As a general rule I assume that most “open source” software released by companies is just a recruiting tool. Some projects manage to form a community beyond the mothership, so there certainly exist exceptions, but others are to be approached with extreme caution.
> In business, "vice president" refers to hierarchical position that ranges from extremely senior positions directly reporting to C-level executives (in non-financial companies), to junior non-management positions with four to 10 years of experience (in financial companies).
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> In brokerage firms, investment banks and other financial companies, "vice president" is a seniority rank rather than denoting an actual managerial position within the company. It is a relatively junior position, usually does not denote managerial responsibilities and companies have a large number of vice presidents, perhaps as an inexpensive way for a company to recognize employees, or perhaps because of delayering when an employee can't be moved higher in the organization but still deserves recognition. In most cases, the title merely implies that someone is in a medium-seniority individual contributor role.
I work in the same industry, and my boss is a vice president (and had been a vice president for years despite becoming a manager only last year); his boss is a vice president; his boss is a managing director; his boss is a managing director; her boss is the CTO; his bosses own the company. I'm at roughly a level 4 in Google terms, and at my next promotion I can apply for VP and at the one after that I must apply for VP, regardless of whether I stay on the IC track or move to the manager track. So that should get you an idea of what "VP" means.
All of this was new to me when joining, though, and it would be nice to have it more publicly known.
It may be more like saying they support open source in the same way companies rushed to say they are green, for their image. The plethora of VPs is partly a sales thing, so that every client gets to meet with a VP. Just like how every sales person is a director or similarly inflated title at other companies. Hopefully one knows this before taking such a job!
Edit: After RTFA, it seems to be 2.5 things:
- Crowdsourcing ideas while getting everyone to conform to their platforms
- Image improvement to appear innovative
- Speculating: monetization of old code that doesn't actually work anymore
A friend of mine interviewed for Goldman last year. All the senior software engineering positions were Vice Presidents.
He told me that according to his friend who works there and got him the interview, none of them are comfortable advertising that. They all choose to put "Sr. Software Engineer" on LinkedIn instead of their actual titles because nobody outside finance would understand why they're a VP.
this is just how titles in finance work: analyst < associate < VP < executive VP < managing director* < C-level executive
The lowest level managing directors typically have several additional managing directors between them and the C level executives. In other words, you can be in charge of a 15 person unit and be called a managing director or you can be in charge of an entire division of 500 people and make as much as some fortune 500 CEOs and be called a managing director. Generally, your clients are fairly sophisticated and know exactly where you are in the totem pole.
In addition to just being a rung on the ladder, the VP title often also means that you are a corporate officer, who can enter into agreements on behalf of the company.