The Role of the VP of Engineering
There are some great articles defining the role of the VP of Engineering. Most of them do this primarily in relation to the role of the CTO. The duality of these two roles also has been determining my own thinking about the role of the VP of Engineering for quite some time. Meanwhile, however, I feel that this view is a little too confining.
The core competencies of a successful VP of Engineering are people skills and operational excellence paired with a deep understanding of the needs of a tech organization.
The VP of Engineering needs to remain flexible in terms of their responsibilities. The needs of the organization will evolve over time and they will also depend on what the rest of the leadership team brings to the table. This is particularly true for smaller teams with up to 30 engineers.
If the team lacks an HR person with a good understanding of tech, the VP of Engineering will be responsible for the hiring process and for building a tech brand. Depending on the operational maturity of the organization the VP of Engineering may or may not be responsible for the product development processes and how engineering interacts with other parts of the organization. And if the CTO lacks people skills the management of the engineering team will also fall into the domain of the VP of Engineering.
The mind map below shows an overview about the potential responsibilities of a VP of Engineering.

Probably no one VP of Engineering is equally talented in either of these roles, but they need to be willing to assume any of them, when required.
Therefore, the role of the VP of Engineering should be seen in relation to the whole organization and not only to the CTO alone.
