IT Strategist: Roles, Responsibilities, and Salary

The fast-evolving digital landscape is creating a surge in demand for roles such as IT Strategist. They are primarily responsible for aligning the organization’s business goals with technical know-how to help achieve success for the company. IT Strategist’s job roles specifically revolve around defining the direction of a company and enabling it to make crucial decisions. These decisions might potentially impact the organization’s overall efficiency and growth. 

This blog outlines the key roles and responsibilities of an IT Strategist in a company. It also helps highlight their earning potential, focusing on the IT Strategist’s salary in 2024. 

What is an IT Strategist?

Also known as Technology Strategist, IT Strategists are skilled professionals whose primary responsibility lies in aligning a company’s technology with its business objectives. This is also one of the key IT Strategist’s job roles as they work toward ensuring the optimum use of a company’s technology resources. They also help prepare the organization for any technological challenges in the future.

What does an IT Strategist do?

Simply put, an IT Strategist is responsible for designing and executing an organization’s IT strategy or plan, which aligns with its overall business goals. Listed below are some key IT Strategist’s job roles and responsibilities:

1. Managing budget: This is one of the many responsibilities of an IT Strategist. They plan, create, and also manage the IT budget for the company. This includes ensuring that all IT resources are allocated appropriately for supporting business objectives.

2. Strategic planning: This includes evaluating the current IT capabilities in the organization and assessing specific improvement areas. IT Strategists design long-term plans for working on these areas for the achievement of company goals.

3. Project management: This is among the key responsibilities of an IT Strategist. They lead various IT projects in the organization, right from the conception through the execution stages. They are responsible for ensuring the timely completion of all projects within the specified budget.

4. Evaluating technologies: An IT Strategist researches and evaluates all newly emerging technologies in the market to understand their potential impact on the company. These technologies include analyzing all hardware, software, and IT services.    

5. Team collaboration: They work in close collaboration with the different departments of the organization. The IT Strategist is responsible for understanding the technology requirements of all these departments. They then advise them on how IT can help achieve these needs.

6. Risk management: IT Strategists help determine any potential risks concerning technology and are assigned the responsibility of designing and executing plans to alleviate those risks.

How to become an IT Strategist?

If you’re keen on pursuing an IT Strategist career path, here’s how to go about it:

1. Complete your Bachelor’s: The first step is to earn an undergraduate degree preferably in Information Systems or Computer Science, or a related and relevant discipline. 

2. Earn hands-on experience: Practical work experience is essential to help gain valuable insights into the technical workings of a business. You can intern as a network administrator or system analyst and gain sufficient practical experience in these roles to start on the IT Strategist career path.

3. Continue the learning journey: You may choose to pursue a master’s degree in IT or an advanced certification course such as Information Technology Infrastructure Library (ITIL) and Project Management Professional (PMP). These courses would help enhance your expertise in the domain and add to your credibility. 

4. Network: Networking can prove to be very helpful in unlocking higher-paying job roles or career advancement opportunities. Make sure to join technological associations, communicate with peers, faculty, and industry experts, and attend professional conferences to network.

5. Look for a mentor: A mentor can help you advance on your IT Strategist career path the right way and also guide you to higher steps of the corporate ladder. Their advice and guidance can be invaluable along the journey. You can choose to seek mentorship from an existing or former Technology or IT Strategist on your path.

6. Specialize: This is one of the best ways to advance in your career path as an IT Strategist. You can choose to pursue a Master’s or MBA degree in a specific specialized area of the domain, which can enable you to work in an IT Strategist role therein. 

7. Move to higher roles: An advanced degree or certification can help make you eligible to transition into higher positions in your career as an IT Strategist. These include the Director of IT or IT Manager in an organization. 

Skills to become an IT Strategist

After learning how to become an IT Strategist, let us also look at some of the core skills required to excel in this career. Defined below are some of the key IT Strategist skills that can help pave the way for career growth and advancement prospects:

• Critical analysis to deep think all problems, identify issues, and look for potential solutions 
• Strong business acumen to help align technology to a company’s business objectives
• Teamwork to collaborate with other teams in the organization and work toward the achievement of common business goals
• Leadership ability to lead IT projects in the organization and execute IT plans and technology initiatives
• Effective written and verbal communication with the team
• Creativity and innovation in determining possible solutions to complex technological problems

Why choose IT Strategist as a career option?  

The responsibilities of an IT Strategist, as detailed in this blog, are crucial and key to the technological success of an organization. We also learned about the core IT Strategist skills that can come in handy for career growth and advancement in the role. Let us now look at how a career in this domain can be a fruitful choice for several students:

1. Attractive pay package: Owing to the high demand for IT professionals with the desired skills, the compensation for the role of an IT Strategist is rather lucrative. The average annual IT Strategist salary in 2024 is estimated at INR 22.1 lakh per annum.

2. Good technical acumen: IT Strategists possess the required technical skills and a thorough understanding of the technological workings of an organization.

3. Strong influencers: IT Strategists are believed to have the potential to influence the direction of a company toward the achievement of overall business goals aligned with the latest technology. 

Conclusion  

IT Strategists form a respectable part of the technological team of an organization. They are skilled professionals with the necessary IT expertise and business acumen to help a company achieve its overall goals. IT Strategists help guide the trajectory of an organization by aligning its technical goals with its business objectives. They therefore play an integral role in the working of any organization, playing a leadership role in not only the IT department but also leading collaboration initiatives with other departments to work closely toward common goals.

If you’re aspiring for a lucrative career as an IT Strategist, Sikkim Manipal University presents you with the opportunity to pursue an online MCA. The course is an ideal choice for students with a keen interest in the world of IT and technology. The two-year postgraduate program is aimed at boosting your skills in IT and equipping you with advanced technical knowledge while offering a complete online experience from the comfort of your home.