Plus, be the first to When you look at startups, the technical founder often self-appoints himself or herself with the title of CTO but is closer to a hacker-in-chief than a corporate executive. The CTO is the #1 technical guru of the company. For teams at scale (> 100 FTE), the VP E’s direct reports will typically be senior level engineering directors, who in turn manage engineering managers. Technical leads become leads through the respect, recognition, and admiration of others. As anybody who has worked in a startup can see, this is the wrong question to ask. More traditionally, a director is a manager of both managers and individual contributors. The CTO has heavy influence into the technical strategy, which they co-develop with the VP of Engineering. ), By becoming an Ivy Exec user, you agree to our Engineering Lead. In large tech companies, the CTO is an executive who is generally in charge of improving the technical foundation of the company. This is the time when startups ought to begin to think about bringing on a VP of Engineering. It is a customer facing role, focused on developing the top line. Thank you, John! As Founder and Managing Director of
He or she has up to ten direct reports, but preferably no more than six or seven. The Chief Technology Officer is a somewhat weird role and is tricky to define; it varies from company to company more than other positions. When I was a Lead Engineer, it was my goal to tackle challenges by thoughtfully driving collaborative efforts based on everyone’s strengths. Welcome to Ivy Exec All Access. With that said, we will never promote anything we don’t trust or haven’t used. People confuse the roles of CIO and CTO, and for good reasons. The CTO loves technology, and often keeps his or her hands dirty doing advanced development for interesting new technologies. Thanks Lorenzo! While I impacted our processes and culture, my primary focus was influencing outcomes for our team’s projects, moving our tech stack in the right direction, and mentoring engineers. Strategy development – the VP Engineering serves as part of the senior staff, working in an interdisciplinary manner with their peers in other departments (e.g. At the end of the free trial, you will be charged $166 annually. They influence a more significant number of people and might be involved with multiple projects and teams. You are responsible for ensuring that the daily and long-term operations of the engineering department are smooth. Great founding teams usually sport multiple co-founders with complementary backgrounds – usually, a hacker, a hustler and a designer make a good starting team. technical explorations). In general, the responsibilities of a CTO depends wildly on the size of the company. Privacy Policy, and Sorry, your blog cannot share posts by email. A VP of Engineering is an executive who manages development teams. A great resource: Mark Suster’s blog post on the same topic. resources, and more. Enter your email address to subscribe to this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email. is a manager of managers and individual contributors in charge of an area or function of the engineering organization. I’ve discussed the technical side of this equation in Software Engineering Job Titles Explained and 19 Types of Developers Explained. Directors of engineering have broad responsibilities ranging from setting the direction for an engineering department, to being in charge of the entire engineering organization. Typically, technical leads do not have direct reports or management responsibilities. If you cancel during your free trial you won't be charged. A technical lead is typically an engineer who is more experienced than his or her peers and displays leadership skills or potential. Most small size companies do not have both, and larger companies are all over the place. He or she typically reports to the VP of Engineering. Very glad that you find my labor of love useful; it makes all the difference. Career Advice / Leadership / Leadership / CTO vs VP Engineering: What’s the Difference? She is also a Senior Lecturer at the MIT Sloan School of Management. You have to accept our privacy policy and terms of services. Like most software engineers, engineering leads usually prefer to be focused on one project at the time. VP Engineering. CTO vs VP Engineering: What’s the Difference? Once the headcount for the company goes past 15 or 20, the project and people management aspects of the job will start to dominate. As a vice president of engineering, your duties and responsibilities are to plan, implement, and oversee engineering strategies, procedures, and goals for your employer. He or she sometimes maintains a small “CTO office” of research engineers who can help him or her prototype things. http://delinquent-zebra-8361.vagrantshare.com/, http://delinquent-zebra-8361.vagrantshare.com/assets/build/professionals/img/common/ivy-logo.svg, No thanks, I would like to proceed as a basic member, Collection of Leadership-focused Articles, The 4 Personality Types That Guarantee Success At Work, How to Deal with Organizational Attention Deficit, How To Navigate Cognitive Diversity for Organisational Success, 10 Minute First Impression: Make an Impact in Phone Screenings, These Job Hunting Tips Used to Work, Now They Could Hurt Your Search. They might or might not be involved directly in projects with their reports. In some cases, the CTO is a manager of VPs and Directors and is broadly responsible for the entire product development organization. Physical Address As the startup moves past seed stage and starts to hire employees, the hacker/CTO’s role starts to evolve. and get the latest career advice. For larger teams (> 10 FTE), the VP E often manages contributing engineering managers, who serve as the direct supervisor of the technical staff. If there is any topic that you’d like for me to tackle, please feel free to let me know. In some organizations, especially startups, a director can be a very technical hands-on engineer with little executive function. Program management and engineering execution – the VP Engineering is responsible for ensuring that the product vision is realized through excellence in execution. Someone with the title of “Director of Engineering” is often in charge of both the development and QAQuality Assurance functions. Subscribe to our newsletter for news, job advice, new articles, and job resources. Join our network and see what all the buzz is about. The VP Engineering role traditionally includes multiple aspects: The VP Engineering is traditionally responsible for managing the annual bottom-up budget for the engineering department, which is often the biggest cost center for a technology-based startup. (After you sign up, you can get right back to reading! These are very different roles, and the roles themselves change and evolve as the startup grows. Career Definition of a Vice President of Engineering Vice presidents of engineering are responsible for overseeing the planning and execution of engineering tasks within an organization… Directors are also responsible for setting or approving policies, establishing department guidelines and managing a budget. Engineering managers have broader responsibilities than engineering leads. For example, someone who is vocal, a quick thinker, or an influencer. Terms of Use, What Qualifications Do Employers Look for When Hiring for a Remote Job? He or she is often tasked with managing the company’s patent portfolio as well. The CIO is an operation-oriented executive who is internally facing and focused on improving the bottom line. The Vice President of Engineering is a senior executive role with a broad range of responsibilities. Here are your exclusive All Access benefits. A team leader is a technical lead for all projects that a particular team takes on. Sometimes, it is a purely technical position usually reserved for a technical co-founder. Depending on the company, some of these roles are also job titles; others might correspond to one or more job titles, might not exist at all or might be implicit functions. Using our career map, a vice president of engineering can determine their career goals through the career progression. If there is no CIO, then the CTO typically takes the responsibilities of the CIO as well. In this post, I am focusing on engineering leadership roles and what they are accepted to mean. Free trial ends on 6/1/19. Join Ivy Exec for free to subscribe to our newsletter The VP Engineering may personally serve as a systems architect, or may assign another engineer to assume that role.