UK government on the lookout for bargain-priced CTO

October 29, 2025 TH Author

The UK government is on the hunt for a new CTO after incumbent David Knott announced his departure, citing family reasons.

The role is 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. 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 another estimate.

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.

“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 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.

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 – recently advertised for a chief digital and innovation officer (CDIO) with an annual salary of £160,000 ($215,000).

In its 2023 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.

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 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 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. ®