This article presents results from the analysis of the CIO functions, role and responsibilities in the public administration, serving as a basis for establishment of a common profile of CIOs. This is expected to reduce the obstacles and facilitate the digital transformation in the public sector in line with the modern technological progress and management approaches, which are applied to meet the requirements for effectiveness and efficiency of e-government. The author suggests a new hierarchical structure of the management bodies, including CIOs, in public administration of Republic of Bulgaria, and elaborates on the pros and cons of this proposal.

The approach is tested in the development of CIO function in Institute of Information and Communication Technologies and the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences as a federation of more than 40 entities. Core elements of the approach are tested in the framework of the ECHO project under H2020 for development of a governance model of the European cyber security collaborative trusted network organization.