The Cabinet Office will pay the COI chief £120,000, although the advertisement for the job also emphasises that "more may be available for an exceptional candidate".
According to the COI's annual report, Fisher, who was chief executive for more than three years, was paid around £105,000 last year.
The increase reflects the fact that Civil Service salaries are invariably much lower than comparable jobs in the private sector.
However, the £120,000 salary also underlines the increase in pay for senior civil servants on grade-two salaries since Fisher took on the role in 1999. The band now stretches from £70,725 to £148,625.
A Cabinet Office spokesman said: "This is above the normal recruitment salary, reflecting the importance of the post and comparable rates in the commercial sector."
The spokesman quashed industry speculation that the additional role of chief adviser on information campaigns and marketing communications would be scrapped. Fisher had held the role since April, working alongside Tony Blair's strategy director Alastair Campbell.
Potential candidates for the top job are rumoured to include Peter Buchanan, the deputy chief executive, and Inland Revenue marketing chief Ian Schoolar.
A decision on the new chief executive will be made by the end of the year by a selection panel chaired by Civil Service Commissioner James Boyle.
The panel also includes Mike Granatt, head of the Government Information and Communications Service, Cabinet Office director of corporate services Peter Wardle, and UKTV chief executive Dick Emery, who is also a member of the Government Advisory Committee on Advertising.
Fisher, widely regarded as having transformed the COI into a modern, customer-focused organisation, left in July, and is said to be interested in media industry jobs.
During Fisher's tenure at COI, the government became the UK's biggest advertiser, spending £295m on marketing communications in 2000 to 2001.
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