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Chief Technology Officer (CTO) jobs: 223 open roles, pay, industries and skills

223 open Chief Technology Officer jobs (CTO), taken from employers’ own career sites and checked to still be open. Also listed as Chief Technical Officer, Head of Engineering, Head of Technology. Listings that state pay show a median of $250,000 a year.

The market for Chief Technology Officer work

Every figure is counted from verified open listings. Pay is what the employer advertises for the job.

Verified open Chief Technology Officer jobs
223

Source: NextChapter, checked against employer career sites, last 7 days.

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Median pay in listings that state it
$250,000

Source: NextChapter verified openings.

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State with the most openings
California (40)

Source: NextChapter verified openings.

Industry hiring the most
Technology & Software (38%)

Source: NextChapter verified openings.

Listings that are remote
47%

Source: NextChapter verified openings.

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Listings that ask for an AI skill
45%

Source: NextChapter verified openings, read in full.

What a CTO does

C-suite role in Engineering.

The technology the company sells or runs on: engineering, architecture, and how fast and safely it ships.

Usually reports to the CEO.

Other ways this role is written

  • CTO
  • Chief Technology Officer
  • Chief Technical Officer
  • Head of Engineering
  • Head of Technology

Listings under any of these titles are counted on this page. Assistant, associate, manager and staff titles are not.

Open Chief Technology Officer jobs

Verified against the employer’s own career site within the last week.

Showing the newest 15 of about 223 verified open jobs here. Search all jobs

Search all Chief Technology Officer jobs

CTO salary

From 55 open listings that state pay. Annual, in US dollars, base pay only.

Lower quarter
$207,500
Median
$250,000
Upper quarter
$300,000

Leadership pay often includes bonus and equity that a listing does not state. Treat these figures as the floor of the conversation, not the whole package.

Best industries for CTO jobs

Employers hiring the most, as a share of listings whose employer has a known industry. Median pay shown where at least 8 listings state it.

Where CTO jobs are

States with the most open listings; median pay where at least 8 listings state it.

Skills CTO jobs ask for

Named in the listings themselves, as a share of 70 Chief Technology Officer listings that name skills. Leadership listings name fewer skills than individual-contributor ones, so this is a signal, not a checklist.

Most named in CTO listings

  1. 1. aws23%
  2. 2. azure19%
  3. 3. project management17%
  4. 4. agile17%
  5. 5. machine learning16%
  6. 6. risk management16%
  7. 7. ci/cd13%
  8. 8. gcp11%
  9. 9. vendor management11%
  10. 10. devops10%

Across all Engineering openings

  1. 1. python8%
  2. 2. project management5%
  3. 3. agile5%
  4. 4. aws5%
  5. 5. ci/cd4%
  6. 6. excel3%
  7. 7. sql3%
  8. 8. linux3%
  9. 9. azure3%
  10. 10. devops3%

AI skills for CTO jobs

Specific AI skills named in the full posting text, such as prompt engineering, AI governance or an AI tool. A general mention of AI does not count.

45% of 80 open Chief Technology Officer listings ask for a specific AI skill, against 7% of all Engineering openings.

AI skills named most often

  1. 1. AI workflow automation16%
  2. 2. AI tools in daily work14%
  3. 3. LLM application engineering13%
  4. 4. AI adoption and change management13%
  5. 5. AI strategy and use cases11%
  6. 6. AI coding assistants9%

Do AI skills change chief technology officer pay?

For Engineering roles in general, as of November 2, 2026. This is the function’s figure, not one for chief technology officer alone: one title rarely has enough listings on both sides.

Among Engineering listings, those that ask for an AI skill advertise +16.9% (about $29k) compared with similar listings that do not, matched on level and industry.

Listings that ask for an AI skill
$210,000
median, from 4,087 paid listings
Listings that never mention AI
$154,000
median, from 4,980 paid listings

Advertised pay only: the midpoint of the range an employer posted, on live U.S. postings read from the full text. “Asks for an AI skill” means the posting names a specific AI skill; “no AI” means it never mentions AI. A difference in what is advertised is not a promise of what you would be paid, and it does not show that learning a skill causes a raise.

See the AI-skill pay table for every function · Check your own pay against these listings

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The Engineering ladder

The same function at other levels: where this role comes from and where it leads.

All Engineering jobs

Job titles under CTO

The exact titles employers use, with their own job and salary pages.

Employers hiring for CTO roles

  • JRG Partners 6
  • Career Launch 6
  • Fuze Health 3
  • Nxt Level 3
  • Creative Financial Staffing 3
  • Confidential 3
  • BNY 3
  • Minio 2
  • MaxIT Consulting - Max Corporate Group 2
  • National Life Group 2
  • D. Hilton Associates 2
  • Harnham 2

CTO questions

What does a CTO do?
The technology the company sells or runs on: engineering, architecture, and how fast and safely it ships. Usually reports to the CEO.
What does CTO stand for?
CTO stands for Chief Technology Officer. The same job is also written Chief Technical Officer, Head of Engineering, Head of Technology.
How many CTO jobs are open?
223 verified open Chief Technology Officer jobs, each checked against the employer’s own career site within the last week.
How much does a CTO make?
Among 55 open Chief Technology Officer listings that state pay, the median is $250,000 a year, and half of listings fall between $207,500 and $300,000. This is pay the employer advertises for the job, not total compensation such as bonus or equity.
Where are CTO jobs?
California (40), New York (39), Texas (11), Virginia (10) have the most open Chief Technology Officer listings. About 47% of listings that state a work arrangement are remote.
Which state pays a CTO the most?
Of the states with enough listings that state pay, California has the highest median at $268,000.
Which industries hire for CTO roles?
Technology & Software (38%), Financial Services & Banking (20%), Manufacturing & Industrial (7%), Healthcare & Hospital Systems (7%), as a share of listings whose employer has a known industry.
What skills do CTO jobs ask for?
The skills named most often in open Chief Technology Officer listings are aws, azure, project management, agile, machine learning.
Do CTO jobs ask for AI skills?
45% of 80 open Chief Technology Officer listings read in full name a specific AI skill. The most common is AI workflow automation.

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