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Comment by barrkel | Hacker News Reader

VP Engineering isn't a technical role, it's purely management, though usually someone with an engineering background so they can talk to engineers.

VP Eng configures engineering's organizational structure, sets processes, and manages engineering managers.

VP Eng doesn't make architectural or technology decisions.

VP Eng is a good hire for many startups that start out with a CTO who isn't a specialist in management (which will be most founding CTOs).

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What does the CTO do? Who makes architectural or technology decisions?

CTO sets the technical and architectural vision, also security and toolchain being used etc. You can think of it as CTO is leading the technical vision, while a VP of E is helping out managing the team on a daily basis, organizing the product work, managing sprint resourcing etc.

CTO title makes sense when the company is growing big. Apart from managing engineering leaders, CTO's approve decisions to share the trajectory of the company. For eg. should go with aws or gc or azure. How it helps to future of our company. We need to invest in ML or AI or xyz because we see that is the future. The day today engineering/architecture will be driven by Architects OR engineers close to the problem.

Do tech companies have CTOs? I can see that role more in a company that doesn't focus on tech. In a tech company I can see that role quickly devolving into something like the "architects" in IT departments who do pretty diagrams and presentations the whole day but are totally out of touch with what's really happening.

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