[dogstraightup]

Appreciate the comments. Its actually funny you mention that, as we were initially titling this role "CTO" which resulted in potential candidates who were just too hands-off by that point in their career. I've restructured the role and search to VP of Engineering just because there will be plenty of coding and hands-on work in the beginning which should ease up as the company hires more engineers.

I'm thinking reworking my ideal profile to 8-12 year candidates that are Directors, Leads, or Architects who are still very hands-on. The tough part of the search is the intangibles, like finding someone who still has the motivation and passion of someone in their early/mid 20's.

[codeonfire]

Director, lead, and architect are all very different roles. Most directors I know have probably never written a line of code in their lives. Architects are people who stopped coding 5-10 years ago or are consultants that try to sell computer systems. Leads are people with a few years of experience out of college on exactly one project, probably all on one platform and one language who are trying to get out of engineering and into management as fast as possible. But don't worry, all those people would be glad to take your money. You are going to get vastly different outcomes. A director will immediately start spending money and hiring engineering managers. An architect will immediately start spending money on enterprise-y stuff and trying to hire engineers. A lead will be out of their narrow element and no longer be a capable lead. They will be stuck back in beginner land. All will try to fake it until they make it.

You are looking for a top level engineer who can transition to management and then up three to four levels within a couple years. Such a person probably doesn't have any trouble getting their own funding at a percentage a bit higher than 2%.

[ajones]

That's interesting. Many articles I've read state that the VP of Engineering tends to be more hands off, technically, than a CTO.

Here's a couple great articles that I've pointed people to on a couple occasions: http://www.bothsidesofthetable.com/want-to-know-difference-b...

https://medium.com/engineering-leadership/defining-roles-cto...

[cyberpanther]

You see you just cut off your whole market. There is no possible way to find someone in their 20's that meets your specs. Also it is really ageist. Look for what you want not the age.

[mtmail]

You've read that wrong (I did, too, the first time). OP was saying "passion of someone in their early/mid 20's." which is just a comparison, not an age requirement.

[dogstraightup]

Thx...thats correct.