How to Hire a CTO
When it's time to add a technologist to your slate of executives, what are the best practices to follow?
iStock
Over the past decade, the position of chief technology officer has gained a place of prominence at the executive tables of corporations around the world. From tech-centric start-ups to, well, the U.S. government (which appointed its first CTO last year), more organizations are finding that the position is integral to organizational success.
The focus of a CTO, a position akin to and occasionally still referred to as "vice president of engineering," is typically to develop and implement new technologies. How's that different from the role of a CIO? Where a chief information officer is predisposed to solve problems through researching and implementing ready-made technologies, a CTO generally works to develop new technology solutions. Where a CIO may, for example, manage in-house technology such as an IT department, a CTO's role is typically more outward-facing, according to Tom Berray, a managing partner at Cabot Consultants, an executive search firm based in Virginia.
"As a general rule, CIOs are more internally focused while CTOs are more focused on working on products for external clients," Berray says. "That said, there are nuances. Some companies have a CTO focused on operations under the CIO. Others have the CTO as the top person for technology at the company and the CIO reports to that person regarding internal systems."
So, roles vary a bit – and so do actual titles. A vice president of engineering or a VP of technology is a CTO without the executive-level title – and, really, any technologist at the head of a large department performs a CTO-like role. That's the case at Ticketfly, the ticket-sales firm founded two years ago by Dan Teree and Andrew Dreskin. "In a start-up context, bands are formed sometimes by happenstance, and my head of engineering absolutely acts as the CTO," Teree says. "We are not big on titles here but make no mistake, he is the guy in charge."
So when is it time to add a CTO to your roster—or to dole out that exalted title? For tech-oriented start-ups, the answer might be from Day One. For existing companies, the moment you begin to have multiple lines of business and staff based in offices across different time zones, hiring a CTO to impose order can be a good move, Berray says.
Dig Deeper: Fitting Technology into Your Corporate Strategy
Hiring a CTO: Define Your Needs
A new employee – especially a high-ranking hire who will be managing staff, overseeing a budget and reporting to your board of directors – needs to be part of the long-term corporate strategy. If you can visualize where you want to be in five years, one year and even next quarter, it will be significantly more natural to see how a new employee fits into that matrix.
The cleanest way to plot out that role is through a well crafted, future-oriented job description, which can be the single step that begins the hiring process – and makes it simpler, from start to finish.
The basics of a solid job description include title, to whom they report and a summary of the position and bullet-pointed specific job duties. For a more thorough document, add names and positions of colleagues that position will work with closely and minimum qualifications.
Even if you do not include them in a description, executive search experts advise thinking specifically about what accomplishments your ideal candidate should have – say, overseeing the creation of a technology parallel to what your company currently needs or managing a team of developers that has grown a technical company as much as you'd like to grow. Remember, for any executive-level position, you need not only be searching for someone with education, qualifications and who's a good match personally, but also someone with a proven track record of growth success.
Oftentimes, what a company is looking for in a CTO is an individual who can effectively engineer a new and crucial product, says Dan Woods, CTO and editor of Evolved Media.
"We all as small businessmen take on the role of managing our own portfolio and managing existing technology solutions," he says. "Sometimes, you realize there is the opportunity to build a system that works better for you, and you can't rely on an outside person to build that. That's the time for a CTO."
But before starting the hiring process, it's important to step back and ask whether you actually need to make the significant financial investment of adding a position at the executive level. Ask: is the project you have in mind something the company's current developers are capable of executing? Do you really need another visionary leader capable of overseeing a department, or do you just need a solid technologist? Is it time for your organization to grow, or is it best to stay nimble and outsource new technologies? Remember, hiring a CTO is not a quick fix, it's a long-term strategy that will require an average of 90 to 120 days of the hiring process and even longer to on-board a hire.
Dig Deeper: Improving Your Hiring Practices
Hiring a CTO: Recruit Wisely
If your company is in the position to hire an executive-level technologist, chances are you have ample budget for doing so. If that's the case, have you also budgeted for the time and energy it will take to find an ideal hire?
Because most top candidates from related fields are likely entrenched in great jobs already, they're unlikely to be trolling job posting sites. To reach out to a qualified bunch of candidates you'll need to prepare to spend significant time on calling and networking with current CTOs and engineers, or to fork over what can be a large fee to enlist the help of an executive search firm.
