MSP Business Technology Advisor (vCIO)

Virtual Chief Information Officer (vCIO)

Coeus Consulting, a growing managed IT and cybersecurity services provider serving small and mid-sized businesses across Arizona and the Southwest, is looking for a business-minded Virtual Chief Information Officer (vCIO) to guide client technology strategy.

This is a client-facing advisory role focused on helping business owners and executives make better technology decisions. You will build strategic relationships, understand each client's business goals, and turn technical findings into clear recommendations, realistic budgets, and actionable technology roadmaps.

This is a practical technology leadership and advisory position, not a day-to-day support or traditional account management role. Success comes from connecting technology, cybersecurity, and compliance decisions to real business outcomes and the financial realities of smaller organizations.

What You'll Be Doing

• Build and maintain strategic relationships with owners and leadership teams at small and mid-sized business clients.
• Understand each client's operations, growth plans, regulatory obligations, risk tolerance, staffing constraints, and technology spending priorities.
• Prepare and lead recurring technology strategy and quarterly business review meetings, with clear agendas, recommendations, decisions, and follow-up.
• Partner with Technology Alignment Managers (TAMs) to review assessments against Coeus standards and translate technical gaps into prioritized business risks and opportunities.
• Develop and maintain client technology roadmaps, including 12-month priorities, longer-term initiatives, budgets, and planned lifecycle investments.
• Recommend practical improvements in cybersecurity, compliance readiness, business continuity, Microsoft 365, cloud services, infrastructure, and operational efficiency.
• Explain proposed investments in business terms, including their purpose, cost, risk reduction, expected impact, and timing.
• Coordinate with Professional Services and other teams to turn approved recommendations into scoped, executable projects.
• Track recommendations, open decisions, and strategic commitments, and follow through until owners and next steps are clear.
• Advocate for clients when recurring service problems, significant risks, or relationship concerns require strategic attention, without becoming a direct help desk resource.
• Maintain accurate client business profiles, strategy meeting notes, roadmaps, budgets, decisions, recommendations, and related activity records.
• Identify how technology and emerging tools, including AI, can improve client productivity, security, and business operations.
• Meet established performance expectations for client engagement, planning cadence, follow-through, strategic recommendations, and business outcomes

What Do We Need?

• Experience guiding technology decisions for small and mid-sized businesses through IT leadership, technology consulting, an MSP, or a similar advisory role.
• Strong business acumen and the ability to connect technology decisions to day-to-day operations, productivity, customer experience, growth, budgets, and business risk.
• Excellent communication and presentation skills, including the ability to explain complex technical topics to non-technical business owners and executives.
• A solid technical foundation across Microsoft 365, cloud services, identity, networking, cybersecurity, endpoint management, and backup and disaster recovery.
• A practical understanding of cybersecurity, business continuity, and compliance requirements, including how HIPAA, PCI DSS, or other applicable obligations influence technology decisions.
• Ability to interpret technical assessments, separate urgent risks from lower-priority improvements, and recommend appropriate next steps.
• Experience developing or leading technology plans, prioritizing initiatives, and helping organizations budget for technology investments.
• Strong customer relationship skills, including the confidence to challenge assumptions and guide difficult decisions constructively.
• Strong critical thinking, time-management, and organizational skills, with consistent preparation, documentation, and follow-through.
• Ability to work independently while coordinating closely with technical, service delivery, and project teams.
• Comfort using AI-assisted tools for research, analysis, and documentation while verifying accuracy and safeguarding client information.
• Willingness to meet with clients onsite when needed and take ownership of the client experience.

What Would We Appreciate?

It would be great if you also have experience with any of the following:

• Technology leadership responsibility within a healthcare organization, automotive dealership group, or other multi-location business.
• Previous consulting experience advising business owners or leadership teams, ideally across multiple SMB clients.
• Experience working for an MSP or delivering structured vCIO, technology steering, or quarterly business review services.
• Experience developing multi-year technology budgets, business cases, and modernization or technology refresh plans.
• Experience applying compliance and security frameworks such as HIPAA, PCI DSS, CIS Controls, NIST, or CMMC to business decisions and risk remediation.
• Familiarity with technology alignment assessments and translating findings into strategic recommendations.
• Relevant Microsoft, cybersecurity, or IT governance certifications, though formal CIO credentials are not required.
• Working knowledge of Autotask, IT Glue, myITprocess, or similar MSP planning and documentation platforms.

Who We Are Looking For

We are looking for a practical technology leader who understands how smaller businesses actually operate. The right person has enough technical depth to ask the right questions, enough business judgment to prioritize what matters, and the credibility to advise owners and executives without relying on a corporate CIO title.

This role requires more than presenting reports or recommending upgrades. It requires preparation, sound judgment, accountability, and a consistent commitment to helping clients make smarter technology investments over time.

Pay: $85,000.00 - $100,000.00 per year

Work Location: In person

Salary : $85,000 - $100,000