CIO interviews are high-stakes encounters. With time constraints looming, interviewers face the daunting task of discerning whether candidates possess the right skills and vision to thrive within their organization. Crafting the perfect set of CIO interview questions is crucial for securing a successful hire. 

As a leading executive search firm specializing in IT leadership roles, the team at Kirby Partners has conducted hundreds of CIO interviews. As a result, we’ve learned exactly which questions are most effective at gauging whether a candidate is a good fit for a job.

In this post, we’ve curated our top questions for evaluating a candidate’s leadership style, technical expertise, and strategic capabilities. We suggest selecting the questions from each section that best align with your organization’s strategic imperatives.

(If you’re interviewing for a CIO position, we encourage you to review these questions as you prepare. Make sure to check out our executive interviewing guide for tips; ensure you’ve reviewed McKinsey’s article “Eight CEO Priorities for 2024” for ideas on areas to emphasize during your interview.)

CIO interview questions

Section 1: opening / rapport-building questions

Establishing rapport and gaining insights into a candidate’s career trajectory sets the stage for the interview. Here are some key questions to kickstart the conversation:

1. Please give a two-minute overview of your career focusing on your healthcare leadership responsibilities.
2. What interests you about this opportunity and our organization?
3. What is most rewarding about IT work, and what keeps you motivated?
4. What do you enjoy most about the CIO role? What do you find the most challenging?
5. What are some of your hobbies or interests?

Section 2: leadership and cultural fit CIO interview questions

Effective leadership is critical to a CIO’s success. Dive deeper into a candidate’s leadership approach and experiences with these insightful questions:

1. How would you be a leader at our organization and in the community as a whole?
2. What kind of leadership team environment have you thrived in most in the past? What kind of teams have you struggled with?
3. Describe your experience mentoring and growing teams.
4. What is your strategy for hiring direct reports?
5. How does this position align with your long-term personal and career goals?
6. Describe your ideal work environment.
7. What would you have liked to do more of in your current/last position? What held you back?
8. Describe a time when you had to lead a team through a major change.
9. What would your colleagues at your current position say about your diversity contributions?
10. What are some of the most significant challenges you’ve faced in your career, and how have they shaped your approach to leadership?
11. What are your most important relationships in your current role, and how do you maintain them?
12. Describe a time when you had to exert influence over an executive committee. What was the outcome?
13. What is your approach to change management?
14. How would you describe your leadership style?
15. Tell me about a transformation you led that had a positive business impact. (Listen for: business outcomes rather than just “on time” or “under budget” metrics.)

Section 3: IT strategy and roadmaps

A robust IT strategy is essential for driving organizational success. Evaluate a candidate’s strategic thinking and execution capabilities with these probing CIO interview questions:

1. Please describe your experience developing and executing IT strategic plans.
2. Please describe your experiences improving IT customer service and communication.
3. Please share your strategies for getting “buy-in” for IT projects.
4. Please describe where you feel the “right” balance is between risk and business agility and how you work to achieve that optimal balance.
5. What is the most significant change you foresee in the technology landscape that you would begin preparing us for if hired?
6. Describe your approach to “ongoing learning” and understanding IT trends that can create business value.
7. Describe an IT strategy that you developed and executed.
8. What is your approach to making build versus buy decisions?

Section 4: maturing an IT organization

Elevating an IT organization requires a blend of technical expertise and cultural transformation. Delve into a candidate’s experience in fostering innovation and cultivating a collaborative culture with these interview questions for a CIO role:

1. On a scale of A to F, how would your current business community rate your IT organization? Why?
2. What is the culture of your IT organization? Is that the culture you inherited? If not, how have you changed it?
3. How are you developing “blended” IT leaders who not only have deep technical skills but also understand the business context in which they are working?
4. What is your experience creating a culture of innovation in the IT organization and across the business?
5. Have you implemented Agile development in your current organization, if at all?
6. How would you identify opportunities for IT innovation and serve as an “IT futurist” for our organization?
7. What is your vision for digital transformation, and what experience do you have leading such initiatives?
8. How do you stay current with emerging technologies? How do you evaluate their potential impact on the business?

Section 5: technical expertise and driving results

Closing the interview with a comprehensive assessment of a candidate’s technical expertise and alignment with organizational goals is crucial. Explore a candidate’s perspective on cybersecurity, vendor management, and IT performance metrics with these CIO interview questions:

1. Tell me about your current or most recent position and how you helped the organization accomplish its goals and mission.
2. Describe some ways you’ve delivered on the philosophy that technology can be an enabler in your past or current position.
3. What is your approach to cybersecurity strategy and governance?
4. How do you manage vendor relationships and approach strategic sourcing?
5. What metrics and KPIs do you use to measure IT performance and demonstrate value to the business?
6. Tell me about a time when you inherited a process that wasn’t working, and you had limited time to fix it.

Ultimately, these CIO interview questions will help organizations to effectively assess candidates’ leadership capabilities, strategic vision, and IT acumen.

Kirby Partners is a leading technology and cybersecurity executive search firm. If you need to hire an exceptional CIO, we encourage you to learn more about our executive search services or contact us for more information.

Interested in CIO opportunities? Please check out our open positions.