What is the difference between a CTO and a VP of Engineering?

Question

Accepted Answer

In short: the **CTO owns the *what* and *why* of technology** (vision, strategy, key bets), while the **VP Engineering owns the *how*** (execution, delivery, and the health of the engineering organization). They are partners, not duplicates.

## How to think about it

| Dimension | CTO | VP Engineering |
|---|---|---|
| Primary focus | Technology vision & strategy | Execution & delivery |
| Time horizon | 1-5 years | Quarters / now |
| Owns | Architecture bets, tech direction | Process, hiring, team health |
| External role | High (board, partners, recruiting) | Lower |
| Optimizes for | Right technology | Predictable delivery |

## Concrete example

The CTO decides the company will build a real-time platform and bets on event streaming. The VP Engineering decides how teams are structured to deliver it, sets the sprint cadence, and ensures the project ships on time with a healthy team.

## Trade-offs and pitfalls

- In small startups one person often holds both roles; the split appears around 30-50 engineers.
- **Pitfall:** hiring both with overlapping mandates and unclear ownership creates friction.
- The split should be explicit and agreed, not assumed.

## Why it matters

Getting this division right is one of the most important scaling decisions a leadership team makes.

When the boundary is clear, vision and execution reinforce each other.

When it is blurry, you get either strategy with no delivery or delivery with no direction.

Primary focus	Technology vision & strategy	Execution & delivery
Time horizon	1-5 years	Quarters / now
Owns	Architecture bets, tech direction	Process, hiring, team health
External role	High (board, partners, recruiting)	Lower
Optimizes for	Right technology	Predictable delivery