If you run a business of 10 to 50 people, technology decisions are probably landing on your desk already. Which system to move to. Whether that security warning is real. Whether AI is worth a look this year. Someone has to make those calls, and right now it's probably you, or whoever on the team is "good with computers".
The obvious fix is to hire a senior technology leader. Before you do, it's worth knowing what that costs, and whether a part-time arrangement would get you the same result.
What a full-time hire costs in Ireland
Morgan McKinley's 2026 Salary Guide puts a Chief Technology Officer in Dublin at €150,000 to €250,000 a year. An IT Director, the more common title in a smaller business, averages €120,000 to €135,000, rising to €150,000 with five years' experience.
That's salary only. Employer PRSI rises to 11.4% on 1 October 2026, which adds €17,100 a year on a €150,000 salary. Then there's pension, a recruiter's fee, and the months it takes to find the right person. If the hire doesn't work out, you start that process again.
CIO, CTO, fractional, virtual: what the titles mean
In a small business the lines blur. A CTO usually owns the technology you build and sell. A CIO owns the technology you run the business on. "Fractional" and "virtual" mean the same thing: a senior person who works with you part-time, on a retainer, instead of on the payroll. Unless software is your product, most SMEs need the CIO side more than the CTO side.
When full-time is the right call
Sometimes a full-time hire is the answer, and a part-time arrangement will leave gaps. You probably need someone in the building if:
- Software is your product, not just something you run the business on
- You manage an in-house development team day to day
- Technology decisions land on your desk every day, not every few weeks
What a fractional CIO gets you
- Senior technology leadership for a fraction of a €150,000+ salary
- Systems, security and AI decisions made by someone who has done it before
- An independent view, with no vendor or product to sell you
- Up and running in weeks, not the months a senior hire takes
- Scale it up, down or stop, with no hiring or redundancy risk
What it doesn't cover
A fractional CIO isn't IT support. Nobody on this kind of retainer is resetting passwords or fixing the printer, so you'll still want a managed service provider or someone in-house for that. The fractional role sits above it: what to buy, what to build, how to keep it secure, and where AI is worth the effort.
How we do it
Our Virtual CIO service is a monthly retainer scoped to your business, anything from a check-in every few months to a standing monthly session. If we've already built your website or platform, we start from that context instead of from scratch.
Not sure which one you need? Book a free call and we'll work it out from your actual situation.