Engineering Leadership Resources
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 3,611 unique 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 →
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 3,611 sessions.
Read →
VP of Engineering: What the Role Owns, and How It Differs From CTO
What a VP of Engineering does, how the role splits from CTO, and when a company needs one. From 3,611 sessions with engineering leaders.
Read →
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 →
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 →
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 →
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 →
Head of Engineering: What the Title Means and Where It Sits
What a head of engineering is, how it maps to VP of Engineering and CTO, and why the title means different things at different company sizes.
Read →
Engineering Director: What the Role Really Is
What an engineering director does, how the role differs from VP of Engineering and engineering manager, and how to step into it without drowning.
Read →
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 →
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.