[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%.