Background Nurses capable of adequately developing their competencies in the management field are essential for the sustainability of health‐care organizations. Such competencies should be included in a model of specific competencies. Aim The aim of this research is to propose a competency model for nurse executives. Methods The Delphi method was applied to reach a consensus on the required competencies, and Principal Component Analysis (PCA) was applied to determine the construct validity and reduce the data set's dimensionality. Consensus was defined based on at least 80% of the experts agreeing with the proposed competencies. For each competency, the development levels were beginner, advanced beginner, competent, highly competent and expert. Results From among the 51 competencies that were identified to define a model for nurse executives, decision‐making, leadership and communication stood out. The PCA indicated the structural validity of the proposed model by saturation of the principal components (Cronbach's α > 0.631). Conclusion Nurses wishing to develop their professional careers as nurse executives must first develop the competencies shown in the proposed model. Nurse executives should follow the educational programmes specified in this study, to adapt their knowledge to this role's requirements. Summary statement What is already known about this topic? The Nurse Executive has a very complex role in health care and has a great impact in institutional governance and sustainability of health‐care organizations, improving quality of care and patient outcome. The necessary competencies for nurse executives are usually not clearly defined, which could explain the lack of conceptualization of their roles. Little research has been addressed to competencies for nurse executives in any countries. What this paper adds? Fifty‐one competencies were defined, structured according to their defining characteristics in six dimensions: management; communication and technology; leadership and teamwork; knowledge of the health system; nursing knowledge and personality. The level of development of each competency ranged across ‘competent’, ‘very competent’ and ‘expert’. The training needed for nurse managers is at master's and doctoral study levels. The implications for this paper: This model has implications for organizational policies, the efficiency of organizations and their sustainability, as well as for the education and practice of nursing management The proposed model contributes to the definition of the nurse executives' functions, their selection processes, the design of their curriculum in traditional academic institutions and to continuous professional development programs by organizations. A better understanding of competencies is likely to provide information on interventions that can improve nurses' work environment, patient care, patient safety and organizational outcomes.