The job title of Chief Information Officer or CIO is typically given to a senior executive who’s in charge of the entire operations of a business’ information technology or IT department. They often report directly to the Chief Executive Officer or CEO, but may also need to coordinate with the Chief Operating Officer and Chief Financial Officer of a company.
If you’re planning to pursue a career path as a Chief Information Officer, here are the job roles you can expect with the title:
1. Executive Leadership
According to the University of Southern California, the role of a CIO continues to evolve as technological advancements develop. Before, they were primarily responsible for procuring hardware and software that enabled them to build the business’ IT infrastructure from scratch. Nowadays, their responsibility has shifted to maintaining existing programs, servers, and networks to support the company’s overarching goals.
While you need in-depth technical knowledge to become a CIO, you also need to be equipped with the knowledge and experience in making executive decisions. This responsibility is all about picking the best solution for the company’s problem from a selection of tough choices with varying degrees of risk.
You have the final say on laying people off from the IT department, continuing or halting projects, and overhauling the processes to keep up with modern developments. To be clear, CIOs don’t oversee the day-to-day operations of the IT department. Another supervisor, the Chief Technology Officer or CTO, handles this responsibility.
Other responsibilities as a business leader include:
- Creating new systems to facilitate the growth of the company
- Buying IT equipment and software from suppliers
- Directing the IT workforce to support business goals
More and more companies are becoming reliant on IT and merging their goals with technology. This is why a CIO’s role in executive planning and implementation is crucial. The IT department has a significant impact on the success of other departments, as well as the overall victory of the company.
2. Strategic Planning
Strategic planning is the process of making decisions concerning company resources that see to the fulfillment of the organization’s strategies and direction. As a CIO in today’s Internet of Things or IoT world, you want to prepare your company for continuous technological advancements or new online security loopholes. You must put software and data analysis at the focal point of your IT strategic plan.
These are the factors you should focus on when developing your strategic plan for the IT department:
- The IoT Challenge – As mentioned above, the Internet of Things will become more intricate and complex. This will come with advantages and repercussions, especially with data security. You have to conduct data analysis to make educated forecasts on the trends and behaviors that will happen in the future.
- Efficiency – With more and more processes being streamlined by various software tools, your IT department has to keep up. As a CIO, you have to assess whether a new system is worth it and if it can provide both speed and efficiency for the company.
- Artificial Intelligence – AI and machine learning have also generated some buzz in recent years because of its immense power. New developments and breakthroughs are being introduced every day. Again, as the leader of the IT department, you have to ensure that any changes in the processes will be for the betterment of the organization and, at the same time, give you leverage over your competitors.
3. Recruitment
Since the workforce is always evolving through employees who leave or retire and new talents sprouting up after graduation, it makes sense that one role of a CIO is to make the final decision on who to hire. If your company has a dedicated in-house hiring team, they will most likely handle the first-level screening, which involves interviewing and assessing the applicant’s technical skills.
Your role in the recruitment process is to conduct the final interview and evaluate whether the candidate will fit in well with the company and its culture, particularly with the IT department. It’s imperative that you oversee this part personally since you want the best people for your team and to avoid losses through employee turnovers.
Conclusion
In today’s modern world, Chief Information Officers play a significant role in any organization. They are in charge of overseeing the IT department and make the final decisions on anything related to technology. There may be additions to the roles that you are expected to handle once you’re a CIO, but the responsibilities mentioned above are the general ones that apply to the job.
