Career Path

Director of Information Technology, Chief Information Officer (CIO), or Chief Technology Officer (CTO)

Overview

In this career, your responsibilities may include:

Supervising IT managers.
Continuously assessing the organization’s technology needs and how best to meet those needs.
Coordinating between the IT department and other departments in the organization, such as operations and customer service.

You can find more information about this career here.

Academic Requirements

Typically requires a bachelor’s degree, although many employers prefer to hire candidates with a master’s in business administration (MBA). Obtaining a master’s degree can make you eligible for careers with greater responsibility and higher salaries in this career pathway, if you do not already have the U.S. equivalent of a master’s degree.

Certification

Certification is not required, but could make employers more likely to hire you or offer you a higher salary.

You may be eligible for the following certifications:

ITIL Expert

Certified in the Governance of Enterprise IT (CGEIT)

Certified in IT Governance, Risk Management, and Compliance (CGRC-IT)

Certified in Risk and Information Systems Control (CRISC)

PMI Risk Management Professional (PMI-RMP)
Licensure

Licensure is not required to work as a Director of Information Technology, Chief Information Officer (CIO), or Chief Technology Officer (CTO).
Mutual Recognition Agreement
A Mutual Recognition Agreement (MRA) is an agreement between two or more jurisdictions to accept the educational or professional credentials granted under each other’s authority. This means that if you graduated with a specific degree or earned certain professional qualifications in a country covered under an MRA, your credentials may be automatically recognized here in the U.S.

The Seoul Accord is an MRA between accrediting organizations in multiple countries to recognize each other’s academic qualifications. If you graduated from an accredited computing or other IT program in one of the 8 non-U.S. jurisdictions covered by the Seoul Accord, then your degree may already be declared substantially equivalent to a degree from a U.S. program, and you may not need to obtain a credential evaluation. However, individual state licensing boards have the final authority on whether or not a particular degree meets their specific requirements for licensure. MRAs are not legally binding, and some states may choose not to recognize credentials covered under an MRA.
- In addition to the U.S., the jurisdictions that have signed to the Seoul Accord are: Australia; Canada; Hong Kong, People’s Republic of China; Japan; Korea; Mexico; Taiwan, Republic of China; and United Kingdom.