The job changes from running engineering to choosing what to build
A good head of engineering makes the engineering organisation work: hiring, managers, delivery and how the work flows. A CTO is judged on something else: whether the business is building the right things, on a technology foundation that will still hold in three years.
That means saying no more often, and explaining why to people who don’t share your context.
Your audience changes
As head of engineering, your main audience is your team and your peers in product. As CTO, it’s the CEO, the rest of the executive team, the board and often customers and investors. Each wants something different from you, and none of them wants detail for its own sake.
Someone else has to run engineering
First-time CTOs often try to keep running engineering day to day as well. It rarely works for long. Part of getting ready is growing someone who could take your current job, so that you can let go of it.
The commercial part
CTOs are expected to understand how the business makes money, what technology costs and what it returns. If you’ve never owned a budget, taken part in a pricing conversation or met a customer about a technical problem, start there.
Signs you’re ready
- You’ve made a technical decision that affected the whole business, and can explain the trade-off in a page.
- You manage managers, and your teams deliver without you in the room.
- The CEO or founders ask for your view on things outside engineering.
- You’ve owned a budget and a hiring plan.
- You’ve presented to a board or investors, or could tomorrow.
How hiring CEOs and boards judge first-time CTOs
They look for evidence that your experience matches their stage. A CTO for a 40-person company and a CTO for a listed business are different hires, and the most common mismatch is a candidate whose experience is a size or stage away from the role.
They also look for decisions, not programmes. Be ready to talk about what you chose, what you didn’t, and what happened.
Where techexec helps
Many heads of engineering in the techexec network are working towards a CTO role. A confidential career conversation with Aaron is a good place to test whether you’re ready and what’s missing. It’s free for members, whether or not there’s a role in it.