The Many Roles of a CTO: One Title, Multiple Realities

“We’re looking for a CTO.”

I’ve heard this phrase dozens of times. In 5-person startups. In 150-person scale-ups. In IT departments of Fortune 500 companies.

Every time, the title is the same. But the job? Rarely.

The Single Title Trap

A “CTO” on LinkedIn is like “consultant”: it can mean anything and its opposite.

Real example #1: Fintech startup, 12 people. The CTO codes 60% of their time, recruits the rest, and does architecture at night. They’re a senior dev who also wears the strategic hat.

Real example #2: 200-person IT department in a bank. The CTO hasn’t coded in 5 years. They spend their days in committees, budget arbitrations, and business alignment meetings. They’re a strategist who speaks as much finance as infrastructure.

Same title. Zero overlap.

The problem? Everyone pretends “CTO” means the same thing everywhere. Recruiters look for “a CTO.” Candidates apply for “CTO.” And three months after hiring, everyone discovers they weren’t talking about the same job.

The Real Dimensions of the Role

Before discussing “CTO,” we need to understand what actually varies.

1. Technical Scope

Option A: Innovation / R&D

• Technology watch
• Prototypes and POCs
• Tech partnerships
• Technical product roadmap

Option B: Run / Operations

• Infrastructure and production
• Security and compliance
• Incident management
• Cost optimization

Option C: Build / Delivery

• Architecture and standards
• Development methodologies
• Quality and velocity
• Team scaling

In many organizations, the “CTO” only covers one of these dimensions. In others, they’re supposed to cover all three. Spoiler: that’s rarely possible.

2. Hierarchical Position

Configuration 1: Reporting to CIO

You’re the CIO’s technical right hand. Your job: execute a strategy decided above. You have autonomy on the “how,” but not the “what” or “how much.”

Configuration 2: Peer to CIO

You carry a technical vision that articulates with the information systems vision. You decide architectural directions, negotiate budgets, and have a transformation mandate. You’re on the executive committee.

Configuration 3: Sole Tech Leader

In smaller structures, there’s no CIO. You’re the only technical decision-maker, reporting directly to the CEO or COO. You’re the CTO, but in practice, you’re also doing the CIO job.

The difference? In config 1, you execute. In config 2, you co-create. In config 3, you carry alone.

3. Team Size

This might be the most underestimated factor. The job changes radically depending on whether you manage 3, 10, 50, or 200 people.

3-10 people: The Hands-on CTO

You still code. You do code reviews. You deploy to production. You recruit directly. You’re a senior IC (Individual Contributor) who also carries the vision.

10-30 people: The Manager CTO

You barely code anymore. You manage leads. You spend your days in 1-on-1s, recruiting, and unblocking team issues. You start structuring: processes, standards, tools.

30-100 people: The Organizer CTO

You don’t code anymore. You manage managers. You think in organizational terms: squads, chapters, guilds. You arbitrate priority conflicts. You manage budgets. You spend 50% of your time on internal politics.

100+ people: The Strategist CTO

You’re an executive. You spend your days in management committees, board presentations, and business negotiations. You don’t touch tech daily anymore. You carry the long-term vision and ensure the organization executes it.

Practical consequence: An excellent CTO at 10 people can be mediocre at 100. And vice versa. These aren’t the same skills.

CTO, CIO, VP Engineering: Who Does What?

Another source of confusion: the coexistence of multiple “tech” roles within the same organization.

The CIO (Chief Information Officer)

Focus: Information systems and business alignment.

The CIO thinks in terms of processes, governance, and compliance. They manage business relationships, steer projects, and ensure IT delivers what the business expects. Often a profile from consulting or project management background, not necessarily a pure technician.

Typical responsibilities:

• IT / Business strategic alignment
• Project portfolio management
• Vendor relations and contracts
• Compliance and security (IS)
• Overall IT budget

The CTO (Chief Technology Officer)

Focus: Innovation, architecture, and technical excellence.

The CTO thinks in terms of technical solutions, scalability, and sustainability. They define architecture standards, push innovation, and ensure technical choices align with long-term strategy. A technical profile who has gained altitude.

Typical responsibilities:

• Technical vision and strategy
• Architecture and standards
• R&D and innovation
• Technology watch
• Technical debt and modernization

The VP Engineering

Focus: Delivery, velocity, and team scaling.

The VP Eng thinks in terms of execution, processes, and productivity. They manage development teams, optimize workflows, and ensure fast and quality delivery. An operational manager profile, focused on “how we build.”

Typical responsibilities:

• Dev team management
• Productivity metrics (DORA, etc.)
• Processes and methodologies
• Recruiting and skill development
• Delivery and quality

Common Configurations

Configuration 1: CIO Only

In traditional organizations, there’s only a CIO. They cover everything: strategy, architecture, delivery, run. Common in “legacy” IT departments where tech is seen as support, not a differentiator.

Configuration 2: CIO + CTO

The CIO manages run and business alignment. The CTO manages architecture and innovation. Works when roles are well-defined. Falls into conflict when scopes overlap and nobody has clarified who decides what.

Configuration 3: CTO + VP Engineering

Common in tech scale-ups. The CTO carries vision and architecture. The VP Eng manages teams and delivery. The risk? The CTO becomes an “ivory tower architect” disconnected from ground reality.

Configuration 4: CIO + CTO + VP Eng

The “full stack” config in large organizations. CIO carries SI strategy and business relations. CTO carries architecture and innovation. VP Eng carries delivery. Requires high organizational maturity and hyper-well-defined roles.

Questions to Ask (and Ask Yourself)

If you’re interviewing for a CTO position, or just took the job, here are the critical questions.

In Interviews

1. Who do I report to?

If you report to the CEO: you’re the final technical decision-maker. You carry the vision.

If you report to the CIO: you’re a senior executor. Someone else makes strategic decisions.

If you report to the COO: you’re probably in an organization where tech is seen as operational support, not a strategic lever.

2. What budget do I control?

No budget: you’re an advisor, not a decision-maker.

Projects budget only: you execute a roadmap decided elsewhere.

Full budget (run + build): you have a real transformation mandate.

3. What autonomy on architecture choices?

“Total, within group standards framework”: translation = no autonomy.

“You define the standards”: you have the controls.

“In consultation with the architecture committee”: you’re one contributor among others.

4. What’s my time split between strategy and operations?

If they answer “depends on the week,” there’s no clear vision. You’ll be pulled in all directions.

If they answer “80% strategy,” verify there’s a robust operational team. Otherwise, you’ll spend your days firefighting.

5. How are technical vs business priorities arbitrated?

“The CTO decides”: great, but unrealistic in 90% of organizations.

“In prioritization committee with business”: normal, but verify you have real negotiating power, not just symbolic presence.

“The CEO decides”: you don’t really have power.

Taking the Role

1. Who really decides on tech matters?

It’s not always who the org chart indicates. Sometimes the “real” technical decision-maker is a legacy architect, an influential VP Eng, or even a powerful business unit that imposes its choices.

Identify the de facto decision-makers, not just the de jure ones.

2. What’s the scope evolution in 18 months?

If you’re taking a CTO role in a growing organization, your job will change. Fast. Make sure the scope evolution is clear, and you have the means to handle it.

3. What are the hot files?

From day one, identify the 3-5 critical issues. Not the glamorous projects. The real problems: explosive technical debt, team turnover, the legacy system holding everything together, the budget-eating project delivering nothing.

These files will define your credibility in the first 6 months.

The Common Denominator: Responsibility

Regardless of organization size, scope, or exact title, there’s one constant: the CTO carries the weight of technical choices.

Technical Responsibility

If the system crashes in production, it’s on you. Even if you haven’t coded a line in 3 years, even if the architecture predates your arrival, even if the bug comes from an external contractor.

You’re the technical responsible. You carry.

Budget Responsibility

If the project overruns by 50% in costs, it’s on you. Even if scope changed 10 times, even if business added requirements mid-stream, even if the vendor underestimated.

You validated the estimate, you signed off on the budget. You carry.

Team Responsibility

If devs leave en masse, it’s on you. Even if HR took 6 months to recruit, even if salaries aren’t competitive, even if middle management is toxic.

You manage (directly or indirectly) these teams. You carry.

That’s the price of the role. And that’s also what makes it demanding: you can have 10 successes and be judged on 1 failure. Because a technical, budget, or human failure has visible and costly consequences.

Clarifying Your Role: An Imperative, Not an Option

Too many CTOs take their position without clarifying what’s really expected of them. Result: frustration, burnout, departure after 18 months.

The “Swiss Army Knife CTO” Syndrome

You end up doing architecture, management, strategy, run, recruiting, board slides, and debugging in prod at 11 PM because nobody else knows how.

That doesn’t scale. And it kills you.

The “Ghost CTO” Syndrome

You have the title, but no power. You’re invited to meetings, but your opinions are systematically ignored. Decisions happen elsewhere, and you discover arbitrations once they’re finalized.

That doesn’t last. Either you leave, or they push you out.

The Solution: Clarify from the Start

Ask the hard questions. Before signing.

• What’s my real mandate?
• What are my means (budget, team, autonomy)?
• Who decides what, and how are conflicts arbitrated?
• How is my success measured?

Document. In writing.

An onboarding document, signed by you and your manager, that records:

• Your scope
• Your objectives at 6, 12, 18 months
• Your means
• Your escalation points

Sounds formal? Good. It protects you when expectations diverge.

Review regularly.

Your role will evolve. Make sure this evolution is conscious and negotiated, not suffered.

Checklist: Evaluating a CTO Position

Before saying yes, run through this grid:

Strategy

• My scope is clear (innovation / run / build)
• I know who I report to and what their mandate is
• I’ve identified other tech decision-makers (CIO, VP Eng, etc.)
• My decision-making autonomy is explicit

Means

• I control a budget (or I know who does)
• I have a team (or a plan to build one)
• Basic tools and processes exist (or I can implement them)

Context

• I know the hot files
• I’ve identified key stakeholders
• Team size matches my management experience
• The organization has a clear vision of what it expects from a CTO

Evolution

• Scope evolution in 18 months is discussed
• Success criteria are defined
• There’s a regular alignment process with my hierarchy

If you check less than 70% of boxes, dig deeper. You might discover unpleasant surprises once in the role.

Conclusion

There’s no “good” or “bad” CTO role. There are roles aligned or misaligned with your skills, expectations, and organizational context.

An excellent hands-on CTO in a startup will crash in a corporate IT department. Not because they’re bad, but because it’s not the same job.

A brilliant strategist CTO in a large organization will be ineffective in a scale-up. Not because they lack vision, but because they lack operational execution.

The key? Clarify.

Clarify what’s expected of you. Clarify what you know how to do. Clarify the means you’re given. Clarify success criteria.

A CTO without clarity is a CTO programmed for failure. Regardless of their talent.

Recruiting a CTO? Applying for a CTO position? Just took the role?

Take time to answer this article’s questions. In writing. With your hierarchy, your team, or your recruiter.

You’ll save yourself months of frustration and misunderstandings.

The title “CTO” is just a word. What matters is what’s behind it.