Chief Information Officers & Chief Digital Officers

The roles of chief information officer and chief digital officer have evolved radically over the past two decades as the influence of technology has expanded throughout every department in every organisation. More than just technology experts, today’s CIOs and CDOs must possess the attributes of a true business leader, combining technical insight with commercial acumen and the foresight to lead through a rapidly changing commercial and technological landscape. Competition to secure successful technology executives is intense, as leaders of this calibre are a rare and hugely valuable commodity. Stone Executive has an outstanding track-record in CIO executive search, and our specialist CIO headhunters are closely connected to many of the most respected and in-demand senior technology leaders in the UK and across the globe.

The role of a CIO and a CDO

The chief information officer is the senior executive responsible for the technology that runs the organisation. The CIO owns corporate systems, data, cybersecurity, and operational resilience, advises the board on technology risk and investment, and partners with the chief executive on how technology supports the operating model. The chief digital officer, by contrast, owns the digital and customer-facing agenda. Chief digital officer briefs also draw on our wider digital executive search practice.

The shape of both roles varies significantly with the type of organisation. In a large enterprise the CIO typically leads internal IT, infrastructure, and information security, while the CDO drives digital products, data monetisation, and transformation. In a PE-backed business the brief is usually weighted toward systems consolidation, cyber resilience, and the technology elements of the value-creation plan. In a founder-led or scaling organisation a single technology leader frequently carries the combined CIO and CDO remit, and the appointment is as much about building the function as directing it.

CIO, CTO, IT Director or Head of IT: choosing the right appointment

The right appointment depends on the scale of the estate and the seniority of the decisions the leader will own. A CIO sits on the executive and owns technology strategy and risk, a CTO owns product and engineering, an IT Director runs the function, and a Head of IT leads delivery within it. All four routes sit within our technology executive search practice.

Chief Technology Officer

The chief technology officer owns product-facing and engineering technology rather than the corporate estate. In software and product-led businesses the CTO is usually the senior technology voice on the executive, and our chief technology officer recruitment practice covers that mandate.

IT Director

The IT Director leads the technology function without a seat on the executive committee, owning infrastructure, applications, service delivery, and the technology budget, and reporting to a chief financial or operating officer, or to the CIO. It suits a stable estate rather than a reshaping of the commercial model.

Head of IT

The Head of IT leads delivery inside the function rather than setting its direction, reporting to an IT Director or CIO. Appointing one where a CIO is required is the error we are asked to correct most often, usually discovered when a board finds nobody at executive level owns technology risk.

Types of CIO and CDO appointment we recruit

Stone Executive’s CDO recruitment and CIO search practice covers the full range of senior technology leadership appointments. Each engagement is run as a bespoke, retained search led by a named consultant, with the brief shaped by the ownership, sector, and technology context of the appointment.

• Enterprise CIO appointments, where the role leads corporate systems, infrastructure, information security, and operational resilience across a large and often complex estate.
• Chief Digital Officer appointments, where the mandate is digital products, customer experience, data monetisation, and the transformation agenda.
• Combined CIO and CDO appointments, common in mid-market and founder-led organisations where a single technology leader carries both the run-the-business and change-the-business remits.
• PE-backed CIO appointments at portfolio companies, calibrated to the sponsor’s value-creation plan, systems consolidation, and cyber-resilience priorities.
• Transformation CIO and CDO appointments, where the brief is to lead a legacy estate through modernisation, cloud migration, and a change of operating model at pace.
• Information security and resilience-led appointments, where the regulatory and cyber-risk profile of the organisation places security at the centre of the brief.
• Interim CIO appointments, where an experienced technology leader is required at short notice to stabilise delivery, lead a transition, or bridge a permanent succession.
• Public sector and not-for-profit CIO appointments, where governance expectations are layered with public accountability and the scrutiny of trustees, members, or the public.

A meaningful proportion of our CIO recruitment work sits below the very top of the FTSE: mid-market businesses, PE-backed portfolio companies, founder-led scale-ups, and the most significant public sector and not-for-profit organisations. From SMEs to blue-chip corporations, the discipline of the search is the same. The candidates capable of doing the job well at this level are almost always already in post elsewhere, and the right approach is what produces a credible shortlist rather than a generic one.

When boards appoint a new CIO or CDO

Chief information officer and chief digital officer appointments arrive at a small number of recognisable moments, and CIO recruitment is usually triggered by one of them: planned succession, the period after a transaction when new owners want a technology leader aligned to the plan, the launch of a major transformation or digital programme, or an incumbent stepping down.

Each context shapes the search differently. A planned succession at a listed board typically prioritises continuity, scale, and a record of leading technology at comparable complexity. A PE-backed appointment looks for systems consolidation and cyber-resilience experience alongside the bandwidth to partner with the sponsor through the hold period. A transformation mandate requires a leader with the standing to modernise a legacy estate while keeping the business running, and a digital mandate calls for a CDO who can build new revenue and customer capability rather than simply run existing systems.

Interim and fractional CIO appointments

An interim CIO is a full-time technology leader appointed for a defined period, usually to stabilise delivery, lead a transition, or hold the function while a permanent search runs. A fractional CIO is engaged part-time on a continuing basis, giving smaller organisations executive-level technology judgement without a full-time appointment.

Interim CIO

Interim requirements are almost always operational: a departure without a successor, a transformation programme that has lost its leader, or the period after a transaction. We draw on a standing network of leaders who work this way by choice, and who are rarely visible to CIO recruiters relying on advertised availability.

Fractional CIO

Fractional appointments suit organisations that require executive technology judgement but cannot justify a full-time seat: scaling businesses, smaller PE-backed portfolio companies, and charities with a modest internal function. The leader commits agreed days each month, carries the technology agenda at board level, and directs the IT Director below.

Our CIO and CDO search process

Every Stone Executive CIO and CDO search follows the same disciplined sequence, adapted to the seniority of the role and the ownership structure of the organisation. Each engagement is retained throughout, run by a named consultant from briefing to offer, and supported by our in-house research team. The four search stages below run sequentially, with timing shaped by stakeholder availability and any governance approvals required, and the commercial terms are set out beneath them.

Brief development

We work consultatively with the chief executive, the principal shareholders, or the nominations committee responsible for the appointment, to understand the strategic context, the state of the technology estate and the function the leader will inherit, the transformation or digital agenda, and the kind of technology leader who will succeed. The brief covers sector experience, technical depth, scale, the balance between the run-the-business and change-the-business remit, the relationship the leader will need to build with the chief executive and the board, and the cultural reality the new leader will step into. For PE-backed and shareholder-led appointments, the brief explicitly addresses the value-creation plan and the timetable to the next capital event.

Market mapping

We identify candidates across the relevant sub-sector, comparable peer group, and adjacent industries, drawing on Stone Executive’s network of senior technology executives and structured public-domain research. Long lists for CIO and CDO appointments routinely extend across the UK and into Europe, particularly where specific platform, security, or transformation experience is part of the brief.

Direct, discreet candidate approach

Senior CIO and CDO candidates are almost always in post elsewhere and not visibly available, which means recruitment at this level is fundamentally about engaging passive candidates with discretion. Reaching them well requires the credibility to make a discreet first call land, and the substance to make the conversation worth their time. Our consultants are known within the UK technology leadership community, and the depth of those relationships is what makes the difference between a polite decline and a serious conversation. This is the same retained, research-led discipline that underpins our wider executive search work.

Shortlist, interview, and appointment

We present a shortlist of typically four to six candidates with detailed written profiles covering career history, technical and leadership track record, motivations, fit against the brief, and our independent assessment. We manage the formal interview rounds, support any technical or security assessment the engagement requires, handle candidate communication, and run any additional due diligence the appointment calls for through to offer and acceptance.

Fees and timeline

Every engagement is retained rather than contingent. The fee is agreed at briefing, expressed as a percentage of the appointed executive’s first-year total remuneration, and invoiced in stages across the search. Retained terms are the norm among CIO executive search firms at this level, and they are what make exhaustive research possible. A typical search runs eight to twelve weeks to offer acceptance.

CIO and CDO salary benchmarks in the UK

Chief information officer salaries in the UK are published at £100,000 to £250,000 for 2026 by the Robert Walters Salary Survey, with position in that range set by the scale of the technology estate, the location of the organisation, and its ownership. Benchmarking the package is usually the first question in a chief information officer executive search brief.

What the published ranges show

The same survey puts London at £120,000 to £250,000, the North at £100,000 to £250,000, the Midlands at £100,000 to £175,000, and the South at £100,000 to £150,000. Organisation size then moves the figure within those bands: a CIO in a medium-sized organisation in the South is placed at £100,000 to £120,000, against £110,000 to £150,000 for larger enterprises in the same region. Published bands remain a starting point, because the title means different things in a small business and a FTSE 250 estate. Chief digital officer packages follow the same drivers, though benchmarks for that title are thinner, and in PE-backed businesses the management equity plan is usually the defining element rather than base salary.

Sectors we cover for CIO and CDO appointments

CIO and CDO searches at Stone Executive draw on the same sector specialism as our wider board-level practice. The consultant leading the search brings sector knowledge to the brief, the long list, and the candidate conversations, ensuring relevant operating experience, technology context, and an existing network in the sector at hand.

• Business and Professional Services
• Consumer Goods and Services
• Education
• Financial Services
• Health and Social Care
• Life Sciences
• Public Sector and Not-for-Profit
• Technology

FAQs

To discuss a CIO, CDO or senior digital appointment, please contact our team on 0333 800 1560.