UK government on the lookout for bargain-priced CTO
- Reference: 1761730207
- News link: https://www.theregister.co.uk/2025/10/29/uk_government_cto/
- Source link:
The role is [1]advertised with a starting salary of between £100,000 and £162,500, although the online post makes clear that anyone coming from outside the civil service "will be expected to start at the salary minimum if successful." Alongside the salary, a pension contribution of £28,970 will be made.
The starting salary is not promising. [2]One estimate suggests a CTO in London might be paid between £130,000 and £160,000 a year, but that could be a business of any size. The average salary for a CTO in the UK ranges from £100,000 to £250,000 per year, according to [3]another estimate .
[4]
So how big a tech leadership role is the government CTO? It sits within the Government Digital Service (GDS) – itself part of the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology – which is, according to the online ad, the digital center of government.
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"We are responsible for setting, leading and delivering the vision for a modern digital government," it said.
Earlier this year, the "blueprint for a modern digital government" estimated tech spending at [7]around £23 billion ($28 billion) . A global company like Unilever might spend around £1 billion on IT. The Register would bet its CTO earns more than £100,000.
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According to the job ad, the GDS CTO "will also play a critical role in driving the join-up with Government Digital and Data professionals in other departments in helping ministers achieve their ambition of making the UK the world's leading digital government."
The role will also involve "working with colleagues across DSIT and other departments to deliver strategic outcomes."
It is worth bearing in mind that a single government department – the Home Office – [9]recently advertised for a chief digital and innovation officer (CDIO) with an annual salary of £160,000 ($215,000).
[10]UK government inflates G-Cloud framework to £14B
[11]Machine learning saves £4.4M in UK.gov work and pensions fraud detection
[12]Digital ID is now less about illegal working, more about rummaging through drawers
[13]Britain's Ministry of Justice just signed up to ChatGPT Enterprise
In its 2023 [14]report , "Digital transformation in government: addressing the barriers to efficiency," government spending watchdog the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) found that the number of digital, data, and technology professionals in the UK civil service amounts to around 4.5 percent of the workforce.
"This is less than half the number it needs when compared to an equivalent industry average of between 8 percent and 12 percent, meaning this number will need to double. However, pay constraints mean that government departments are unable to fully compete with the private sector in hard-to-recruit roles," it said.
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Of course, the public may balk at the idea of a civil servant earning a seemingly astronomical salary to take charge of government technology. Last year, the prime minister's chief of staff resigned after it became public that she was [16]paid £170,000 a year , £3,000 more than the PM.
Nonetheless, when you look at the cost of failure, setting the salary a little higher to get the right person might be worth it. Earlier this year, the [17]National Audit Office [PDF] found the government suffered a £3 billion increase in cost to reset programs and operate legacy systems for longer than planned in five digital change programs.
But since the salary is what it is, anyone tempted by the role might at least consider the extra day off for the King's birthday. ®
Get our [18]Tech Resources
[1] https://www.civilservicejobs.service.gov.uk/csr/jobs.cgi?jcode=1975626
[2] https://www.morganmckinley.com/uk/salary-guide/data/chief-technology-officer-cto/london
[3] https://churchill-executive.co.uk/salary-analysis-for-chief-technical-officers-insights-for-executive-recruitment/
[4] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_onprem/publicsector&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=2&c=2aQHzyF3L8mit-q54wJiJbQAAAQ0&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D2%26raptor%3Dcondor%26pos%3Dtop%26test%3D0
[5] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_onprem/publicsector&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44aQHzyF3L8mit-q54wJiJbQAAAQ0&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[6] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_onprem/publicsector&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=3&c=33aQHzyF3L8mit-q54wJiJbQAAAQ0&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D3%26raptor%3Deagle%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[7] https://www.theregister.com/2025/04/03/uk_government_told_to_get/
[8] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_onprem/publicsector&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44aQHzyF3L8mit-q54wJiJbQAAAQ0&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[9] https://www.theregister.com/2025/09/10/home_office_cdio/
[10] https://www.theregister.com/2025/10/28/uk_g_cloud_15/
[11] https://www.theregister.com/2025/10/27/dwp_machine_learning_savings/
[12] https://www.theregister.com/2025/10/24/digital_id_rebrand/
[13] https://www.theregister.com/2025/10/24/ministry_of_justice_chatgpt/
[14] https://committees.parliament.uk/work/7412/digital-transformation-in-government-addressing-barriers-to-efficiency/publications/
[15] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_onprem/publicsector&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=3&c=33aQHzyF3L8mit-q54wJiJbQAAAQ0&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D3%26raptor%3Deagle%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[16] https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cx247wkq137o
[17] https://www.nao.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/governments-approach-to-technology-suppliers-addressing-the-challenges.pdf
[18] https://whitepapers.theregister.com/
Opportunity
Perfect opportunity for hostile state or big corporation to insert a plant.
No sensible person at required level would work for such pittance.
Re: Opportunity
But that's true of many civil service roles.
Re: Opportunity
That's why nothing works and usual suspects get minted.
Could be fixed
The British Standards Institute is the UK's national standards setting body. Their chief executive is paid over a million quid a year for what I reckon is a sinecure. BSI exists as a Royal Charter Company, effectively has a statutory monopoly on setting standards in the UK, and is to all intents and purposes a public body. Much of BSI income comes from bilking companies to pay for access to its standards, but how else might they trade compliantly without knowing what the relevant standards are? So no competition, established in statute law, virtually no commercial risk, charge what they like, pay their staff what they like.
Have to wonder why somebody hiding in the shadows of the public sector can make a million a year, but we can't pay a national CTO any sensible salary.
That seems an exceptionally low salary for being the required fall guy when it all goes to the dogs (again).
I guess there's plenty of opportunity to set up your much higher paid position at one of the Supplier's you're going to be helping get a large slice of that €23bn pie. So think of it more as a deferred salalry, I guess...
I'm very tempted to down vote just because I wish this wasn't true.
Pay peanuts - get a monkey
anyone coming from outside the civil service "will be expected to start at the salary minimum if successful."
But someone from outside the civil service is exactly who they want. Someone with real world experience.
Appoint a civil servant and you will get someone who will want to continue to do things the way that they are currently done - as that is all that they know.
Who is outlining the role ? I suspect one of the monkey that inhabits Whitehall :-(
I could
I could sort it out and would for the low pay as a patriot and wanting to see my UK "great again" (MUGA??). But they wouldn't like my non-woke, freedom based approach. I couldn't support a coerced digital id for starters and even if I did it would cost too much to build the resilence comensurate with the dependencies and potential damage from failures or malicious action.
depends on circumstances
I now work in the civil service having moved from industry. I've set up and sold my own company, the investors became rich, I've worked with other startups and big companies.
The base salary isn't great. The pension is bloody amazing. There is a trade off to be made. Do I want a relatively high salary and the taxes that go with it or the future pension.
For me there were few jobs locally which would pay much more than my salary plus equivalent pension contributions. If you are not in London and have no intentions of moving there but can get a senior position in the civil service it can be a good option. It's also been incredibly relaxing place to work compared to my previous roles. I'm working marginally fewer hours but with far less stress.
Salary bands
10-15 years ago I was getting that sort of money as a contract programmer. And no responsibilities, and no politics.
Am I going to get out of bed for this? Guess ...