| Detail | For this role |
|---|---|
| Department | Information Technology |
| Level | Senior management |
| Reports to | Chief Technology Officer |
| Direct reports | Director of Engineering, Head of QA, Principal Engineer |
| Experience | 16 to 20 years in software engineering, with 6 or more years leading organizations of 100 or more engineers |
Vice President Engineering job description template
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Job title: Vice President Engineering
Department: Information Technology
Reports to: Chief Technology Officer
Location: [City], [office, branch or site]
About the role
The Vice President Engineering runs the whole engineering organization of a product company or large technology business, usually through directors and heads of engineering. They own engineering strategy, organization design, the engineering budget, hiring plans and the operating rhythm that turns the company roadmap into shipped software. In Indian companies the VP Engineering reports to the CTO or CEO and sits in the leadership team. A good VP Engineering builds an organization that delivers predictably at scale, keeps strong leaders and spends money where it matters.
Key responsibilities
- Set the engineering strategy for the next one to two years with the CTO, including platform investments, build versus buy choices and technical debt priorities.
- Design the engineering organization: groups, reporting lines, spans of control and when to add a director or manager layer.
- Own the annual engineering budget and headcount plan, and defend it with the CEO and CFO.
- Run the engineering operating rhythm of quarterly planning, monthly business reviews and the metrics each group reports.
- Hire, develop and retain directors and senior leaders, and name successors for every critical engineering leadership role.
- Set company-wide engineering policies for security, reliability, on-call, code ownership and release management.
- Decide the engineering location strategy, such as which cities to hire in and how hybrid or remote teams work.
- Represent engineering in leadership meetings, board reviews, due diligence and key customer or partner conversations.
- Step in on the most serious incidents or delivery failures, lead the recovery and fix the system that allowed them.
- Shape engineering culture through career ladders, promotion rules, recognition and the example leaders set.
Requirements
- B.E. or B.Tech in Computer Science or a related field, or MCA
- An M.Tech, MBA or executive programme from an IIT or IIM is an advantage
- 16 to 20 years in software engineering, with 6 or more years leading organizations of 100 or more engineers
KRAs and KPIs for a Vice President Engineering
Key result areas for the appraisal form, each with a KPI you can measure every month or quarter.
| Key result area | How to measure it |
|---|---|
| Roadmap outcomes | Company-level engineering commitments delivered each quarter, with major slips raised to leadership at least 4 weeks ahead |
| Reliability | Company uptime targets met every month, with no severity 1 incident repeating from the same cause |
| Engineering efficiency | Engineering cost as a share of revenue within the level agreed in the annual plan |
| Leadership bench | A ready or near-ready successor named for every director and head-level engineering role |
| Senior retention | Regretted attrition among senior engineers and managers below the company target |
| Hiring plan | Annual engineering hiring plan delivered within budget and in the planned quarters |
Skills and tools
Tools used day to day: Jira or Jira Align, Excel or Google Sheets headcount models, Engineering metrics dashboards, Confluence or Notion, Google Workspace or Microsoft 365, Slack or Microsoft Teams.
Reporting line and career path
Next roles: Chief Technology Officer, Chief Operating Officer
Interview questions for a Vice President Engineering
- How did you design the engineering organization at your last company, and what would you change now?
- The CEO asks you to cut engineering cost by a fifth without slowing the roadmap. How do you respond?
- Tell me about a director you had to let go. How did you handle it, and what happened to the team?
- What operating rhythm do you set up in your first 90 days?
- When would you build a central platform team instead of letting product teams own their infrastructure?
- Which three engineering metrics would you report to the board, and why?
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What does a VP of engineering do?
A VP of engineering leads the entire engineering organization. They set engineering strategy with the CTO, design the organization, own the budget and hiring plan, run quarterly planning and reviews, set policies for reliability and security, and build a strong bench of directors and managers. They are accountable for how well engineering delivers at scale.
What is the difference between a VP engineering and a CTO?
The CTO decides the company's technology direction and represents technology to the board, investors and customers. The VP engineering runs the organization that delivers it: people, process, budget and execution. In smaller companies one person may hold both roles, while in larger ones the VP engineering usually reports to the CTO.
How do you become a VP of engineering?
Most VPs of engineering in India led engineering managers and directors for several years after a strong hands-on start. The step up needs experience with budgets, organization design, senior hiring and board-level communication. Many reach the role by growing with a scaling startup, or by moving up a level when they join a smaller company.