SaaS Salary Benchmarks

Chief Information Officer Salary Benchmarks

Compensation data for the Chief Information Officer role at US SaaS companies, based on 41 verified salaries.

Quartile breakdown All SaaS roles

Base salary · US SaaS41 salaries

$215,000

Median base salary

Bottom 25% avg$0Top 25% avg$235,000

Average base salary: $173,889
Typical range (P25–P75): $69,887–$235,000
Salaries analyzed: 41

Hiring for this role? At the median, one Chief Information Officer costs $215,000 a year in base salary.

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Overview

41 salaries

Chief Information Officer Salary Overview

Bottom 25% AverageNo salaries in this band in the current sample: —
Middle 50% AverageAverage of the middle half · 22 salaries: $121,112
Top 25% AverageAverage of the highest-paid quarter · 19 salaries: $235,000

Median Chief Information Officer base pay by pay period

Per year: $215,000
Per month: $17,917
Every two weeks: $8,269
Per hour: $103.37

Base-pay equivalents before tax; hourly assumes 2,080 working hours a year.

Chief Information Officer salaries at SaaS companies average $173,889, with typical salaries ranging from $69,887 to $235,000. Based on 41 real salary data points from SaaS companies.

Quartile bands

Employees · annualized base

Detailed Chief Information Officer Compensation Breakdown

Chief Information Officer base salary by percentile band
Percentile Band	Salary range	Average Base Salary	# of salaries
Top 25%	$235,000 and up	$235,000	19 salaries
Middle 50%	$69,887–$235,000	$121,112	22 salaries
Bottom 25%	—	—	0 salaries

Hiring budget

Base salary · fully loaded

What Does a Chief Information Officer Cost to Hire?

Budget for Chief Information Officer hires at the 25th percentile, median and 75th percentile of this benchmark, as base salary and as fully loaded cost.

Pay level

Hires

One Chief Information Officer hire at the median: $215,000 a year in base salary, $268,750–$301,000 fully loaded.

Cost of one hire by pay level
Per hire	P2525th percentile	MedianMedian	P7575th percentile
Base salary / year	$69,887	$215,000	$235,000
Base salary / month	$5,824	$17,917	$19,583
Fully loaded / year1.25–1.4× base	$87,359–$97,842	$268,750–$301,000	$293,750–$329,000
Fully loaded / month1.25–1.4× base	$7,280–$8,153	$22,396–$25,083	$24,479–$27,417

Fully loaded adds employer payroll taxes, health and retirement benefits, software seats, and equipment at 1.25–1.4× base salary. That multiplier is a planning rule of thumb applied to this benchmark, not a surveyed cost figure. Commission, bonus, equity, and recruiting fees are not included.

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Key insights

Chief Information Officer Pay by the Numbers

The middle half of Chief Information Officer salaries spans $69,887–$235,000: a $165,113 spread, 77% of the $215,000 median.
A 75th-percentile Chief Information Officer earns 3.4× the 25th-percentile salary.
The Chief Information Officer median is 65% above the median Leadership role ($130,000 across 91 roles).

What Drives Higher Chief Information Officer Pay?

Years of experience and proven track record
Company stage and funding (later stage typically pays more)
Technical expertise and specialization
Location and remote work policies

FAQ

Chief Information Officer salary

On a median base salary of $215,000, a Chief Information Officer at a US SaaS company makes about $17,917 a month, $8,269 every two weeks, or $103.37 an hour over 2,080 working hours a year. The middle half of salaries (25th–75th percentile) works out to $5,824–$19,583 a month. These are base-pay equivalents before tax, and they leave out bonus, commission, and equity.

Expect the lower half of this benchmark. Across 41 verified SaaS Chief Information Officer salaries, the 25th percentile is $69,887 and the median is $215,000. A Chief Information Officer at a seed or Series A startup, or at a bootstrapped company under roughly $10M ARR, will often land between those two figures. Base pay typically moves toward and past the $235,000 75th percentile as the company adds headcount and ARR. Those stage bands are a rule of thumb applied to this benchmark, not a breakdown by company size, which the dataset does not report.

Budget for more than base salary. On a median base of $215,000, the fully loaded cost of a US Chief Information Officer is roughly $268,750–$301,000 per year once employer payroll taxes (~7.65% FICA plus federal and state unemployment), health and retirement benefits, software seats, and equipment are added. That 1.25–1.4x multiplier is a planning rule of thumb applied to the benchmark on this page, not a surveyed cost figure. Commission, bonuses, and equity sit on top where the role carries them. Also budget one-off hiring costs: agency recruiting fees commonly run 15–25% of first-year base, and a new hire takes weeks to months to reach full productivity.

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