Chief Technology Officer Job Trends

Chief Technology Officer (CTO)
UK

The median Chief Technology Officer (CTO) salary in the UK is £100,000 per year, according to job vacancies posted during the 6 months leading to 16 September 2026.

The table below compares current salary benchmarking and summary statistics with the previous two years.

6 months to
16 Sep 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 731 660 747
Rank change year-on-year -71 +87 -27
Permanent jobs requiring a Chief Technology Officer 72 20 55
As % of all permanent jobs in the UK 0.063% 0.041% 0.071%
As % of the Job Titles category 0.068% 0.045% 0.074%
Number of salaries quoted 59 18 40
10th Percentile £85,600 £76,375 £74,625
25th Percentile - £86,250 £80,000
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £100,000 £120,000 £84,850
Median % change year-on-year -16.67% +41.43% -22.86%
75th Percentile £110,000 £193,125 £117,813
90th Percentile £146,500 £195,000 £138,250
UK excluding London median annual salary £100,000 £130,000 £84,700
% change year-on-year -23.08% +53.48% -0.35%

All Permanent IT Job Roles
UK

For comparison with the information above, the following table provides summary statistics for all permanent IT job vacancies. Most job vacancies include a discernible job title that can be normalized. As such, the figures in the second row provide an indication of the number of permanent jobs in our overall sample.

Permanent vacancies in the UK with a recognized job title 106,506 44,266 74,164
% of permanent jobs with a recognized job title 93.35% 89.67% 95.25%
Number of salaries quoted 73,200 26,014 44,625
10th Percentile £30,000 £28,250 £30,000
25th Percentile £40,000 £36,250 £40,000
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £59,000 £55,000 £55,000
Median % change year-on-year +7.27% - -8.33%
75th Percentile £77,500 £75,000 £73,750
90th Percentile £100,000 £95,000 £92,500
UK excluding London median annual salary £55,000 £47,500 £50,000
% change year-on-year +15.79% -5.00% -4.76%

Chief Technology Officer
Job Vacancy Trend

Historical trend showing the proportion of permanent IT job postings featuring 'Chief Technology Officer' in the job title relative to all permanent IT jobs advertised.

Chief Technology Officer job vacancy trend in the UK

Chief Technology Officer
Salary Trend

Salary distribution trend for Chief Technology Officer job vacancies in the UK.

Salary distribution trend for Chief Technology Officer job vacancies in the UK

Chief Technology Officer
Salary Histogram

Salary distribution for jobs citing Chief Technology Officer over the 6 months to 16 September 2026.

Salary histogram for Chief Technology Officer in the UK

Chief Technology Officer
Top 13 Job Locations

The table below looks at the demand and provides a guide to the median salaries quoted in IT jobs citing Chief Technology Officer within the UK over the 6 months to 16 September 2026. The 'Rank Change' column provides an indication of the change in demand within each location based on the same 6 month period last year.

Location Rank Change
on Same Period
Last Year
Matching
Permanent
IT Job Ads
Median Salary
Past 6 Months
Median Salary
% Change
on Same Period
Last Year
Live
Jobs
England -66 64 £100,000 -16.67% 75
UK excluding London -91 41 £100,000 -23.08% 33
London -35 26 £100,000 +8.11% 50
North of England -54 16 £100,000 -16.67% 9
North West -9 13 £100,000 -16.67% 5
South East - 12 £100,000 - 7
Midlands -27 9 £80,000 -57.89% 4
East Midlands -25 7 £80,000 -57.89%
Work from Home -28 4 £145,000 +61.11% 15
Northern Ireland - 3 £100,000 - 2
North East - 3 £100,000 -
West Midlands -42 2 £100,000 -47.37% 4
South West -72 1 - - 8

Chief Technology Officer Skill Set
Top 30 Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities

For the 6 months to 16 September 2026, Chief Technology Officer job roles required the following skills and capabilities in order of popularity. The figures indicate the absolute number of co-occurrences and as a proportion of all permanent job ads featuring Chief Technology Officer in the job title.

1 26 (36.11%) Technology Strategy
2 25 (34.72%) SaaS
3 24 (33.33%) IT Strategy
4 19 (26.39%) AI
5 18 (25.00%) Roadmaps
6 16 (22.22%) Cybersecurity
7 13 (18.06%) Stakeholder Management
8 12 (16.67%) Thought Leadership
9 11 (15.28%) Agile
10 10 (13.89%) AWS
10 10 (13.89%) Commercial Awareness
10 10 (13.89%) Strategic Roadmap
11 9 (12.50%) CI/CD
11 9 (12.50%) Mentoring
11 9 (12.50%) Technical Leadership
12 8 (11.11%) B2B
12 8 (11.11%) DevOps
12 8 (11.11%) GDPR
12 8 (11.11%) Product Strategy
13 7 (9.72%) C#
13 7 (9.72%) Data Privacy
13 7 (9.72%) Machine Learning
14 6 (8.33%) Budget Management
14 6 (8.33%) C++
14 6 (8.33%) Enterprise Architecture
14 6 (8.33%) ISO/IEC 27001
14 6 (8.33%) PCI DSS
14 6 (8.33%) SC Cleared
14 6 (8.33%) Scrum
14 6 (8.33%) Security Cleared

Chief Technology Officer Skill Set
Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities by Category

The following tables expand on the one above by listing co-occurrences grouped by category. They cover the same employment type, locality and period, with up to 20 co-occurrences shown in each category:

Applications
1 2 (2.78%) Spreadsheet
2 1 (1.39%) Microsoft Excel
2 1 (1.39%) Microsoft Office
2 1 (1.39%) Microsoft PowerPoint
Cloud Services
1 25 (34.72%) SaaS
2 10 (13.89%) AWS
3 6 (8.33%) Twilio
4 3 (4.17%) Azure
5 1 (1.39%) Azure Stack
5 1 (1.39%) GCP
Communications & Networking
1 1 (1.39%) Firewall
Database & Business Intelligence
1 4 (5.56%) Data Mining
General
1 15 (20.83%) Public Sector
2 11 (15.28%) Social Skills
3 9 (12.50%) Finance
4 4 (5.56%) Marketing
4 4 (5.56%) Public Speaking
5 3 (4.17%) Manufacturing
6 1 (1.39%) Analytical Skills
6 1 (1.39%) Influencing Skills
6 1 (1.39%) Legal
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 1 (1.39%) .NET
1 1 (1.39%) Node.js
1 1 (1.39%) React
Miscellaneous
1 11 (15.28%) AI Agents
2 10 (13.89%) Cloud Native
3 4 (5.56%) Enterprise Software
3 4 (5.56%) Hackathon
3 4 (5.56%) IVR
4 2 (2.78%) Legacy Systems
5 1 (1.39%) Blog
5 1 (1.39%) Data Centre
5 1 (1.39%) Driving Licence
5 1 (1.39%) Security Posture
5 1 (1.39%) Shadow IT
Processes & Methodologies
1 26 (36.11%) Technology Strategy
2 24 (33.33%) IT Strategy
3 19 (26.39%) AI
4 18 (25.00%) Roadmaps
5 16 (22.22%) Cybersecurity
6 13 (18.06%) Stakeholder Management
7 12 (16.67%) Thought Leadership
8 11 (15.28%) Agile
9 10 (13.89%) Commercial Awareness
9 10 (13.89%) Strategic Roadmap
10 9 (12.50%) CI/CD
10 9 (12.50%) Mentoring
10 9 (12.50%) Technical Leadership
11 8 (11.11%) B2B
11 8 (11.11%) DevOps
11 8 (11.11%) Product Strategy
12 7 (9.72%) Data Privacy
12 7 (9.72%) Machine Learning
13 6 (8.33%) Enterprise Architecture
13 6 (8.33%) Scrum
Programming Languages
1 7 (9.72%) C#
2 6 (8.33%) C++
3 1 (1.39%) JavaScript
3 1 (1.39%) SQL
Qualifications
1 6 (8.33%) SC Cleared
1 6 (8.33%) Security Cleared
2 1 (1.39%) CCDE
2 1 (1.39%) CCIE
2 1 (1.39%) Cisco Certification
2 1 (1.39%) Degree
2 1 (1.39%) DV Cleared
2 1 (1.39%) Master's Degree
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 8 (11.11%) GDPR
2 6 (8.33%) ISO/IEC 27001
2 6 (8.33%) PCI DSS
3 2 (2.78%) SOC 2
Vendors
1 4 (5.56%) Workday
2 2 (2.78%) Microsoft
3 1 (1.39%) Google
3 1 (1.39%) Salesforce