“However I feel if we’re a bell curve, one thing north of $700,000 is basically the place the market must be, particularly for Fortune 500 organizations. They should be nicely within the $700,000-plus vary, together with base pay, bonus potential, and fairness for long run incentives,” Henninger explains.
Even within the case of distant roles, CSO pay usually tracks to the corporate’s headquarter location, Breckenridge explains. For instance, Bay Space companies might pay a premium to Texas-based hires, however not the opposite method round. Midmarket firms, significantly these in development or merger and acquisition mode, have change into more and more engaging to candidates who need significant scope, fairness upside, and fewer paperwork.
With excessive pay comes excessive expectations
Provides of high pay and authority to CSO candidates clearly include excessive expectations. Organizations are searching for CSOs with a powerful mix of technical experience, enterprise acumen, and interpersonal energy, Fuller says. Key expertise embrace cloud security, id and entry administration (IAM), AI governance, and incident response planning.



