“But I think if we’re looking at a bell curve, something north of $700,000 is really where the market needs to be, especially for Fortune 500 organizations. They need to be well in the $700,000-plus range, including base pay, bonus potential, and equity for long term incentives,” Henninger explains.
Even in the case of remote roles, CSO pay often tracks to the company’s headquarter location, Breckenridge explains. For example, Bay Area firms may pay a premium to Texas-based hires, but not the other way around. Midmarket companies, particularly those in growth or merger and acquisition mode, have become increasingly attractive to candidates who want meaningful scope, equity upside, and less bureaucracy.
With high pay comes high expectations
Offers of top pay and authority to CSO candidates obviously come with high expectations. Organizations are looking for CSOs with a strong blend of technical expertise, business acumen, and interpersonal strength, Fuller says. Key skills include cloud security, identity and access management (IAM), AI governance, and incident response planning.
