Engineering Leadership Responsibility Matrix
Map where responsibilities should land in your engineering org. CTO owns strategy. VP Eng owns operations. Here's the matrix that separates healthy from broken.
What This Is (And What It Isn't)
If your team is 20-30+ people and you have (or are building) both a CTO and a VP Engineering, this matrix shows what healthy responsibility distribution typically looks like.
If you're smaller—still a single tech lead managing everything alongside the CTO—this is still useful as a reference for where you're heading, but don't force it onto your current structure yet.
This matrix is illustrative, not prescriptive.
Company stage, team size, individual capabilities, and specific challenges will shift where responsibilities actually land. The point is to give you a mental model: What does healthy distribution typically look like? Where are you probably out of balance?
Use this as a mirror, not a manual.
Responsibility Levels Defined
- Do: You own this. You're accountable for the outcome. Final decision lands with you.
- Lead: Primary ownership. You drive it. You consult others but you steer.
- Support: You're actively involved. You shape the work, remove blockers, provide guidance. But someone else owns it.
- Input: You provide feedback and perspective. You don't drive it.
- Follow: You stay informed and execute within the direction set by others.
- —: Not typically your domain.
The Matrix
| Work Domain | CTO | VP Engineering | Tech Lead | Senior Engineer |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Strategic Vision | Do | Support | Follow | Follow |
| Where are we going technically? What's our competitive edge? What needs to be true in 18 months? | ||||
| Architecture & System Design | Do | Input | Support/Input | Support/Input |
| Major technical decisions that shape the org. What tech choices enable strategy? | ||||
| Technical Direction for Team | Lead | Support | Do | Input |
| How does this team execute the strategy? What's their technical focus? | ||||
| Hiring: Senior/Staff Roles | Do | Support/Participate | Participate | Input |
| Recruiting and vetting architects, tech leads, staff engineers. | ||||
| Hiring: IC Roles | Input | Do | Support | Participate |
| Getting the right engineers into the team. | ||||
| Team Structure & Organization | Input | Do | Support | — |
| Who reports to whom? How many people per lead? How do teams interface? | ||||
| Operational Processes | Input | Do | Lead | Follow |
| How does the team actually work? Standups, planning, reviews, release process. | ||||
| Code Standards & Technical Practices | Do | Support | Lead | Lead |
| How do we write code? What's our bar for quality? What gets reviewed? | ||||
| Project Prioritization & Roadmap Translation | Support | Do | Support | Input |
| What ship first? Why? How does strategy become a sequence of work? | ||||
| Performance Management | — | Do | Support | — |
| Reviews, feedback, career conversations, addressing underperformance. | ||||
| Team Health & Culture | — | Do | Lead | Follow |
| Are people happy? Are they growing? What's the vibe? | ||||
| Technical Debt Management | Do | Support | Lead | Participate |
| When do we pay down debt? What's the strategy? Who decides? | ||||
| Mentoring & Skill Development | Support | Support | Do | Lead |
| Growing engineers, teaching patterns, building the next gen of leads. | ||||
| Unblocking Teams | Support | Do | Lead | Support |
| Removing organizational friction, making decisions, clearing paths. |
Ready to see where your organization actually is? Use the above matrix template to map your specific roles against this matrix. Takes 15-20 minutes. Shows you exactly which domain is your biggest bottleneck. And you can actually get the matrix as a Notion page.
What This Actually Means
CTO
Owns technical strategy and architecture. Doesn't micromanage execution. Defines the "what and why" at the highest level. Supports hiring senior people. Guides technical practices but trusts tech leads to enforce them. Explicitly not managing day-to-day processes or individual performance.
If you're drowning in tactical work: This is usually a symptom of missing operational structures. Without clear processes, standards, and delegation frameworks, tactical issues bubble up and require senior judgment to solve. You're not drowning because you're bad at delegating—you're drowning because the system to delegate into doesn't exist yet.
VP Engineering
Owns organizational structure, hiring pipeline, and processes that let strategy execute. Translates the CTO's technical direction into operational reality. Manages performance, team health, and making sure no one person is the bottleneck. Works closely with CTO but owns completely different domain.
If you're trying to also own strategy: You're blurring roles with the CTO and probably getting overwhelmed.
Tech Lead
Owns the execution and health of their specific team. Sets operational rhythm, mentors engineers, enforces standards, participates in architecture for their domain. Feeds back into strategy but doesn't own it. Primary leadership responsibility is people and team, not technology.
If you're also doing all the tactical coding: You don't have ownership structure yet, or your IC engineers don't have enough autonomy.
Senior Engineer
Owns their own execution and learning. Provides input on architecture and standards. Mentors others. Contributes to technical direction but doesn't steer it. Acts as a leader informally but doesn't carry formal team responsibility yet.
If you're also doing performance reviews: You're not ready for this yet. Stick to mentoring.
Where This Breaks Down (Most Common Patterns)
CTO drowning in tactical work:
- No operational layer built (VP Eng doesn't exist or isn't effective)
- No clear strategic direction (so everything feels equally important)
- Result: Tactical chaos requires senior judgment on every decision. CTO can't escape to strategy work. Burnout in 18 months, team stays dependent.
VP Eng trying to own Strategy:
- CTO is weak or doesn't exist
- VP Eng gets pulled into technical direction instead of focusing on organizational structure
- Result: Spread too thin, misses operational work, team structure breaks down
Tech Lead doing 80% Coding:
- No clear separation between IC and lead work
- Team doesn't trust them yet (so they feel like they have to prove it by coding)
- Result: Team doesn't develop, lead burns out, nothing scales
CTO + VP Eng + Tech Lead all pulled into Tactical Work:
- No operational processes or standards
- No clear decision frameworks
- Every issue requires a senior person to judge it
- Result: Chaos that only gets worse as you grow
How to Use This Matrix
- Map where you actually are. For each row, where is your CTO, VP Eng, Tech Leads actually spending time?
- Identify the gaps. Where should someone be "Do" but they're "Follow"? Where are they "Do" when they should be "Input"?
- Find the bottleneck. Usually one person is holding too much. That's your leverage point.
- Start with one domain. Don't try to rebalance everything. Pick the one that's causing the most pain and shift ownership.
Don't do this alone. Print this matrix or use the interactive template below. Have your CTO, VP Eng, and Tech Leads fill it out separately. The real insight comes from comparing notes—that's where you see the gaps. Get the matrix template (free download).
Important Caveats
Founder mode (3-8 people): One person does almost everything. The CTO is the VP Eng is the Tech Lead. This matrix breaks down completely. Just know you're in survival mode—plan to transition out of it as you grow.
Growth stage (8-20 people): You might not have a dedicated VP Eng yet. The operational responsibilities get split: CTO handles some operational input (hiring, structure), and strong Tech Leads cover day-to-day processes and team health. This is the transition zone. If you don't clarify who owns what, everyone gets confused.
Established stage (20-30+ people): This matrix gets closer to reality. You can support a dedicated VP Eng who owns organizational structure while the CTO focuses on strategy. If you're not following something like this, you'll hit major friction.
Individual skill matters: An exceptional Tech Lead might handle more strategic input. A weak VP Eng might need support from the CTO on organizational design. Use this as a guide, not a cage.
Next: How to Read Your Own Organization
This matrix is the diagnostic tool. The next piece will be: "Map where you are. Here's what's broken. Here's how it costs you."
