VP of marketing interprets and distills research on customers and the market for the team to use in marketing campaigns and go-to-market launch activities. Help your team do great things — sign up for a free trial of Aha! These should include key customer stats, such as overall business growth as well as user-based adoption and engagement rates. Customer and market insightsThe two leaders are experts as it relates to customers and the market. Nor should they. This means making sure the customer’s voice is heard throughout the organization, driving the product roadmap, and helping the engineering team make tough prioritization decisions. This emphasizes company mission over beefing up individual resumes. The strategic plans that they set focus the team on the target audience, messaging, content themes, campaigns, and promotional mix. This description fits almost every great startup CTO I’ve met. Are you a VP of Product…See this and similar jobs on LinkedIn. It all starts with knowing exactly what the business goals are and how each group supports those goals. You’re not. But I would argue that the most important work senior leaders can do is building a high-performing culture. That means using less shiny titles, such as Lead vs. Director or Head of Engineering vs. VP of Engineering. Individuals searching for Vice President of Engineering: Job Description, Salary & Responsibilities found the articles, information, and resources on this page helpful. At the same time, the CTO is managing a growing and more diverse team. Sometimes those feelings are…, “Let’s get it done ASAP.” How many times have you heard this from your boss? The VP Engineering role traditionally includes multiple aspects: a) Personnel management – for small teams (up to 10 FTE), the VP Engineering is … Posted 4 weeks ago. The VP Engineering role is much more varied and is more about delivering products on time and on budget with good performance. This includes researching and having a point of view on customer needs or sensitivities, market dynamics, pricing, and what is needed to stay competitive or improve team efficiency. Ultimately, revenue and growth rates matter most as well as keeping programs on budget and on schedule. Anticipating changes in customer behaviors and the market is essential — those insights then guide priorities and areas of investment for the company. Product operations – For SaaS products, the VP of Engineering will establish the product deployment, operations and technical support capabilities and operationalize the products. Tension sometimes emerges between these two roles in the areas where their organizations overlap. The VP PM shapes how work gets done, rather than making individual product decisions. And through their passion and mentorship, they inspire the team. Good that the VP of product was so passionate about getting the product to market — bad that she could not get aligned with the VP of marketing. In today’s fast moving tech world, great CTOs have achieved truly mythical status. Here is my best take on the roles of CTO and VP of Engineering. Or not? When both leaders agree on the boundaries, the two groups can move forward together. The focus is generally outward on customers, the market, and key influencers. I considered doing so myself in the past and know a few people who actually have.…, Trepidation. These can range from cloud hosting, content delivery networks, telecom, software … Key duties include: finally, the VP of Engineering should NOT be responsible for back-office, internal IT, desktop/laptop support, and communications infrastructure. Professional Services – The VP of Engineering may need to create a professional services capability for B2B offerings to drive adoption of the product, coordinate with system integrators and partner integrations. Researchers concluded that when working in a group, powerful people underperform and fight over status and decision-making authority. Every CEO needs an expert technical manager that can lead the effort to get those products built, delivered, enhanced, and supported. The demands of the market, closing deals, working with partners, briefing analysts, and working conferences and trade shows becomes a full time job. When the engineering team hits 15 to 20 people, it’s a safe bet that the CTO won’t be spending much time on inventing new products at all. Vendor management – The VP of Engineering is responsible for managing vendor execution and delivery of the technical vendors. So, how do VPs of product and marketing and their organizations work best together? Take product management and marketing. Every CEO who is building the next big thing wants a CTO like Adrian or Werner on their team to conceive those breakthrough products. Without this capability, the cadence of the development teams will be frequently interrupted by these demands.