CTIA – The Wireless Association
Senior Executive Position | Direct Report to the CEO
Salary Range: $500,000 - $600,000
Position Overview
The Chief Technology Officer (CTO) is a senior member of CTIA’s executive leadership team and serves as the Association’s principal technology strategist and advisor. Reporting directly to the CEO, the CTO is responsible for shaping CTIA’s long-term technology vision—from today’s 5G deployments to 5G Advanced and ultimately the transition to 6G—while ensuring that the United States maintains global leadership in wireless innovation, spectrum policy, network security, and emerging architectures.
The role blends technical expertise, organizational leadership, and operational oversight, and it requires the ability to communicate complex technical concepts in clear, actionable terms to CTIA’s leadership, member companies, and government stakeholders. The CTO plays a significant management role in overseeing major commercial programs CTIA provides to the industry.
Policy Engagement and Advisory Roles
The CTO serves as CTIA’s senior technical resource in support of the Association’s policy and government relations efforts. The CTO provides the engineering foundation that underpins CTIA’s advocacy work, ensuring that CTIA’s positions are grounded in accurate and compelling technical analysis. The CTO maintains strong working relationships with technical leaders across wireless operators, network equipment providers, device manufacturers, and other key companies in the wireless ecosystem. Through ongoing collaboration, the CTO develops the technical consensus that informs CTIA’s filings, conversations with policymakers, and long-term advocacy strategy.
The CTO and their team also support CTIA’s policy staff in engagements with federal agencies and the Hill by offering technical insights, participating in technical briefings, and helping policymakers understand the practical realities of network architecture, spectrum use, and evolving technologies. The CTO also keeps CTIA senior leadership and other key stakeholders up to date on new technologies, wireless capabilities, and potential threats.
Spectrum Identification
The CTO is responsible for helping lead CTIA’s spectrum efforts by leading the technical analysis necessary to evaluate future spectrum opportunities. This includes outreach to industry experts and government engineers to examine the suitability of spectrum bands for future commercial wireless services, overseeing studies of incumbent federal and commercial usage, and guiding interference and coexistence modeling and negotiations. Through this work, the CTO helps CTIA identify spectrum bands with strong potential for future auctions and plays a key role in evaluating new technologies, sharing frameworks, and coexistence tools. The CTO’s work ensures that CTIA’s spectrum policy positions reflect a strong technical foundation and align with the future needs of commercial wireless networks.
Cybersecurity
The CTO leads CTIA’s cybersecurity efforts by managing the Association’s analysis of emerging threats to wireless networks. The CTO and their team examine a wide range of security issues—from SIM farms and evolving APT threats such as SALT Typhoon to the implications of AI, Zero Trust architectures, and network slicing. The CTO supports CTIA’s policy and regulatory teams by reviewing technical proposals from agencies such as NIST, FCC, DHS, and CISA, offering technical input into draft guidance, and ensuring that policymakers understand the operational realities of wireless network security. In all cases, the CTO’s role is to provide expert technical support so that CTIA’s policy teams can advocate effectively for risk-based, flexible security frameworks that avoid unnecessary regulatory burdens.
Advisory Committees
Serves on key advisory groups as the wireless industry’s representative. Representative groups may include the FCC Technological Advisory Council and the FCC Communications Security Reliability and Interoperability Council. Through these roles, the CTO provides technical insight to public-sector partners while ensuring CTIA remains fully informed about federal priorities, emerging research, and future technology issues that may shape national policy.
Test Beds
Responsible for management and operation of industry technical test beds. The E911 Location Accuracy Test Bed evaluates the effectiveness of new enhanced location technologies. The 5G Security Test Bed evaluates government security recommendations as well as the security implications of new technologies. These facilities reinforce CTIA’s role as a technical leader and allow the CTO to provide data-driven, real-world insights.
Technology and Innovation
The CTO serves as CTIA’s principal advisor on technology evolution across the wireless ecosystem. This includes monitoring and assessing developments in mobile edge computing, cloud architectures, radio and antenna systems, artificial intelligence, device design, and other emerging trends. The CTO is responsible for assessing and planning technology evolution from 5G to 5G Advanced and ultimately to 6G. The CTO provides forward-looking guidance to CTIA leadership and staff on how to position the U.S. wireless industry to maintain global leadership as networks evolve.
CTIA Operations
CTIA provides a number of commercial services to the wireless ecosystem and the CTO has P&L and management oversight and responsibility for the growth and management of these programs.
Certification
Oversees CTIA’s certification programs (PTCRB, Battery, IoT, and related programs) and global network of labs, ensuring strong revenue performance and growth, expense management, high positive margin, and operational excellence. Ensures certification programs evolve with new wireless industry priorities and requirements through identification and launch of new or adjacent program extensions; maintains high standards for test protocols; and manages the supporting infrastructure.
Branded Calling (BCID)
CTIA is playing a leading role in restoring trust in voice services through a new initiative to deliver enterprise name, logo, and call reason. The CTO will be responsible for technical leadership and coordinating with internal resources the growth and scale of the BCID program.
New Programs
The CTO is charged with working with management and other relevant Association functions (legal, regulatory, finance) to identify and evaluate new commercial opportunities that leverage CTIA’s technical expertise, support member needs, and strengthen the Association’s operational and financial position.
Qualifications
- 10-15 years+ experience in the wireless industry, preferably with operator experience or with a network equipment supplier or technology company
- BS Engineering or equivalent, MS Engineering or equivalent desired
- Experience in building teams, revenue and expense management, and working across the wireless ecosystem
- Excellent communication skills, sound technical judgment, and an ability to translate complex engineering issues into clear, concise guidance