Dominic Bosher is a Partner in our Technology practice. He has spent over 14 years advising some of the world’s largest enterprises on senior technology executive appointments, with expertise spanning technology, product, data, security and AI leadership. He is also part of the CXO Connect community, where he regularly interviews and assesses senior technology leaders, giving him a close-up view of how the CIO profile is evolving.
Drawing on the findings of our latest whitepaper, The Changing Face of the CIO, we spoke with Dominic about how the role has been redefined over the past decade, why executive judgement has become a core requirement and what boards should consider before they hire.
The CIO role has changed significantly over the past ten years. What stands out most to you?
“The clearest signal is in the data. A decade ago, around 38% of CIOs reported to the CEO; today it is 63%. That is not simply a reporting line change. It reflects the extent to which technology strategy and business strategy have become inseparable.
When we analysed ten years of CIO job descriptions, the share of the mandate given to technology operations had more than halved, from 40% to 18%, while strategy and business had risen to 37%. The role hasn’t stopped being a technology role, but commercial capability is now just as important. The best CIOs I work with are as comfortable discussing revenue, growth and value creation as they are architecture and delivery.”
The whitepaper places a lot of weight on executive judgement. Why?
“Because the conditions the role operates in have changed. McKinsey found that more than 80% of business leaders are making high-stakes decisions without all the data they would like, and that is the daily reality for a modern CIO.
Geopolitical instability, the pace of AI and shifting customer expectations all require leaders to make decisions without perfect information. In 2025, 90% of our CIO mandates listed executive judgement as essential, alongside ambiguity tolerance and scenario thinking. CIOs rarely have the luxury of waiting for certainty. They need to be able to assess the information available, understand the trade-offs and make good decisions at pace.”
Has the pendulum swung too far towards strategy and away from technical depth?
“I don’t think it is a question of one replacing the other. A CIO doesn’t need to be the deepest technical expert in the organisation, but they still need enough technical credibility to challenge decisions, understand risk and ask the right questions.
What has changed is that technical expertise alone is no longer enough. CIOs are increasingly expected to make investment decisions, influence the board, understand commercial priorities and translate technology choices into business outcomes. The strongest leaders combine that strategic and commercial capability with enough technical depth to retain credibility with their teams.”
How should boards think about the difference between a CIO and an IT Director?
“The distinction is less about title and more about mandate. Broadly, the CIO is accountable for how technology supports business strategy, growth and value creation, while the IT Director is more focused on operational execution, resilience and delivery.
Both are important, but they solve different problems. A business that needs enterprise-wide strategic technology leadership will not necessarily get that by simply expanding an operational IT brief. Equally, a business that primarily needs secure, reliable and well-managed technology delivery does not automatically need to hire a CIO. Boards need to start with what the organisation actually needs technology leadership to achieve, rather than with the title.”
Does the right CIO profile change depending on the type of business?
“Significantly. There isn’t a single high-performing CIO profile. The right leader depends on what the business needs technology to achieve and where it is in its development.
In a PE-backed scale-up, the priority might be speed, platform scalability and EBITDA impact. The leaders who succeed are often comfortable with lean budgets, rapid iteration and a clear value creation agenda, so the risk is over-indexing on enterprise-only profiles that lack agility.
In a global enterprise, the requirement shifts towards managing risk, modernising complex technology estates and orchestrating transformation at scale without disrupting the business. Here, the risk can be hiring a strong strategist who has never had to execute at that level of complexity.
In a product-led SaaS business, you may be looking for a CPTO-style leader rather than a traditional CIO. Matching the profile to the business type, stage and strategic priorities is where a great deal of the value in our work sits.”
Where do boards most often get the CIO brief wrong?
“Appointing against the previous brief rather than the current strategy. Organisations can default to the specification they used last time, go to market and then wonder why a capable leader isn’t delivering what the business now needs.
Often, the problem starts before the candidate is even appointed. The mandate has been defined around the technology organisation of today, or even yesterday, rather than where the business is heading. The work has to start before the search, with an honest view of the business strategy, the role technology needs to play in delivering it and the leadership capabilities that requires.”
If a board takes one thing from the whitepaper, what should it be?
“Get the mandate right before you start the search. Be clear about what the business actually needs its CIO to achieve, and therefore which capabilities matter most.
If the mandate requires commercial judgement, strategic influence and an ability to navigate risk and ambiguity, those qualities need to be central to how the role is defined and assessed, rather than treating technical depth as the primary measure of suitability. Get that definition right and the search becomes far more precise. Get it wrong and even an excellent CIO can be set up to struggle.”
For more on how the CIO mandate is changing, including our analysis of ten years of job descriptions and the capabilities defining high-impact CIOs in 2026, download The Changing Face of the CIO.
Download the whitepaper