Technology Salary Guide UK 2026: CTO, CIO, CISO & CAIO Pay

Technology Salary Guide UK: Compensation and Package Structure

Senior technology compensation in the UK varies more widely than almost any other C-suite function. A scale-up CTO taking most of their economic upside in equity sits in a different world from a listed-company CIO on a shareholder-approved package, and within any single tier the spread between the lowest and highest paid roles is wide. Boards setting packages for a first senior technology hire — and candidates weighing an offer — both benefit from understanding where a specific role sits in the wider market. Smaller organisations often start with a fractional CIO for a few days a month. Many boards now add a technology non-executive director to strengthen oversight of technology and cyber risk. For a programme of this scale, many organisations appoint a Digital Transformation Director.

This guide sets out what the published data shows for the main senior technology roles in the UK market — Chief Technology Officer, Chief Information Officer, Chief Information Security Officer, and Chief AI Officer — and how pay changes with company size, ownership structure, and engagement type. Every salary and day-rate figure below is taken from a named public source and linked, so you can check it and see how current it is. The actual package for any specific role depends on firm size, sector, equity structure, and the candidate’s experience and track record. The technology and fintech markets in particular weight heavily toward equity at the growth stage, so headline base salary alone rarely represents total compensation. Businesses starting out with AI often bring in a fractional Chief AI Officer for a few days a month.

Where the Salary Figures in This Guide Come From

Executive technology pay is poorly served by public data, and it is worth being clear about what each source measures before relying on any number. This guide uses two types of source and labels every figure accordingly.

Official survey data: ONS ASHE

The Office for National Statistics’ Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings (ASHE) is the most authoritative source of UK pay data. It is based on a sample of employee jobs taken from HMRC PAYE records and measures pay as at April each year. The 2026 figures, published in October 2026, are provisional and will be revised next year. ASHE classifies jobs by Standard Occupational Classification (SOC) code, and there is no separate code for a Chief Technology Officer. CTOs, CIOs and heads of IT generally fall within SOC 1137, “Information technology directors”, which also includes many IT heads at smaller organisations. That is why the ASHE median looks modest against the headline packages of large-company CTOs: it reflects the whole population of people classified as IT directors, not only C-suite appointments at large or venture-backed businesses.

Job-advert data: IT Jobs Watch

IT Jobs Watch tracks UK IT job adverts and reports the salaries and day rates quoted in them over rolling six-month periods. The figures in this guide are for the six months to 7 November 2026. Advert data has two weaknesses for senior roles. First, many executive appointments are never advertised with a salary — retained search assignments, board-level hires and most listed-company appointments are filled confidentially. Second, sample sizes for C-suite titles are small: the CTO figure rests on 59 quoted salaries, the CIO figure on 12, and the CISO figure on just 5. We show the sample size next to each figure so you can judge how much weight it bears. Advert figures also move from period to period, so treat them as an indication of the advertised market rather than a fixed rate.

What we do not publish

We do not publish our own salary or day-rate ranges. Packages on individual searches are confidential to clients and candidates, and a range built from a handful of mandates would be less reliable than the public data above. Where no verifiable public figure exists — for example Chief AI Officer or Chief Data Officer pay — this guide describes how packages are structured rather than quoting a number. Recruiter salary surveys are widely available, but many are gated behind a form, are based on the firm’s own placements, or do not separate C-suite roles from senior management, so we have not relied on them.

Senior Technology Salaries by Role at a Glance

The table below brings together the published median for each senior technology role covered in this guide. Read the source column before comparing rows: advert medians and survey medians are measured differently, and the small samples for some executive titles mean a few adverts can move the figure noticeably.

Two patterns stand out. First, the advertised medians for CTO, CISO, IT Director and Head of Engineering all cluster at £100,000. That is not because these roles are equivalent; it is because the roles that get advertised with a salary are disproportionately at small and mid-sized businesses, while the larger mandates are filled through search. Second, CIO adverts sit higher, at £150,000, reflecting that the CIO title is used mainly by larger organisations with complex estates. For context, the ONS full-time median for all UK employees in April 2026 was £40,911, and the median for programmers and software development professionals (SOC 2134) was £59,863.

Chief Technology Officer (CTO) Salary

The CTO is the executive accountable for the technology the business builds and sells — the product, the platform, the engineering organisation, and the technical architecture. In product-led businesses the CTO is often the most strategically consequential hire after the CEO. Base salary scales with company size and complexity, but at the growth stage equity is frequently the dominant economic driver rather than cash.

The published data for CTO pay comes from job adverts. The table below shows the spread of salaries quoted in UK permanent CTO adverts over the six months to 7 November 2026, alongside the official survey figures for the wider IT director occupation.

Read these figures as the floor of the senior market rather than its centre. The advertised CTO population is weighted toward smaller companies and businesses hiring a first CTO, and ASHE’s IT director group includes heads of IT at small organisations. The ONS mean sitting well above the median (£116,759 against £98,127) tells you the distribution has a long upper tail: a minority of roles pay far more than the typical figure, and those are disproportionately the CTO roles at larger, product-led and regulated businesses. ONS does not publish the 90th percentile for this group because the estimate is not reliable enough.

PE-backed CTO appointments often involve equity rolls and earn-outs that change the headline economics materially. At the largest private and listed firms, packages include long-term incentive structures designed for multi-year value creation, but the detail is rarely public because most CTOs are not board directors. For the full role context, see our CTO recruitment page and the How to Hire a CTO guide, and for the scope that a package should be priced against, our CTO job description.

CTO Salary by Company Stage and Ownership

The single biggest driver of a CTO’s package is the type of business they join. The title is the same at a ten-person seed-stage start-up and a FTSE 250 group, but the job, the risk and the way the person is paid are not. The descriptions below explain how packages are typically put together at each stage. They are structural, not numeric: no public source reports CTO pay split by company stage, and we would rather explain the mechanics than invent a range.

Early-stage start-ups: equity first

At seed and Series A, a CTO is often a co-founder or the first senior technical hire, and the package reflects the company’s cash position. Base salary is usually set at a level the round can support rather than at the market rate for the candidate’s experience, and the gap is made up in equity — most commonly share options under the EMI scheme, or founder shares for someone joining before or alongside the first institutional round. Vesting over several years with an initial cliff is standard practice, so the equity is earned by staying. Candidates assessing these offers need to understand the fully diluted share count, the preference stack sitting above ordinary shares, and how much further dilution the next rounds are likely to bring. A larger percentage of a company that will raise three more rounds can be worth less than a smaller percentage of one that is close to profitability.

Scale-ups: cash catches up, equity still matters

From Series B onwards, the CTO is running an engineering organisation rather than writing most of the code, and the business usually has the funding to pay a market base salary. Equity remains important but the percentage stakes are smaller because the company is worth more. This is also the stage where the founding CTO is sometimes replaced or joined by an experienced operator, and that decision changes the package: an experienced scale-up CTO from a larger technology business will expect cash closer to their previous role and will compare the equity offer against unvested awards they are leaving behind. Buy-out of forfeited awards becomes a live negotiation point.

PE-backed businesses: sweet equity drives the outcome

In a private equity-backed business the CTO is part of a management team incentivised through the deal’s equity structure. Base salary is typically set close to market, the annual bonus is tied to the business plan, and the real upside comes through sweet equity — ordinary shares subscribed for alongside the investor’s loan notes and preference shares, which carry most of the growth in value at exit. The CTO may be asked to invest personally, and leaver provisions determine what happens to their shares if they leave before exit. Technology-led buy-and-build strategies, platform consolidations and carve-outs that need a standalone technology estate all put the CTO close to the value-creation plan. Our guide to sweet equity for PE management teams explains the mechanics.

Listed companies: rarely disclosed

Listed company pay is the most transparent in the UK, but only for directors. Quoted companies must publish a directors’ remuneration report under the 2013 amendments to the accounts and reports regulations, setting out salary, bonus, long-term incentives and pension for each director. Most listed-company CTOs and CIOs are members of the executive committee rather than the board, so their individual pay is not disclosed. In practice, publicly available listed-company CTO salaries are rare, and any guide quoting a precise figure for a typical FTSE CTO should be treated with caution. What is known is the structure: executive committee members at listed groups usually participate in the same annual bonus and long-term incentive plans as the executive directors, often at lower opportunity levels, with share ownership guidelines and performance conditions attached.

Regulated financial services: SMF24 and operational resilience

Banks, insurers and other firms in scope of the enhanced Senior Managers and Certification Regime have a specific senior manager function for technology. The Chief Operations function, SMF24, covers responsibility for a firm’s internal operations or technology, and at many firms it is held by the CTO, CIO or COO. Holding an SMF means regulatory pre-approval, a Statement of Responsibilities and personal accountability under the Duty of Responsibility. In October 2026 the FCA and PRA consulted on moving several senior manager functions to a lighter notification regime, but the regulators proposed that SMF24 should still require pre-approval, citing operational risks from cyber security and frontier AI (FCA CP26/37; consultation closes 22 January 2027).

Operational resilience adds to the weight of the role. Under the FCA’s operational resilience rules, firms had to be able to remain within impact tolerances for their important business services by 31 March 2025, and the technology leader is usually central to mapping, testing and remediating those services. That accountability is one reason regulated firms pay a premium for technology leaders who have held senior roles under regulatory scrutiny. Pay structures in banking also differ: the bonus cap was removed from 31 October 2023, and the remuneration rules were reformed again through PRA PS21/25 and FCA PS25/15, but deferral, malus and clawback still apply to staff identified as material risk takers. Our SMF24 hiring guide covers the approval process.

CTO Equity and Package Structure by Stage

For venture-backed businesses, equity is typically the dominant component of the senior technology package. The size of an equity offer depends on prior dilution, the candidate’s seniority, whether they are a founding or post-funding hire, and how much of the option pool has already been allocated. We do not quote percentage allocations by stage: no reliable public dataset reports CTO equity stakes for UK companies, and stakes vary so widely between businesses at the same round that a single range would mislead more than it helps.

What can be said with confidence is how the components of a technology leader’s package fit together at each stage:

• Base salary. Set by what the business can afford at early stage, by market data and internal relativities later. At regulated firms, also by the fixed-pay requirements of the remuneration rules.
• Annual bonus. Often absent or small at seed stage, tied to delivery milestones at scale-ups, to the business plan at PE-backed firms, and to a formal scorecard at listed and regulated businesses.
• Equity. Share options at venture-backed companies, sweet equity at PE-backed businesses, performance share awards under a long-term incentive plan at listed companies.
• Buy-out. Compensation for unvested awards or bonus forfeited by leaving a previous employer, common when hiring from large technology businesses.
• Pension and benefits. Usually aligned with the wider workforce at listed companies under governance expectations; more variable elsewhere.

The most common mistake we see at offer stage is a board comparing its cash offer with a candidate’s previous base salary while ignoring the equity they are walking away from. A strong candidate leaving a funded scale-up may be forfeiting unvested options that they value highly. If the new equity story is not credible, the offer fails regardless of the base salary. For a wider view of incentive design, see our executive equity incentives guide.

EMI, EMI2 and Share Options for Technology Leaders

Enterprise Management Incentives (EMI) remain the main tax-advantaged route for granting share options to a CTO or other senior technology hire at a UK growth company. The scheme was widened significantly from 6 April 2026. According to the HMRC policy paper, for options granted on or after that date the employee limit rose from 250 to 500, the gross assets limit rose from £30 million to £120 million, the total value of company options rose from £3 million to £6 million, and the maximum exercise period was extended from 10 to 15 years. The individual limit remains £250,000 of options in any three-year period.

The changes matter for technology hiring because many scale-ups that had outgrown EMI on headcount or asset value are now back within it. A Series B or C business that previously had to use unapproved options for senior hires may now be able to offer EMI options, with the more favourable tax treatment that brings. Eligibility still depends on the company’s trade, independence and the employee’s working time — employees must work at least 25 hours a week, or 75% of their working time, for the company — so part-time and fractional technology leaders often cannot receive EMI options.

The second change is EMI2. In guidance published on 28 October 2026, HMRC renamed the Company Share Option Plan (CSOP) as EMI2, although the legislation keeps the CSOP name. EMI2 can be used by companies of any size, alongside EMI or after a company outgrows it. The Budget announced further changes from April 2027: the individual EMI2 limit is due to double from £60,000 to £120,000, the interaction between EMI and EMI2 limits is to be removed, and the maximum exercise period is to extend to 15 years. Those April 2027 changes were announced rather than enacted, and the detail should be checked against the final legislation before any award is structured around them.

For a board hiring a CTO the practical points are simple. Check whether the company qualifies for EMI under the new limits before assuming unapproved options are the only route. Model what the option grant could be worth at realistic exit values, not just the percentage. And take specialist tax and legal advice on scheme rules and valuations; option structures that are wrong at grant are expensive to fix later. Pre-IPO businesses face additional questions, which our pre-IPO equity structuring guide covers.

Chief Information Officer (CIO) Salary

Where the CTO owns the technology the business sells, the CIO owns the technology the business runs on — the enterprise systems, data infrastructure, and the technology change programmes that keep the organisation operating. The candidate pool overlaps with the CTO market but is not identical, and the compensation reflects the more operational, infrastructure-focused mandate.

The CIO advert median is higher than the CTO median because the CIO title is used mainly by larger organisations — groups with multiple systems, legacy estates and transformation programmes — whereas many CTO adverts are for smaller product businesses. With only 12 salaries quoted, the CIO figure can move sharply between periods. The same advert data put the CIO median at £165,000 for the equivalent period in 2025 and £120,000 in 2024, which illustrates how much a small sample swings.

In financial services, healthcare, and critical infrastructure — where operational resilience failure carries severe regulatory and reputational consequences — CIO packages sit at the upper end of the market. For the full role context, see our IT director and CIO recruitment page and the CIO job description.

Chief Information Security Officer (CISO) Salary

The CISO owns the organisation’s information and cyber security posture — security architecture, threat management, and the governance frameworks the business is held to. Demand has intensified as cyber risk has moved up the board agenda and as regulated firms face heightened operational-resilience expectations. CISO compensation has risen accordingly, with financial services and critical infrastructure paying a clear premium.

The CISO advert sample is too small to treat as a market rate: five quoted salaries in six months tells you that CISO roles are rarely advertised with pay, not what a CISO earns. The Head of Information Security figure, based on a larger sample, is a better guide to the advertised level just below the C-suite. The ONS figure for cyber security professionals shows the pay of the broader security workforce a CISO leads, not the CISO themselves.

CISO appointments at FCA-authorised firms attract a premium reflecting regulatory exposure and the personal accountability that comes with senior security leadership in a regulated context. For the full role context, see our CISO recruitment page and our guide to the regulatory drivers behind CISO hiring.

Chief AI Officer (CAIO) Salary

The Chief AI Officer is the newest senior technology role, accountable for the organisation’s artificial intelligence strategy, deployment, and governance. As a still-emerging function the compensation market is less settled than for the established roles, with a wide spread reflecting how differently businesses scope the mandate — from a standalone strategic AI leader to a role folded into the CTO or Chief Data Officer remit. Equity is frequently a significant component, particularly at AI-native and venture-backed businesses. Where an AI programme needs leadership at short notice, an interim Chief AI Officer can step in.

There is no reliable public salary figure for the CAIO title in the UK yet: too few roles are advertised with pay for any tracker to report a median. The closest advertised role is Head of AI, where UK adverts quoted a median of £100,000 and a 90th percentile of £129,000 over the six months to 7 November 2026 (IT Jobs Watch, 113 salaries). The number of Head of AI adverts in that period was several times the level of the same period in 2025, which gives a sense of how fast demand has grown. A board-level CAIO with enterprise scope sits above that advertised level, but how far above depends on whether the role carries a budget, a team and a seat on the executive committee or is primarily advisory.

The CAIO market is moving quickly and the scarcity of genuine senior AI leadership talent — executives who combine technical depth with commercial and governance judgement — keeps packages at the upper end for the strongest candidates. For the full role context, see our Chief AI Officer recruitment page.

Chief Data Officer, VP Engineering and IT Director Pay

Three further roles regularly sit alongside or beneath the CTO and CIO, and boards often weigh them against each other when deciding what to hire first.

Chief Data Officer

The Chief Data Officer owns data strategy, data governance, data quality and, increasingly, the data foundations that AI depends on. In regulated firms the role is often driven by data protection, regulatory reporting and model risk. There is no reliable public salary series for the CDO title in the UK: the role is advertised too rarely with pay. The package is usually priced by reference to the CIO or CTO in the same organisation, with the CDO typically one step below unless data is the product. Note that “CDO” is also used for Chief Digital Officer, a different role focused on digital channels and customer experience; confirm which one you are pricing before comparing data. For data leadership searches, see our Chief Data Officer recruitment page.

VP Engineering and Head of Engineering

The VP Engineering runs the engineering organisation — hiring, delivery, team structure and engineering practice — while the CTO owns technical direction and architecture. In smaller businesses one person does both. IT Jobs Watch does not track VP Engineering as a separate title, but Head of Engineering adverts, a closely related role, quoted a UK median of £100,000 across 161 salaries, with a 90th percentile of £135,000 (IT Jobs Watch). Many growing businesses are better served by a strong engineering leader first and a CTO later; our VP Engineering recruitment page explains how we approach that choice.

IT Director

The IT Director is the senior technology role at many mid-sized organisations that do not need a CIO title. The ONS SOC 1137 median of £98,127 is the most reliable official figure for this group, and IT Jobs Watch adverts quoted a UK median of £100,000 across 68 salaries, with a 90th percentile of £150,000 (IT Jobs Watch). The difference between an IT Director and a CIO is less about pay than about scope: whether the role sets technology strategy at executive committee level or runs IT services to a plan set elsewhere. Our guide to the difference between an IT Director and a CIO sets out how to decide.

What Drives the Range Within Each Tier

Within any single tier the spread between the lowest and highest packages is wide. In the CTO advert data, the 90th percentile salary (£146,500) is more than 70% above the 10th percentile (£85,600). Five factors drive where a specific senior technology role lands within its bracket.

Ownership structure. PE-backed businesses typically pay base at or slightly above market with the primary upside in sweet equity and co-investment. Listed businesses pay the most transparent total packages with shareholder-approved LTI. Founder-owned firms are the most variable — frequently below listed norms on cash but with meaningful equity where an exit is planned.

Sector. Technology, fintech, and financial services pay the highest premiums for senior technology talent, reflecting talent-market intensity and equity-rich background expectations. Regulated sectors add a premium for the operational-resilience and security mandate.

Equity weighting. The more of the package that sits in equity, the lower the cash base tends to be relative to the headline. Strong candidates from venture and tech-firm backgrounds price equity heavily and will weigh a lower cash base against a credible equity story.

Geographic location. London pays more than the regions at the top end of the market, reflecting the concentration of technology and financial-services demand in the capital. The advert data suggests the difference shows up more in the upper percentiles than in the median; the next section sets out the figures.

Candidate track record. A senior technology leader who can evidence delivery at comparable scale — a platform built and scaled, a transformation delivered, a security programme that withstood scrutiny — commands a premium over a peer without that evidence.

Behind all five sits a sixth factor that is easy to miss: role definition. Senior technology leadership is one of the appointments where firms most often misdiagnose what they need, and that flows straight into the compensation envelope. A board briefing a CTO when it actually needs a Head of Engineering, or a CIO when it needs an IT Director, will price the role against the wrong market and then be surprised at offer stage. Get the role definition and the equity structure right at the front of the search, and the cash figure becomes much easier to set. Our guide on whether to hire a VP Engineering or a CTO first works through one of the most common versions of that decision.

London vs Regional Technology Salaries

It is widely assumed that London pays a fixed premium for technology leadership. The advert data is more nuanced. For permanent CTO adverts in the six months to 7 November 2026, IT Jobs Watch reported the same median salary in London as in the rest of the UK, but a clear gap at the top of the range:

Sources: IT Jobs Watch CTO London, CTO UK excluding London, IT Director London and Head of Engineering London; regional medians are the “UK excluding London” figures reported on the UK pages.

The pattern makes sense. Many regional CTO roles are at well-funded businesses competing for the same talent as London, and hybrid working has narrowed the gap for mid-market roles. The London premium concentrates in the most senior and most complex roles — financial services, large platforms and listed groups — which are disproportionately headquartered in the capital. For a board outside London, this means a strong CTO candidate who has worked in London may expect a London-level package, and a regional business hiring for a role with genuine national or international scope should not assume a regional discount applies. Remote and hybrid arrangements are now part of the negotiation for most senior technology roles; agree the expected time in the office before the offer stage rather than after it.

Permanent, Interim and Fractional Technology Leadership

Senior technology leadership is increasingly engaged across three models. A permanent appointment suits a business with a sustained, full-time technology leadership requirement. An interim CTO, CIO or CISO suits a defined-period need such as a transformation programme, a leadership gap, or a build ahead of a permanent hire. A fractional technology leader provides senior capability on a part-time basis, typically two to four days a week, for businesses that need the seniority but not the full-time cost. The fractional model is particularly well suited to smaller and growing businesses building out their technology function for the first time. For how these engagements work, see our fractional CTO page.

The choice between the three models is usually driven by time and certainty. If the business knows what it needs and can wait for the right person, a permanent CTO search is the right route. If it has an immediate gap — a CTO who has left mid-programme, a failed platform migration, a due diligence process that has exposed technology risk — an interim CTO can be in place quickly and stabilise the position while the permanent role is defined. If the business needs senior judgement but not a full-time executive, fractional is often the most cost-effective option. Exec Capital places technology leaders across all three; our fractional C-suite page explains how part-time executive appointments work more broadly.

How Interim and Fractional CTO and CIO Day Rates Work

Interim and fractional technology leaders are almost always paid a day rate rather than a salary. The structure matters as much as the number, because two arrangements with the same day rate can cost the business very different amounts.

What the published data shows

The only regularly updated public source of technology leadership day rates is contract job-advert data. Over the six months to 7 November 2026, UK contract CTO adverts quoted a median daily rate of £705, with a 90th percentile of £894, based on just 8 quoted rates (IT Jobs Watch). Contract Head of Engineering adverts quoted a median of £700 across 32 rates, and contract CISO adverts a median of £575 across 11 rates. No CIO contract adverts in the period quoted a rate. These samples are small and come from the advertised contract market, which is weighted toward hands-on delivery roles. Senior interim executives appointed through search are rarely advertised, and their rates are agreed case by case, so the advert figures should not be read as the rate for a board-level interim CTO or CIO. We do not publish our own day-rate ranges.

Interim structure

An interim CTO or CIO normally works full-time or close to it for a fixed period, often three to nine months, and is engaged through their own limited company or an umbrella arrangement. The client pays a day rate covering the interim’s fee and, where a search firm is involved, the firm’s margin. Points to agree up front:

• IR35 status. Since April 2021, medium and large private-sector clients have been responsible for deciding whether off-payroll working rules apply. An inside-IR35 determination changes the cost of the engagement and the rate the interim will accept.
• Days and expenses. Confirm the expected days per week, whether travel and expenses are charged on top, and how days are evidenced.
• Notice and extension. Interim contracts usually have short notice periods on both sides; agree how extensions are handled before the end date approaches.
• Conversion. If there is a chance the interim will become the permanent hire, agree the conversion terms at the outset.

Fractional structure

A fractional CTO or CIO works a set number of days per week or month on an ongoing basis. The fee is usually a monthly retainer calculated from the day rate and the agreed time commitment — for example, two days a week works out at roughly eight to nine days a month. Retainers give the business predictable cost and the executive predictable income, and typically include a little flexibility for urgent issues outside the agreed days. Because fractional leaders often hold several roles, equity is less common than for permanent hires, and part-time working usually rules out EMI options. Where equity is offered, it tends to be a small grant of unapproved options or growth shares linked to a specific milestone such as a funding round or exit. For CIO-specific formats, our comparison of fractional and interim CIO engagements sets out the trade-offs.

Comparing interim cost with permanent cost

Comparing a day rate with a salary is not like for like. A permanent executive costs the base salary plus employer’s National Insurance, pension, benefits, bonus and equity, together with recruitment cost and the time it takes to hire. An interim costs the day rate and nothing else, but only for the days worked. For a short, defined need, interim is usually cheaper and faster; for an open-ended requirement, a permanent hire usually wins on cost after the first year. Fractional sits between the two and is the only option that gives a smaller business access to a senior technology leader without paying for a full-time role.

Further Reading

The BCS, The Chartered Institute for IT and the National Cyber Security Centre publish reference frameworks relevant to senior technology and security leadership. For the wider C-suite context, see our Executive Salary Guide and the C-Suite Salary Guide; for the technology hiring process, the How to Hire a CTO guide.

Frequently asked questions

What is the average CTO salary in the UK?

Permanent CTO job adverts in the UK quoted a median salary of £100,000 in the six months to 7 November 2026, according to IT Jobs Watch, based on 59 quoted salaries. The ONS full-time median for IT directors, the official occupation group that includes CTOs, was £98,127 in April 2026 (provisional), with a mean of £116,759. Both figures understate pay at larger and venture-backed businesses, where many roles are filled without a published salary.

How much does a CTO earn in London?

London CTO adverts quoted a median of £100,000 in the same period, the same as the rest of the UK, but the upper end was higher: the 90th percentile was £159,500 in London against £120,000 outside it. The London premium shows up mainly in the most senior and complex roles.

Do CTOs at listed companies have to disclose their pay?

Only if they are directors. Quoted companies must publish a directors’ remuneration report covering each board director’s pay, but most CTOs and CIOs sit on the executive committee rather than the board, so their individual pay is not published. That is why reliable public figures for listed-company CTO pay are scarce.

What is the difference between CTO and CIO pay?

CIO adverts quoted a higher median (£150,000, from only 12 salaries) than CTO adverts (£100,000). The difference mainly reflects the type of organisation using each title: CIOs are concentrated in larger organisations with complex estates, while many advertised CTO roles are at smaller product businesses. At comparable scale, the two roles are paid at similar levels.

How much equity should a CTO get at a start-up?

There is no reliable public dataset of CTO equity stakes for UK companies, and allocations vary widely with the funding stage, prior dilution, and whether the CTO is a co-founder or a later hire. Rather than working from a percentage, model what the stake could be worth at realistic exit values after likely future rounds, and check whether EMI options are available under the limits that apply from April 2026.

Can a CTO receive EMI share options?

Yes, if the company qualifies and the CTO meets the working-time requirement of at least 25 hours a week or 75% of their working time. From 6 April 2026 companies with up to 500 employees and gross assets of up to £120 million can grant EMI options, and the individual limit is £250,000 of options in any three years. Fractional CTOs working fewer hours usually cannot receive EMI options.

What is EMI2?

EMI2 is the new name HMRC gave the Company Share Option Plan (CSOP) in guidance published on 28 October 2026. It can be used by companies of any size. Changes announced for April 2027, including doubling the individual limit from £60,000 to £120,000, still depend on legislation.

What day rate does an interim CTO charge?

Contract CTO adverts quoted a median of £705 a day in the six months to 7 November 2026, but that figure is based on only eight rates and reflects the advertised contract market. Senior interim CTOs appointed through search agree rates individually, depending on scope, sector, length of assignment and IR35 status.

Does a CTO at a bank need FCA approval?

If the CTO holds the Chief Operations function (SMF24) at a firm in scope of that function — banks, insurers and FCA enhanced-scope firms — they need regulatory pre-approval before taking up the role. The FCA and PRA proposed in October 2026 that SMF24 should remain subject to pre-approval.

Is a fractional CTO cheaper than a full-time CTO?

Usually, for a business that does not need a full-time technology executive. A fractional CTO is paid for the days worked, typically through a monthly retainer, with no employer’s National Insurance, pension, bonus or equity cost. For a business that needs full-time leadership over several years, a permanent hire is normally better value.