Five telltale signs you need a ‘chief remote officer’

When Darren Murph created his “head of remote” role at the software maker Gitlab in 2019, he couldn’t have known how quickly the idea would catch on. Or why.

By the end of the first year of the pandemic, with knowledge workers everywhere getting used to the idea of working from home at least part of the week, and possibly forever, companies like Meta and others began hiring people to fill positions similar to Murph’s. (They often called him for advice or consulted his lengthy “head of remote” playbook.)

The job title is still uncommon, especially outside of Silicon Valley, and the exact phrasing of the title changes from place to place—from “chief remote officer” to “remote lead” to “director of remote work”—but the basic job function is the same: To manage and craft company systems and culture for employees who no longer go to an office five days per week.

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