.
- 5Add commercial and governance depth
A company directors course, an MBA or further study in technology management helps with the governance side, and postgraduate qualifications are common in the current workforce at 26%.
Ready to apply as a chief technology officer?
Whether you're working toward becoming a chief technology officer or already are one and want a hand with the next step (sharpening your resume for ATS screening, tightening your cover letter, or knowing what you'll actually be asked at interview), here are examples grounded in this specific role, not generic templates.
What jobs can a chief technology officer move to?
None of the roles chief technology officers typically move into pay more than the role itself. Chief Information Security Officer is the closest match. If a bigger salary is the goal, moving up into a senior or principal position within the role is usually the faster route than moving sideways.
| Move to | Typical pay change | Overlap | Retraining |
|---|---|---|---|
| Chief Information Security Officer A chief technology officer brings enterprise systems knowledge and risk oversight to the security executive role, which needs deeper cyber governance and threat leadership. | +$0 | 41% | reskill |
| Chief Information Officer A chief technology officer brings enterprise technology strategy and vendor oversight to the chief information officer role, which requires broader information governance. | −$28,100 | 44% | reskill |
Moves are chosen from Jobs and Skills Australia's Data on Occupation Mobility, which follows income tax records between 2011-12 and 2020-21, together with entry requirements and skill overlap. A known move is one people were seen making in that data. Pay change compares median full-time pay for the two roles.
Who works as a chief technology officer?
The typical chief technology officer is 45 years old; 90% are men, 96% work full-time, and full-timers average 50 hours a week.
- 45
- Median age
- 10%
- Female share
- 96%
- Full-time
- +10h
- vs all-jobs avg
What's it like being a chief technology officer?
The job is executive work with a technical subject: most of the week goes to meetings, decisions and people rather than building. It suits someone who enjoys the work of getting an idea funded and can carry the pressure of being answerable when a platform fails. The rhythm is uneven, with long stretches of planning broken by incidents and release deadlines.
What people like
- Strategy you can see running. The payoff is a roadmap that turns into systems customers actually use, which is more visible than most executive work.
- A view across the whole business. The role sits alongside finance, product, operations and the board, so you see how a decision in one area lands in another.
- Building the technical team. Hiring and developing engineers and architects leaves something behind that outlasts any single project or product cycle.
- Influence over where the money goes. A chief technology officer argues for the investment that shapes what the organisation is able to do for years afterwards.
What people find hard
- Less hands-on than the title suggests. Most of the week goes to meetings, budgets and vendor negotiations, and the architecture and code work is done by the teams you lead.
- Accountability for things you don't directly control. When a platform fails or a breach happens, the questions come to you even though the work sat several layers down.
- Long hours and after-hours calls. Chief technology officers average about 50 hours a week, and incidents, releases and offshore calls don't always fall inside business hours.
- Ambition meets budget. Ideas that would genuinely improve the business get trimmed, deferred or dropped when the year's numbers tighten.
Based on our synthesis of professional-body surveys and public accounts of the role, not first-person verified reviews.
Which industries employ chief technology officers?
Professional, Scientific and Technical Services employs the largest share of chief technology officers, followed by Financial and Insurance Services.
Top employing industries
- 1Professional, Scientific and Technical Services
- 2Financial and Insurance Services
- 3Health Care and Social Assistance
- 4Public Administration and Safety
- 5Information Media and Telecommunications
Ranked by employment share; the source doesn't publish an exact percentage per industry.
| Bachelor degree | 52% | |
|---|---|---|
| Postgraduate | 26% | |
| Diploma / Advanced Diploma | 13% | |
| Other | 9% |
Will AI replace chief technology officers?
AI exposure in this role is moderate. The analysis, drafting and reporting that fill a CTO's week are increasingly automated, but the job rests on decisions about what to build, who to hire and how much risk to carry, and those stay with the person answerable to the board. Tools such as Tableau, ServiceNow and AI assistants inside Jira change how quickly information reaches a CTO, not what the CTO decides to do with it.
Share of typical working time by exposure level
- Leading engineering, security and operations teamsRostering and workload tools help with planning, but hiring, restructuring and keeping senior engineers through a difficult project are done face to face.30%low
- Setting the technology roadmap and investment prioritiesAI can summarise vendor proposals and market scans in minutes, but weighing them against the organisation's budget and strategy stays with the CTO.25%moderate
- Architecture and platform decisionsTools that map system dependencies and flag risk speed up the review, while the trade-off between cost, resilience and delivery speed is still a judgement call.25%moderate
- Reporting to the board and managing vendorsBoard papers, spend summaries and contract comparisons are among the first things AI drafts well, and the CTO edits, defends and presents them.20%high
Common questions about becoming a chief technology officer
Straight answers to the questions people ask most.
How much does a chief technology officer earn?
$200,200 per annum, before tax, is the median for full-time chief technology officers, and the figure moves with the size and sector of the employer and with any bonus or equity in the package. Treat it as a guide rather than a starting offer, because pay at this level is usually negotiated role by role.
How do you become a chief technology officer?
Most people start in a technical role, move into team leadership, then take on a head of engineering or IT director position before stepping up. A degree in computing or engineering is common, and postgraduate study or an MBA helps with the commercial and governance side. Running a budget and a large team is the part employers look for.
Is there demand for chief technology officers?
Chief technology officers are currently not in shortage, and employment is projected to grow 8.5% over the decade to 2035. The occupation is small and openings depend on organisations creating or replacing the role, so most people reach it after a long career rather than being recruited into it early.
Will AI replace chief technology officers?
Not the role itself, but parts of it are exposed. Spend analysis, vendor comparisons and the first draft of a board paper now come together in a few hours with tools like Tableau and the AI assistants built into ServiceNow and Jira, so the CTO's time goes into reading it, challenging it and deciding. Which platform to back, which engineering leader to hire and how much risk to carry when a migration slips are still the CTO's own calls.
What roles can a chief technology officer move into?
Chief technology officers commonly step sideways into a chief information officer role, where the focus shifts from product and platform strategy to enterprise information governance, and the pay difference is $28,100 less. A move into a chief information security officer position pays about the same and suits someone who would rather lead on cyber governance and threat management than on platform strategy. Both moves lean on the same enterprise systems knowledge, with extra depth needed in governance or security.
Who employs chief technology officers?
They work across professional and technical services, financial services, health care, government, and media and telecommunications, in organisations from listed companies to mid-sized private firms. The size of the employer changes the job more than the industry does: a small firm's CTO leans on vendors, while a large company's CTO leads a much bigger technology function.
Related roles
- Chief Information Officer
- Chief Information Security Officer
- Solutions Architect
- Network Architect
- IT Operations Manager
- Network Engineer
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