Qantas CTO quits

Qantas chief technology officer Chris Taylor has resigned from the carrier after three years to take on an undisclosed job overseas.

Chris Taylor

Taylor landed at Qantas in January 2014 from Abu Dhabi, where he worked a year-long stint as the IT program manager for the Cleveland Clinic hospital.

He'd spent the six years prior in a range of IT executive roles at the UAE's second largest carrier Etihad Airways, ending with a gig as its director of online digital strategy.

The Scottish native also has experience in the telco field from his time at BT in the UK and Cable & Wireless Worldwide, as well as utilities with energy solutions provider Energis.

Qantas would say only that Taylor had resigned for a new opportunity overseas. It is understood the position is located in Europe.

His departure will mean a clean sweep of Qantas' top IT ranks following last year's departure of CIO Luc Hennekens, who was replaced by Susan Doniz  in December, and the appointment of Darren Argyle as the airline's first-ever CISO earlier this month.

Taylor will stay on as CTO until May as the airline hunts for a replacement.

His successor will be charged with "developing, managing and ensuring the applications of the IT architecture and strategy for Qantas", according to its job ad.

"This role will be instrumental in supporting critical organisational and IT functional transformations and will work closely in the evaluation and solution development of key investments for IT," the ad states.

"The role will operate across infrastructure, security, application and data domains, responsible for driving commercially sound innovation and future focused thinking into all IT development and acquisition activities undertaken at Qantas."