--- title: "Engineering Leadership Resources" description: "Reference pages on engineering leadership roles and terms: mentoring vs coaching, VP of Engineering vs CTO, CTPO, team lead vs tech lead vs EM." url: "https://www.marian.coach/resources/" lang: "en" image: "https://www.marian.coach/_astro/portrait-laptop-smile.D82UYdFF_1BjCCq.jpg" --- Marian Kamenistak · Free resources # Engineering Leadership Resources ![Marian Kamenistak speaking at an engineering leadership event.](https://www.marian.coach/_astro/talk-22-hero.gtPxolNA_Z1HqzO6.webp) The same five questions open most of my intro calls: what does this role own, who should it report to, and is the person you need a mentor or a coach. These are the written answers, drawn from 3,662 1:1 leadership sessions with engineering leaders. Reference pages, not news: they get revised when reality changes, not when a content calendar says so. - [ ## Mentoring vs Coaching: Which One You Need Mentoring transfers experience, coaching builds clarity. The difference between coaching and mentoring, a comparison table, prices, and a 3-question test. Read → ](https://www.marian.coach/mentoring-vs-coaching/) - [ ## Engineering Leadership: What It Is, and the Roles That Do It What engineering leadership means in practice, the full role ladder from team lead to CTO, and how it differs from management. From 3,662 sessions. Read → ](https://www.marian.coach/what-is-engineering-leadership/) - [ ## VP of Engineering: What the Role Owns, and How It Differs From CTO VP of Engineering responsibilities in one list: delivery, org design, hiring, managers, process and translation. Plus how the role splits from CTO. Read → ](https://www.marian.coach/vp-of-engineering-role-vs-cto/) - [ ## What Is a CTO? The Role, and How It Changes With Company Size CTO stands for Chief Technology Officer. The role is four different jobs depending on the size of the engineering org, which is why the title tells you little. Read → ](https://www.marian.coach/what-is-a-cto/) - [ ## CTPO: What a Chief Technology and Product Officer Does What a CTPO is, whether it is spelled CTPO or CPTO, when one executive should own product and technology, and when the merged role fails. Read → ](https://www.marian.coach/what-is-a-ctpo/) - [ ## Team Lead: The Role, vs Tech Lead, vs Engineering Manager What a team lead is in software, how the role differs from tech lead and engineering manager, and how to survive the move from engineer to lead. Read → ](https://www.marian.coach/team-lead-role-vs-tech-lead-vs-engineering-manager/) - [ ## What Is a Staff Engineer? Role, Scope, and Salary Staff engineer is not senior engineer with a better title. What the role owns, where it differs from senior, and what it pays in Europe in 2026. Read → ](https://www.marian.coach/what-a-staff-engineer-role-is-all-about/) - [ ## Head of Engineering: What the Title Means and Where It Sits Head of engineering in one table: what the title means from 10 to 80 engineers, how it compares to VP and director, and the trap built into the seat. Read → ](https://www.marian.coach/head-of-engineering-role/) - [ ## Engineering Director (Director of Engineering): The Job, Duties and Pay Engineering director, or director of engineering: what the job owns, what 10 real job ads ask for and pay, and how it differs from VP and EM. Read → ](https://www.marian.coach/engineering-director-role/) - [ ## Forward Deployed Engineer: The Role Behind the Hype Searches for forward deployed engineer grew 11x in a year. What the job covers, who is hiring, what it does to your career, and who should stay away. Read → ](https://www.marian.coach/forward-deployed-engineer-role/) - [ ## Engineering Manager Role: What You Own, What You Hand Over What is an engineering manager? The role, its real responsibilities, what a senior engineer hands over in the move, and four ways year one goes wrong. Read → ](https://www.marian.coach/engineering-manager-role/) - [ ## Principal Engineer: Where the Level Sits Above Staff What a principal engineer is, how it differs from staff and distinguished, why the title means different things at Amazon or Oracle, and what to ask. Read → ](https://www.marian.coach/principal-engineer-role/) - [ ## QA Engineer: The Job, the Ladder, and the Layoff Risk What a QA engineer does, how it differs from a tester and an SDET, the ladder up to QA lead and head of QA, and why the last gate is the first one cut. Read → ](https://www.marian.coach/qa-engineer-role/) - [ ## AI QA Engineer: Two Jobs Behind One Title AI QA engineer can mean testing AI systems with evals or testing software with AI tools. How to tell them apart, what each pays, and how to spot a gig. Read → ](https://www.marian.coach/ai-qa-engineer-role/) - [ ## Technical Program Manager: The Role That Owns the When A technical program manager owns the when across teams without owning the teams. TPM vs product manager, EM and project manager, pay, and the traps. Read → ](https://www.marian.coach/technical-program-manager-role/) - [ ## AI Program Manager: Four Targets That Keep Moving An AI program manager gets AI from pilot to production while the model, data, evals and EU AI Act keep moving. A risk register and what to negotiate. Read → ](https://www.marian.coach/ai-program-manager-role/) - [ ## Member of Technical Staff Meaning: Why AI Labs Use One Title Member of technical staff meaning: the flat title OpenAI, Anthropic and xAI give engineers and researchers, what it hides, and what to ask before you sign. Read → ](https://www.marian.coach/member-of-technical-staff/) - [ ## Director of AI: Research, Product or Transformation Seat Director of AI can mean a research lead, a product AI builder or an enterprise adoption owner. Who each reports to, what it pays, and what to negotiate. Read → ](https://www.marian.coach/director-of-ai-role/) - [ ## Platform Engineer: What the Job Is and Where It Leads Platform engineer: what the job looks like week to week, how it differs from DevOps, what it pays, and the red flags hiding in a job ad. Read → ](https://www.marian.coach/platform-engineer-role/) - [ ## AI Platform Engineer: What You Build and What You Own AI platform engineer: how the role differs from ML platform and MLOps, the five layers you run, who owns what, and a plan for your first 90 days. Read → ](https://www.marian.coach/ai-platform-engineer-role/) - [ ## Head of AI: What the Role Owns, and Who Gets the Seat Head of AI: what the seat owns, the two roads into it, how it differs from Head of Engineering, and the contract to sign before you accept the title. Read → ](https://www.marian.coach/head-of-ai-role/) - [ ## VP of AI vs Chief AI Officer: Who Owns What VP of AI vs Chief AI Officer: how the two seats and Head of AI split one AI mandate, what each controls, and what makes a CAIO seat more than a title. Read → ](https://www.marian.coach/vp-of-ai-vs-chief-ai-officer/) - [ ## Applied AI Engineer: The Role, and the Ladder Above It What an applied AI engineer owns, how the job differs from AI engineer, staff and principal AI engineer, and what a promotion case above it must prove. Read → ](https://www.marian.coach/applied-ai-engineer-role/) - [ ## Manager as Coach: The Questions That Grow Engineers Manager as coach in practice: the 1:1 questions that grow engineers, what each answer tells you, and what to ask your own manager or mentor. Read → ](https://www.marian.coach/manager-as-coach/) ## Past the definitions? If the question on your desk is no longer "what is this role" but "how do I survive it", that is what the 1:1 work is for. - [CTO coaching →](https://www.marian.coach/cto-mentor/) - [Engineering manager coaching →](https://www.marian.coach/engineering-manager-coaching/) - [CTO / VPE mentoring →](https://www.marian.coach/cto-mentor/) - [Pricing (public) →](https://www.marian.coach/pricing/) ## Structured data ```json {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"ProfessionalService","name":"Marian Kamenistak | Engineering Leadership Mentoring","url":"https://www.marian.coach/resources/","image":"https://www.marian.coach/_astro/portrait-laptop-smile.D82UYdFF_1BjCCq.jpg","description":"Reference pages on engineering leadership roles and terms: mentoring vs coaching, VP of Engineering vs CTO, CTPO, team lead vs tech lead vs EM.","serviceType":["Engineering leadership mentoring","Engineering manager coaching","CTO coaching","Fractional CTO","Leadership development for software 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