CIO Pay Jumps as Role's Profile Rises

"Compensation for chief information officers is rising by double-digit percentages as companies seek out leaders who can exploit tech's growing business possibilities, a trend that accelerated during the pandemic.

For this year, average CIO salaries leapt 21% to $287,500 from last year, according to data from staffing firm Mondo. Experienced CIOs at large companies, however, can expect to earn $350,000 in base salary, up from $300,000 last year, the data shows.

Mondo pulls and analyzes data from 2,500 U.S. placements it makes every year, and then pairs that data with insights from talent specialists in the field.

Mondo estimates that salaries for chief information security officers rose at the same rate as those for CIOs -- 21% -- this year. By contrast, it estimates that salaries for chief marketing officer roles increased 15% in the same period.

Experts attribute the salary rise to the increasingly critical role of the CIO within business. Since the onset of Covid-19, corporate tech leaders have had to accelerate initiatives around the cloud, automation and the supply chain, while smoothing the shift to remote and hybrid work.

"More companies are realizing the value of bringing technology and deeper technology into their companies," said Scott Spradley, executive vice president and chief technology and automation officer at Tyson Foods Inc. "And so they're willing to pay more because they realize it affects the bottom line."

Marianna Tessel, executive vice president and chief technology officer of Intuit Inc. since 2019, said the pandemic accelerated the trend. "Technology was pushed more into the spotlight," she said.

Trends around cloud computing have also taken the CIO role out of the back office and "closer to the nature of the business itself," said Edward Stadolnik, a partner and leader of the North America technology and digital officer practice at Spencer Stuart.

Milind Wagle, CIO of digital infrastructure company Equinix Inc., said that CIOs today are expected to be both tech and business leaders. "There's a convergence of business and IT strategy more than ever before," he said.

"Definitely [these] roles are becoming more strategic," said Ms. Tessel. That's because "technology is becoming part of everything we do."

Although Ms. Tessel's base salary dropped to $700,000 in fiscal 2021 from $726,923 in fiscal 2020, her total compensation increased to $12,692,385 from $11,016,322, mostly due to an increase in stock awards, public filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission show.

Disparities between supply and demand are also driving up CIO salaries, recruiters said.

"Candidly, I've never seen a market like the one we're in right now," said Craig Stephenson, Korn Ferry senior client partner and managing director, North America CIO/CTO Practice, adding that CIOs are being offered salary increases of over 30% to jump from one company to another." [1]

 

 1. CIO Pay Jumps as Role's Profile Rises
Bousquette, Isabelle. Wall Street Journal, Eastern edition; New York, N.Y. [New York, N.Y]. 23 Feb 2022: B.4.