LIVE CHATAPPLY TO JOIN

Where technology leaders compare notes, and companies find them.

A peer club for CTOs and VPs of Engineering. A hiring hub for CEOs, boards and founders who need one. The same evidence standard on both sides.

I LEAD TECHNOLOGYI'M HIRING A CTO
1Hosted peer session each month
4Pages a hiring committee needs before a search opens
7Sectors with their own hiring guide and pay cut
0Pay figures published without source, period and sample size
01

Two ways in

Members bring live decisions. Companies bring open searches. The club sits between them.

For technology leaders

CTOs, VPs of Engineering, heads of technology
  • A hosted peer session each month. Bring one decision. Leave with what 8 people who made it would do differently.
  • Member briefings. Each session becomes a short written piece: what was decided, what was traded off.
  • Your own pay against a benchmark with a published method. Cohort, source, period, sample size.
  • Introductions to companies hiring at your stage and sector, only when you choose to take part.
Founding membership is free. Applications reviewed for experience and contribution.APPLY TO JOIN

For companies hiring

CEOs, boards, founders, CHROs
  • The role guide. What a CTO owns, what a VP of Engineering owns, and which one your open question calls for.
  • Job descriptions by company stage, with the requirements worth cutting.
  • Compensation bands with the cohort shown above the number.
  • Interview questions and a committee scorecard, so 5 assessors read the same evidence the same way.
No membership needed. Take the document and go.SEE THE HIRING PATH
02

A month in the club

One session, one briefing, and introductions only for those who opt in.

MKAR+6
WEEK 1
Peer session

One member brings one decision. 8 people, 60 minutes, hosted.

WEEK 2
Briefing goes out

The session in 600 words: the decision, the tradeoffs, what to watch for.

WEEK 3
Introductions

A member who opted in meets a company hiring at their stage and sector.

WEEK 4
Benchmark review

Compensation bands checked and re-dated.

03

The hiring path

Read in this order. Each page produces something the next one uses.

1ROLE GUIDE

Decide which role

A CTO decides what to build and bet on. A VP of Engineering makes sure it ships. Past 80 engineers you need both.

DIRECT ANSWERHire a CTO when the open question is direction. Hire a VP of Engineering when the open question is execution.
2JOB DESCRIPTION

Write it in 8 sections

Why the role exists, 3 first-year outcomes, decision rights, what they inherit, how you'll decide.

CUT FROM YOURS10+ years experience
Degree required
Rockstar, passionate
Anything you can't measure
3COMPENSATION

Set the band from the mandate

Pick the cohort matching your stage, sector and location. Read the method before the number.

EVERY ROW SHOWSCohort · source type · observation period · sample size · how the total was built
4INTERVIEW

Ask for evidence, not attributes

20 questions grouped by assessment area. The same questions to every candidate. Scored before the committee meets.

STRONG ANSWER HASA baseline and a result number · a named person they hired or removed · a decision they got wrong, with a date

The search brief builder puts the committee on one page before outreach starts.

MANDATE3 FIRST-YEAR OUTCOMESCOMPANY CONTEXTAUTHORITYTEAM AND RESOURCESREQUIRED EVIDENCECOMPENSATIONDECISION PROCESS
BUILD MY SEARCH BRIEF
04

Compensation you can check

A "CTO salary" mixing a 4-engineer startup with a listed company is a number with no use. Every figure here shows who was counted.

4

Fields before a figure renders: source, period, sample size, method.

Methodology
12

Minimum observations before a median is shown.

Display rules
90

Days between reviews of any published band.

Review schedule
Cohort shown above the number, same size
Grant value, paper value and realised proceeds kept apart
Small samples show a range, never a median
Missing cohorts named on the page, not filled in
05

What changes by sector

Nobody searches "CTO job description". They search "fintech CTO job description". Each sector gets its own mandate, evidence, questions and pay cut.

FINTECH
A regulator who can stop the business

Evidence: a control that failed, and how long closing it took.

 B2B SAAS
Customers who audit you

Multi-tenancy decisions, and a CTO whose week includes customer calls.

 HEALTHCARE
Clinical safety as an interface

Validated systems, patient data, procurement in quarters.

 RETAIL
Peak day as an existential problem

Physical inventory and a fulfilment estate behind every decision.

 MANUFACTURING
OT beside IT

Equipment with 30-year lifespans, safety certification, the plant floor.

 AI-NATIVE
Compute as the largest cost line

Research and product on one roadmap. A talent market repriced quarterly.

 PRIVATE EQUITY
A hold period and a sponsor

Cost-to-serve targets. Integrations and carve-outs dominate year 1.
ALL SECTORS
Same 6 questions on every page

So a reader compares sectors on the same terms.

06

Ask CTO Club, live

On every page. Answers come from published pages, each with a source link, and never a figure the site hasn't published.

Says "not published yet" instead of estimating a band.
No named individuals, no CVs, no legal advice.
A person takes over from the chat header in business hours.
Unanswered questions become the next pages we write.
Ask CTO ClubTalk to a person
Answers come from published CTO Club pages. Please don't paste candidate names or confidential company detail.
07

Apply to join

Tell us what you lead, what you're deciding, and what you can contribute. We review each application for relevant experience and contribution.

Founding membership is free. Company hiring pages need no membership.