CIO and CTO Recruitment
Placing the technology leaders who shape how Irish businesses grow, compete and stay secure.
What This Role Means for Irish Business
The CIO and CTO hire is one of the most consequential decisions an Irish business can make. Get it right and your technology function becomes a driver of growth. Get it wrong and you spend years managing the consequences.
Irish companies are asking more of their senior technology leaders than ever before. They need people who can think strategically, communicate clearly at board level, manage risk, and make technology investments that actually deliver returns.
This is not just a technical hire. It is a leadership hire. And the pool of people who can genuinely do the job well in the Irish market is smaller than most organisations expect.
What We Do
We place Chief Information Officers and Chief Technology Officers across Irish businesses, from scaling indigenous companies making their first senior technology appointment to established multinationals restructuring their IT leadership.
With more than 30 years of experience in the Irish IT market, we understand what separates a capable technologist from the right strategic leader for a specific business at a specific stage of growth. That distinction is what drives every search we run.
We work closely with CEOs, boards and Chief People Officers to define the brief before we go to market. Too many CIO and CTO searches fail because the role was never properly defined. We fix that first.
Roles We Place
- Chief Information Officer (CIO)
- Chief Technology Officer (CTO)
- VP of Technology
- Director of Technology
- Group IT Director
- Head of Technology
How We Work
Every CIO and CTO search starts with a proper conversation about the business, not the job spec. We want to understand the strategic priorities, the current state of the technology function, the leadership context, and what success looks like in 12 to 24 months.
From there we build a focused search across our network of senior technology professionals in Ireland, the majority of whom are not actively applying for roles but may be open to the right opportunity.
We provide a shortlist of well matched candidates, manage the process, and stay involved through offer and onboarding. Our clients do not get handed a list of CVs and left to manage alone.
Our report, The Rise of Strategic IT Leadership in Ireland, also informs how we advise clients on the evolving expectations around CIO and CTO appointments.
Frequently Asked Questions
Most searches at this level take between six and twelve weeks from brief to accepted offer. That timeline assumes the brief is clear and the decision making process on the client side is organised.
Where searches take longer, it is usually because the brief shifts mid process or internal sign off becomes complicated. We work with clients at the start to reduce both risks.
What is the difference between a CIO and a CTO, and which one do we need?
This is one of the most common questions we hear. The simple version is this: a CIO typically owns the internal IT function, systems, infrastructure, and service delivery. A CTO is more often focused on product, engineering, and technology as a commercial asset.
In practice, many Irish companies blend these responsibilities, particularly at the 100 to 500 employee stage. We help clients get clear on what they actually need before the search starts, because hiring the wrong profile is an expensive mistake.
This is more common than you might think, particularly in Irish companies that have scaled quickly. The trigger is often a CEO or MD realising that informal IT management is no longer enough.
We help you define the role, set realistic expectations about salary and profile, and structure a process that gives you confidence in the decision. The first conversation costs nothing.
Yes. The best CIO and CTO candidates in Ireland are rarely browsing job boards. They are in roles, performing well, and not actively looking. Our network has been built over three decades of working in and around the Irish IT market.
We have direct relationships with senior technology leaders across every major sector. When the right opportunity comes along, they hear about it from us.
A CIO at an Irish company will typically attract a salary in the range of €120,000 to €180,000, depending on the size of the IT function, the sector, and whether the role carries full budget accountability.
A CTO in Ireland tends to command a comparable or slightly higher base, reflecting the product and engineering accountability that often comes with the role, with experienced candidates typically attracting €140,000 to €200,000 or above.
At larger organisations or in heavily regulated sectors such as financial services, both figures can extend to €250,000 or beyond when total package is included.
For interim or contract CIO and CTO arrangements, day rates in the Irish market typically run from €700 to €1,200 per day, depending on the scope of the engagement and the seniority of the individual. Fractional arrangements are increasingly common at growing Irish businesses that are not yet ready for a full-time executive appointment.
Sector, organisation size, and the balance between operational and strategic responsibility all move these figures considerably. If you are putting together a brief or a budget for this type of hire, call us and we will take it from there.