Step aside, chief innovation officers, and make way for chief automation officers and chief freelance relationship officers.

With questions about the future of middle management, many believe that corporations will soon beef up their core leadership teams, allowing them to keep foundational business knowledge close to the top while delegating the increasingly complex attributes of the modern organization to in-house, executive-level experts.

These changes are expected to bring a slew of new positions into the C-suite, currently occupied by members with positions like CIO (chief information officer), CFO (chief financial officer), CMO (chief marketing officer), COO (chief operating officer) and of course CEO (chief executive officer). With many companies already experimenting with holacracy and flattened organizational structures, some believe that the anti-middle-management floodgates are about to burst.

You can't be competitive if somebody else has just eliminated this whole layer of management, and suddenly their overhead costs shrink by 10%. As you get rid of middle management, and the hiring a lot of freelancers at the bottom, you end up with a relatively small organization, with the people at the top being the harbingers of the high institutional knowledge.

Companies may require larger management teams in the future in order to maintain their history, direction, and methodology.

Another potential driver of an expanding C-suite is the current war for top industry talent. Some believe that adding new positions at the high end of the management structure will allow companies to retain key personnel.

Companies can actually be slowed down when people, based on their title, aren't feeling as valued as others. People are being wooed away to other companies, so it is important to know how do you make them feel valued and part of the senior team and keep them engaged? They want these chief level titles, so I think we've created more titles just to appease people and keep them.

With many considering a significant expansion of the C-suite imminent, here are a few new titles that we may see added in the near future:

Chief Ecosystem Officer

Of course the three-letter acronym is already taken, but putting one person in charge of industry dynamics and partnerships will soon be a mainstay of the corporate structure.

Chief User Experience Officer

User experience used to be an afterthought for hardware and software designers. Now that bulky instruction manuals are largely (and thankfully) a thing of the past, technology companies need to ensure that their products are intuitive from the moment they’re activated.

This C-level position will be created to ensure user experience is considered in all areas of operation. Creating relationships with the technology and getting that right, will be a big critical issue.

Chief Automation Officer

As jobs continue to get automated out of existence, Frey believes a member of the core leadership team of the future will be put in charge of identifying opportunities for companies to become more competitive through automation.

There is a need to have C-level people that are constantly looking through their system to automate more things and stay competitive. AMong options are identifying the replacement use of a person with a robot or software, or some way to automate each process.

Chief Alliance Officer

There is a growing workforce that are considered contingent, temporary, diversified, or freelance employees today, with that number expected multiply manifold. As companies continue to increase their dependence on freelance and contingent workers, many believe that the time will soon arise when an executive employee is tasked with maintaining and growing their partnerships and reputation within the freelance community.

Chief Intellectual Property Officer

The world of intellectual property law is only getting more vast and complicated as new innovations hit the market. Not only will companies in the near future need a core leadership team member who can wade through the dizzying sea of intellectual property laws and patents to ensure their own compliance, but also remain vigilant to protect their own company against infringement.

Chief Privacy Officer

As companies hang on to more data, the onus to keep that data safe is growing, with the PR nightmare that ensues following a breach becoming more than most can handle. Virtually every company is getting bad PR on one level or another, because they're too controlling in how much information they're gather about individuals, and their ability to sell that. There's a potential massive backlash against corporations for not doing the right thing.

But the position won’t just be about damage control and public image. Chief privacy officers will also be in charge of managing the company’s internal data. There are clearly significant challenges around maintaining privacy, both of customers and of employees and companies are looking to emphasize the importance of those roles.

Chief Data Managers

Chief data officers will help CEOs and COOs run more profitable and streamlined companies by wading through the sea of information now available to them in order to draw valuable insights.

Organizations have been creating humungous amount data over the years, and with emerging sensor technologies, organizations have acessed tons of data  which needs to be analysed and tracked to decide what's useful and what’s not, and how to leverage it.

Industry needs lacs of professional managers and analysts with deep analytical skills and the know-how to harness big data effectively. With this talent shortage looming, one can suspect C-level positions will be awarded to retain key data analysts. The chief data managers will also be tasked with providing key insights to support the management team.

Chief Compliance Officer

One of the few barriers that remain for businesses of all sizes that want to operate beyond their national borders is the issue of compliance. Organizations have gone so far as to designate a chief compliance officer to ensure that all rules of international trade are being met, and many feel that the importance of this role will expand moving forward.

Organizations operating in many different countries the growing need for attention to compliance and the complexity of compliance related matters as required by local governments.

Chief Human Resources Officer

Already an established position within many major organizations today, the role of chief human resources officer is evolving from one of compliance to core leadership as competition for talent intensifies.

This means being at the table, and being more of a strategist and catalyst, and less of two other important faces of leadership, which are of the operator and that of the steward. There is a growing demand for high-performing talent in a world where knowledge and innovation are the real keys for most enterprises today. Therefore, as a CHRO, there’s a demand for helping the organization figure out how to identify, attract, develop, and grow that talent.

Chief Administrative Officer

As CEOs delegate tasks to their expanding teams of C-suite executives, they will be required to handle more complex, high-level decisions. As such, chief administrative officers will help relieve CEOs and COOs of some of their day-to-day tasks, allowing them to put their time and effort towards critical, big-picture decisions. Placing that in the hands of an expert specializing in administrative back-office accountability is something that is contributing to expanding the C-suite.