Hiring your first VP of Engineering (VPE) marks the shift from scrappy product-market fit to focused scaling—of both your technology and your team. This role isn’t just about writing great code anymore; it’s about architecting the systems, shaping the culture and leading the people that will power your next stage of growth.

This guide is meant for founders who are delegating away from day-to-day technical execution. This guide draws on insights from my own operating experience—as well as from BCV’s founders themselves—to help you get the right hire, the first time.

Michael Bock, Co-Founder and CTO of ColumnTax summarized it perfectly: “As a founder, you should always be de-risking the business's top risks.” The first VP of Engineering (if hired correctly) is one of the ways to do exactly that. Michael shared his experience hiring their first VP of Engineering, offering insights into how the CTO role evolved, along with practical tools like interview rubrics and guides. It’s a worthwhile read.

Great VPEs are Force Multipliers

The first VPE is more than a team leader—they’re a force multiplier. At this stage, founders realize that engineering goes beyond building features. Engineering is about building a system and a team that can deliver those features predictably and sustainably. Great VPEs can (and should) bring the following to the table:

• Scaling the engineering team: Proven experience in leading, mentoring, coaching and growing engineering teams (ideally from ~5 → 50).
• Technical strategy & execution: Strong technical expertise and an ability to balance speed and quality to deliver low-defect, scalable solutions.
• Creating structure: Comfortable establishing repeatable processes, elevating technical standards and rituals that ensure code quality, velocity and cross-functional collaboration.
• Team leadership: Mentoring ICs and leads, managing up to the executive team, and partnering deeply with Product, Design and Go-to-Market functions.

Signs You’re Ready to Hire Your First VP of Engineering

Rarely do founders tell me they hired their VPE too early (spoiler alert: this is common for most first “Head of” hires across any leadership team). Michael Bock wished he started his search sooner: “In retrospect, I realized I had become a bottleneck and wasn’t giving myself enough leverage to focus on the aspects of the business where I could add unique value. Leading the engineering team involved a lot of undifferentiated tasks like hiring, project management and day-to-day operations that are better served by a true VPE.”

Another one of our founders mentioned they too started a bit late, stating: "I noticed that our engineers were constantly in reactive mode—fixing bugs, missing deadlines and struggling to align on priorities. The energy was there and so was the talent, but the output wasn’t scaling. That’s when I realized we needed a true VPE—someone who could bring structure, elevate technical standards and help the team operate at a higher level.”

Here are some signs you’re likely ready for a VPE:

• You have 10+ engineers and the founder/CTO is becoming a bottleneck
• Engineering quality or velocity is starting to degrade
• You need to build a leadership bench beneath the founding team
• You’re preparing for major team or product scale (e.g. Series A/B or preparing to go upmarket)

Caution: Don’t over hire! If you're still iterating on MVPs and the team is under five, a VPE will likely be underutilized or bring too much structure, too quickly. This can result in whiplash among the engineering team and create more difficulty when the right time arises.

What to Look For in a First VPE

It’s not about chasing brand-name résumés. It’s about finding someone with the right combination of technical depth, leadership and stage fit that matches and complements your own.

Douwe Kiela, Co-Founder and CEO of Contextual, experienced this firsthand, stating: “For a first VPE, we knew we couldn’t just settle for someone who’d 'been there before.' We needed a builder and a leader—someone who could earn trust with the team, level up our engineering practices and communicate clearly with the exec team. Culture fit, technical depth and scaling experience all had to line up—we couldn’t afford to compromise on any one of those.”

Here’s what to prioritize:

1. Stage-Relevant Experience

• Previously built and scaled engineering teams from ~five to 50+
• Experience with the nuances of high-growth environments, with the ability to scale a lean team efficiently—balancing speed, quality and limited resources

2. Process and Roadmap Ownership

• Has led or co-created engineering processes that improved velocity and predictability
• Can define and maintain a technical roadmap aligned with business vision

3. Leadership and Culture

• Is a player-coach who can mentor junior talent, attract senior engineers and scale culture
• Understands the importance of cross-functional collaboration

4. Communication and Executive Presence

• Can translate engineering priorities to non-technical stakeholders
• Confident participating in strategic planning and exec-level decision-making

When An Exec Search Partner Makes Sense

If you’re doing true VPE search, a search partner can often be your best bet. The right search partner can quickly connect you with the right talent, shortcutting the network-building component of hiring a new leader.

Not all search partners are the same. Focus on choosing the individual partner, not just the firm—and do your homework. Spend time with at least two partners before making a decision. This relationship isn’t just about finding great talent. It’s about finding someone who can work closely and effectively with you throughout the process.

Matthew Haber, Co-Founder and CEO of Cofactr adds, "We realized quickly that the right search partner gave us huge leverage—mainly through access. They opened doors to candidates we never would’ve reached on our own, and kept the process moving while we stayed focused on building the product.”

When vetting executive search partners:

• Are you confident in their footprint in the market and will they be able to bring the right candidates to the table?
• If they aren’t experts in the market, are you confident they can still map the market accordingly and deliver on the specifics?
  • If yes, ask them to walk you through examples of outside-the-box searches they’ve closed. Do they get excited by a challenge?
  • Do they understand your culture and the market your company is in?
• Do they understand your business? How well can they pitch it back to you? Have them walk you through a few calibration profiles and ask them why they like an individual for this particular role and your company more broadly.

Calibrate First: Things to keep in mind as you begin

It’s easy to think that hiring someone ultra-senior will instantly level up your team, but seniority alone doesn’t guarantee the right fit. What really matters is how and when they earned that experience. Were they leading a 500-person org long after the playbook was written, or were they in the trenches during the messy, formative stages? Someone who has operated at massive scale may struggle or get frustrated when faced with the ambiguity and hands-on demands of an early-stage environment. Sometimes, the best candidate isn't the most senior—it's the one who has already done this phase well.

Mihir Garimella, Co-Founder and CEO of Actively, shared his perspective. "When we first kicked off our VP of Engineering search, we defaulted to looking for seniority and tiles, but we quickly realized that experience at scale doesn’t always translate to impact at the earliest stages. Through a range of conversations, we developed a sharper POV on what we actually needed for our stage, and it was leaders who rolled up their sleeves through the messy, ambiguous grind of 0-to-1 and later scaled with the business. That mix of scrappy execution is what moved the needle for us.”

Pitfalls to avoid:

• Hiring too senior too soon: Avoid candidates who are too far removed from hands-on leadership
• Over-indexing on brand names: Big company experience doesn’t guarantee small company success
• Skipping alignment checks: Make sure everyone that’s part of the interview process is aligned on requirements for this role and exactly what their role is during the interview and evaluation process. Upfront and continued alignment are paramount.
• Unclear role definitions: Define the split of responsibilities between CTO and VPE early. If you can’t define them, you might not be ready to hire this person after all.

Signs You Hired the Right Person

Companies that get this hire right unlock a new notch of execution. Use this guide to build a process that gives you the confidence to make one of the most important leadership hires in your company’s early life.

Rami Karabibar , CEO and Co-Founder of EvenUp experienced this firsthand and said, "Bringing on our first VP of Engineering was a turning point. It allowed me to truly delegate complex work and focus on company strategy, knowing execution was in great hands. They brought structure, elevated product velocity, and helped shape EvenUp as a place of high talent density—attracting top-tier engineers, fostering continuous improvement, and raising the bar for innovation and execution across the board."

You likely got it right if:

• Engineering velocity increases without sacrificing quality
• Hiring accelerates via a leader who draws in top talent and prioritizes team growth
• Founders are able to delegate and focus more on strategy
• Shipping features are more predictable, and cross-functional alignment improves
• Team morale and retention improve due to better mentorship and structure