How To Hire A Chief Technology Officer or CTO

Whether or not your high-growth company is focused exclusively on developing new technologies, hiring a CTO can help you meet your business goals. The role of a chief technology officer is to develop the technical strategies of you company and make sure they support your overall business strategy. This requires experience with multiple coding languages and platforms, leadership skills to work with development teams, and sound business sense.

Here’s a process to follow for how to hire a chief technology officer:

Determine Goals

Before looking into filling the role of CTO in your company, decide exactly what you will need the CTO to do. Determine what exactly your technical goals are for your company, and then make a map of what skills a C-level executive will need to take you there.

Identify areas of functional expertise:

Generally speaking, your CTO will need both technical and people skills in order to be successful. Your areas of functional expertise might include the following:

• Technical skill: Experience with coding is a must, since a deep knowledge of multiple coding languages and platforms is crucial to being able to develop actionable strategies and goals. At the very least, he or she should be able to learn.
• Lateral Thinking: Given the ever-changing nature of technology today, a CTO will need to be able to implement new platforms and ideas in order to keep the company growing at a competitive pace. The capacity to have new, creative ideas and apply them to new technologies is a must.
• Learner: A CTO must not only have experience with multiple platforms, but be able to learn to use more. Modern technology requires that he or she be able to adapt to new technological needs.
• Leadership: In many cases, your CTO may need to manage different coding and engineering teams in order to make sure technological developments work toward your business goals.

Once you have your functional skills in place, you are ready to go on to recruitment and interviewing.

Recruitment

Utilizing a recruitment firm can help you find the most dynamic and well-qualified candidates that will help your company’s technical and overall growth. While interviewing, ask questions that help you determine the following:

• Does this candidate have strong technical experience?
• Is this candidate a fast learner?
• How well does this candidate work with others?
• Could this candidate be a good mentor for engineering and development teams?
• How is this candidate’s end-user interaction?
• Will this candidate fit well within our company’s culture?

By carefully detailing your technical goals, working closely with recruitment services, and interviewing thoroughly, you will be able to find a CTO who will be right for your high-growth company’s needs.

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