Chief Information Officer Job Description
Chief information officer (CIO) is the term associated with the senior most position in the IT department of an organization. They help in the implementation of technologies that enable in increasing the usefulness of the integrated systems and availability of information systems.
Also, they may work in any organization but their main purpose is to make technology effective and easily available. If a chief information officer is working in military services then he reports to the commanding officer.
They should have expertise in using technology for upgrading the existing information technology systems and solve the problems of the employees.
Job Responsibilities of Chief Information Officer
- He makes sure that all the employees of the company are following the rules and regulations and maintaining confidentiality with the companies data
- They manages all the operations such as help desks, data centers, computer system operations, computer program development, technical service centers, production scheduling functions and computer system operations
- Manage communication networks of the company including voice and data systems
- He interacts with the executive management team to discuss problems in the information systems of the company
- He deals with both manual data and computerized data available and maintains records of each one of them
- He provides directions to the authorized employees in the company who can increase security of the critical data available with the company
- He reports to the chief operations manager or any higher authority under whose assistance he is working
- A chief operations managers coordinates with the employees of all the organizations and makes sure that the employees are satisfied with the services provided to them from the operations staff
Qualifications and Certifications
- A bachelor's degree in Computer Science.
- A master's degree in Computer Science will be an added advantage for people.
- People working as chief information officers are more involved into administrative work so pursuing a bachelor's or master's degree in Business Administration will also be helpful.
- Certifications in advanced computer technologies from accredited institutions such as Microsoft, Sun, etc., are also considered as a plus point in this career.
Skills
- Expertise in finding out technical issues with the information systems and dealing with these issues
- They should have ability to deal with troubleshooting problems of the information systems
- They should have proficiency in scripting languages, XML, HTML and other basic programming languages which can help them in changing the settings of the information systems as per the companies requirement
- Good administration and planning skills
- Profound communication skills will also help them in interacting effectively with the employees and the team members
- Good presentation skills can help them in giving demonstrations to the employees about the safety of the information in the company
- They should have ability to outline details and find out critical areas
Salaries
The salaries offered are pretty high. They earn about $183,245 per annum. If a person is more experienced then he may be paid much higher amount than this. Salaries also vary depending upon the size of the organization.
Almost all big organizations require chief information officers (CIO's) for the security and integrity of data. Hope this job description helped you know his importance in a company.