CIO salary · chief information officer pay · 2026
What a CIO earns, in base, bonus and package
A CIO salary runs from £108,000 to £200,000 nationally on Robert Half’s 2026 salary figures, with a median of £150,250.
In London the same source gives £147,000 to £272,000, median £204,250.
In IT Jobs Watch’s count of permanent job ads, the median advertised CIO salary was £112,500 over the six months to 5 October 2026.
Company size, sector and London move the number most.
When you hire a CIO through us, permanent, interim or fractional, we send a shortlist of 3–5, each with pay or day rate, availability and IR35 position set out.
How a brief runswhat we undertake
- 01Brief30-MINUTE SCOPING CALLDay 0
- 02Shortlist of 3–5VETTED · RATE BENCHMARK · IR35After the brief
- 03InterviewsYOU MEET THE SHORTLISTYour diary
- 04Scoped startFIRST-MONTH OUTCOMES AGREEDYou set the date
- 05Fractional, interim and permanentIR35 POSITION SET OUTOn every brief
Shortlist3–5
15 minutes · video or phone
Book 15 minutes to hire a CIO
Tell us the scope and the days a week. We come back with CIO candidates, their day rates and availability.
- 0115 minutes, video or phone
- 02We scope the role and the days a week
- 03A shortlist of 3–5 after the call
- 04Fractional, interim and permanent briefs
Pick a day that suits · live availability
On the board · last 3 months
CIO roles jobs on the board
No CIO roles roles on the board in the last three months. Showing technology leadership roles instead.
On the board CIO and technology leadership roles
Fractional recruitment works differently from a permanent search — shorter, scoped by days a week, and priced on the engagement. Send a CIO brief and we come back with a shortlist of three to five vetted candidates.
01/ the cross
Where a permanent hire becomes cheaper.
Move the day rate and the days a week: the rising line is a month of part-week cost, the flat line a permanent hire’s month. Where they cross, the seat should go full-time.
At 4.1 days a week a permanent hire costs less.
Our arithmetic. Permanent a month = the salary ÷ 12 plus 15% employer NI, plus the 30% search fee spread over 12 months — the calculator’s inputs. Hover, tap or use the arrow keys for each step.
Permanent = the £204,250 Robert Half 2026 (London) median salary. The full calculator below adds the months, the totals and the currency tabs.
- The fractional CIO at 2 days a week never passes permanent inside 24 months.
Our arithmetic, cumulative. Permanent = the salary’s 30% search fee in month 0, then salary ÷ 12 plus 15% employer NI each month. No published interim band for this seat, so no interim line. Hover, tap or use the arrow keys for each month.
02/ the role
Chief information officer salary, and what sets it
A chief information officer owns the technology the business runs on: enterprise systems, infrastructure, data, information security and the IT team.
Exec Capital draws the line this way: the CTO owns the technology the business sells, the CIO the technology it runs on.
Check which seat you are pricing before you use a benchmark, because some businesses give one title to both jobs.
Size and regulation set the chief information officer salary more than the title does.
Exec Capital’s 2026 technology salary guide puts CIO base pay at £100,000–£180,000 in the mid-market and £200,000–£350,000+ at large corporate, regulated or listed businesses.
It says CIO packages in financial services, healthcare and critical infrastructure sit at the upper end, and it calls its figures indicative ranges rather than precise data points.
The CIO sits above the IT director.
On Robert Half’s 2026 national figures, an IT director’s median is £96,000 and a head of IT’s £81,500, against £150,250 for a CIO.
For the seat below in detail, see IT director salary; for the job itself, see what a CIO does.
The profession has a chartered body: BCS, The Chartered Institute for IT, which keeps a public register of chartered IT professionals.
Membership is worth asking about.
It is not a requirement for the role.
03/ scope
How to set the pay and make the hire
1. Scope the seat
Write down what the role owns: systems, infrastructure, data, security, the IT budget, suppliers.
Say who it reports to.
A brief that reads like an IT director’s draws an IT director’s shortlist, and an IT director’s pay.
Our CIO job description template covers the purpose, responsibilities and reporting line.
2. Choose the route
A permanent appointment suits a business that needs a senior technology owner every day: hire a CIO on that basis.
For a programme or a gap with an end date, an interim CIO works full-time for a fixed term.
For senior oversight a few days a week, a fractional CIO is the cheaper route.
Both are paid by the day, not a salary.
3. Set base and variable pay together
The CIPD’s introduction to reward separates fixed base pay from variable pay, which is not guaranteed.
Tie any bonus to what the role controls, such as a programme delivered or a service level held, and write the targets into the offer.
Exec Capital notes that private-equity-backed businesses usually pay base at or slightly above market and put the upside in equity.
What we do on a CIO brief
We recruit permanent, interim, fractional, part-time and temporary technology leaders, and non-executive directors.
We send a shortlist of 3–5, each with pay or day rate, availability and IR35 position set out, and every candidate goes through our five-stage vetting first.
Open roles are on our CIO jobs board.
04/ the maths
What the seat costs, by the days a week
Move the day rate, the days a week and the months: the totals and the permanent comparison for the period. The curve above shows where a permanent hire becomes the cheaper seat.
The slider runs across the published band for a fractional CIO: £800–£2,000 a day (Exec Capital 2026).
Cost over 12 months
£145,600
104 working days · 2 d/wk · 12 mo · before tax
Fractional costs less over 12 months£150,563
Fractional CIO, 12 months£145,600
Fractional CIO, a month at 2 d/wk£12,124
Permanent CIO, same period£296,163
Fractional CIO, 12 months$192,905
Fractional CIO, a month at 2 d/wk$16,063
Permanent CIO, same period$392,386
Converted from £ at $1.3249 per £1 (Bank of England spot rate), 2 Oct 2026. A conversion, not a US market rate. Source ↗
Fractional CIO, 12 months€171,022
Fractional CIO, a month at 2 d/wk€14,241
Permanent CIO, same period€347,872
Converted from £ at €1.1746 per £1 (Bank of England spot rate), 2 Oct 2026. A conversion, not a EU market rate. Source ↗
Our arithmetic, indicative. Permanent = the £204,250 Robert Half 2026 (London) median salary pro rata for the same months, plus 15% employer NI, plus a 30% search fee on the annual base (UK retained search runs 25–35%, Headhunters.co.uk). Excludes pension, bonus and equity.
05/ the week
How a week divides.
The days you buy are yours; the rest of the week goes to other clients. Move the days a week in the calculator above and the week redraws.
Illustration only: one way a fractional CIO’s week can divide at 2 days a week for you. Each block is half a day.
06/ the board
What the board holds.
A read of the roles on the board on this page, counted as they stand: how each is engaged, whether the posting gives the days and the rate, and where the work happens.
On this board, last 90 days · 1 role · technology leadership
Engagement
- Fractional1
Days a week
- Stated in the posting1
- Not stated0
Day rate
- Verified rate0
- Estimated (est)1
- Rate not stated0
Work arrangement (as the job feed classifies it)
- Remote1
- Hybrid0
- On-site0
Newest posting on the board: 27 Sept 2026.
07/ rates by stage
CIO salary national, London and by company size
Base salary figures as each source publishes them: Robert Half’s 2026 salary figures, IT Jobs Watch’s count of permanent job ads, Exec Capital’s 2026 guide, and Harvey Nash and Indeed data as reported by Computing in February 2026. Robert Half, Exec Capital and Harvey Nash are recruiters.
08/ economics
Base, bonus and package: what the seat costs you
A salary is not the whole cost of an employee.
For 2026 to 2027, employer’s National Insurance is 15% on earnings above £5,000 a year (HMRC rates and thresholds).
Under automatic enrolment the employer must pay at least 3% into a workplace pension on qualifying earnings, and those earnings include bonuses (GOV.UK).
Many schemes pay more.
A bonus is pay too.
HMRC treats a cash bonus as earnings, with PAYE tax and Class 1 National Insurance deducted through payroll, so budget employer’s National Insurance on the bonus as well as the base.
None of the sources on this page publishes a CIO bonus percentage, so we do not quote one.
Equity changes the shape of the package more than the size of the base.
Exec Capital says listed businesses pay the most transparent packages, with shareholder-approved long-term incentives, while founder-owned firms vary most, often paying less cash than listed businesses but with meaningful equity where an exit is planned.
Ask every candidate for base, bonus, pension and equity separately, and compare like with like.
09/ vetting
How we vet CIOs
What we undertake on every brief, before a candidate reaches you.
- 01
Qualification screen
Verify CIO tenure, sector context and stage fit.
SOURCING - 02
Mandate fit
Match to your situation — stage, board dynamics, timing.
MATCHING - 03
Reference deep-dive
We take references ourselves, from recent past clients — real outcomes, not titles.
VERIFY - 04
Shortlist
Three to five candidates with day rate, availability and IR35 position set out.
SHORTLIST OF 3–5
10/ cio salary london
CIO salary in London: what the capital adds
Robert Half’s 2026 figures put the CIO salary in London at £147,000 to £272,000, with a median of £204,250.
That is well above its national range of £108,000 to £200,000.
Its London IT director median is £130,500, so the gap between the two seats holds in the capital.
Exec Capital says London commands a premium of roughly 20–40% over equivalent regional roles across senior technology jobs, reflecting the concentration of technology and financial-services demand.
It states that for senior technology roles in general, not for the CIO alone.
Job-ad data is thin at this level.
IT Jobs Watch based its national CIO median on only 11 advertised salaries in the six months to 5 October 2026.
11/ cio salary uk
CIO salary UK: why the averages disagree
Each source measures something different, so an average CIO salary depends on whose average.
Harvey Nash data reported by Computing puts the average UK CIO salary at £198,610, from tech leaders at large corporate firms.
Indeed’s average across 104 CIO adverts in February 2026 was £95,930; Computing notes that the Indeed figure is more representative of pay at SME firms.
Robert Half’s national median of £150,250 sits between the two.
IT Jobs Watch recorded a £112,500 median advertised salary over the six months to 5 October 2026, from only 11 salaries quoted; the same period in 2025 gave £165,000.
Treat any single figure built on a handful of ads with care.
For an official cross-check, the ONS Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings reports employee earnings by occupation.
Its information technology directors group is broader than the CIO title, so use it as context, not as a CIO benchmark.
12/ other routes
Salary, day rate or retainer: three ways to pay for the seat
A permanent CIO is paid a salary.
An interim CIO is paid by the day for full-time work over a fixed term; see interim CIO salary for the day rates and what they annualise to.
A fractional CIO is paid by the day for one to three days a week; see fractional CIO salary for day rates and monthly retainers.
To compare the monthly bill, see fractional CIO cost.
13/ questions
CIO salary FAQ
The questions people ask before bringing in a CIO.
Book 15 minutes · shortlist of 3–5
Bring the brief. We architect the team.
A shortlist of 3–5 with day rate, availability and IR35 position set out, after five-stage vetting.
