Hire a CTO for the outcome you need in the next two years: building a first product, stabilising a platform, or leading managers. Those are different people. Write that outcome, the size of the engineering team, and the decisions this person will own. Then interview for judgment and for how they grow other engineers, not for a trivia score.
Define which CTO you need
An early startup may need a hands-on builder who will still write or review code. A larger company may need someone who sets architecture principles and hires directors. Hiring the second person into the first job, or the reverse, fails within a year.
- State what this person will still do themselves.
- State what they must delegate.
- Agree the board or founder decisions they do not own.
Interview for judgment on your system
Give them a real constraint: the current architecture, the incident history, the hiring plan. Ask what they would do in the first ninety days and what they would refuse to do. A rehearsed leadership speech that ignores your system is a no.
- Include a senior engineer in one conversation.
- Ask about a system they simplified and a hire they got wrong.
- Check how they talk about people who disagreed with them.
Close with a clear mandate and a fair band
Put the first-year outcomes in the offer conversation. Align fixed pay, equity and decision rights. A CTO who discovers the real budget and the real authority after joining will leave, and the team will have waited a year.
- Introduce them to the founder or CEO more than once.
- Be honest about technical debt.
- Agree notice, joining date and any garden leave before you announce.
Name the outcome, test judgment on your system, and match authority to the title you are offering.
Questions people ask
Should a CTO report to the CEO?
- In most product companies, yes. If they report into a non-technical function with no seat at strategy, say that during the search. Hiding it wastes the process.
Can we promote an engineering manager instead?
- If they already make the decisions you need, yes. Run the same questions. A title change without the scope is not a CTO hire.
How public should the search be?
- Keep it confidential until late if the current leader is still in seat. Candidates should still know the company before final interviews.
Related reading
Kabir Menon
Kabir covers applicant tracking systems and leadership hiring. He explains how shortlists are actually built, for candidates and for hiring managers.
