VP Engineering
Usually a scaling moment: the team has outgrown the way it was run, and the fix cannot cost you the thing that made it good.
Start a confidential conversationWhy this search is hard
The VP Engineering brief almost always arrives at the same moment — headcount has grown past the point where informal coordination works, delivery has become unpredictable, and the people who built the thing are starting to feel the friction.
The trap is hiring someone who fixes predictability by adding process until velocity dies, or someone so reluctant to add structure that nothing changes. The candidates who can do both are the search.
What we assess
What we look for in this search.
Organisational design, not just management
How they have structured teams around the work, where they drew the lines, and what they did when those lines stopped fitting.
Delivery they can actually evidence
Specific systems shipped, specific commitments met, and an honest account of what slipped and why. Vagueness here is informative.
A working relationship with product
This role lives or dies on the engineering and product partnership. We probe how they have handled disagreement with a product counterpart, not just whether they get along.
Judgment about what to leave alone
Strong operators arrive with a playbook. The best of them can tell you which parts of your existing setup they would deliberately not touch.
Every VP Engineering search we run is partner-led and confidential, from the first scoping conversation through to the signed offer.