The role now
The CIO owns the organisation’s technology: the systems people work in, the vendors and contracts behind them, the budget, and the team that runs it all. In most Australian organisations the role now also carries a large share of cyber risk, data, and the decisions about where AI is used.
The job has moved from keeping systems running to explaining technology choices in business terms. A CIO spends as much time with the CFO, the risk committee and the board as with their own team.
Hiring a Chief Information Officer: settle these first
Who will the CIO report to?
Reporting to the CEO and reporting to the CFO or COO attract different people. Decide this before the search starts, because strong candidates will ask in the first conversation.
What is in scope?
Say whether security, data, digital product and the PMO sit with the CIO or elsewhere. A CIO without security or data is a different job from one with both.
What does the first year need to deliver?
A rebuild after an outage, an ERP replacement and a cost reset each need a different CIO. Name the one or two outcomes that matter.
Stepping up to Chief Information Officer
Most first-time CIOs have run a large part of technology already: infrastructure and operations, applications, or a major programme. What changes is the audience. You are judged on whether the executive team trusts your judgement, not on whether your own area runs well.
Get board and audit committee exposure early, own a budget end to end, and learn to explain a technology trade-off in a page.
The techexec network is built for this step. Members get a monthly briefing, small roundtables and a confidential career conversation with Aaron. Join the network.
What we ask candidates about
- The decisions you made, not the programmes you were near.
- How you dealt with a major incident and what changed after it.
- Your relationship with the CFO and the board.
- Where you would and wouldn’t use outsourcing.
Questions
How long does a CIO search take?
It depends on how clear the brief is and how many people need to agree on the appointment. Notice periods at this level are often three months or more, so plan for the start date being well after the offer.
Do you recruit CIOs for government and private organisations?
Yes. Public-sector and private CIO roles ask for different things, especially around procurement, governance and how decisions are made, and we brief candidates on those differences.