Hiring Directors of Engineering: The Complete Guide

What Directors of Engineering Actually Do

Directors of Engineering operate at the intersection of people, technology, and business.

People Leadership

Primary responsibility:

• Manager development — Growing engineering managers into effective leaders
• Career frameworks — Defining growth paths and promotion criteria
• Performance management — Calibrations, reviews, difficult conversations
• Hiring strategy — Workforce planning, hiring bar, interview processes
• Culture building — Engineering values, team health, inclusion

Organizational Design

Structuring for effectiveness:

• Team topology — How teams are organized and interact
• Scope allocation — What each team owns and why
• Scaling decisions — When to split teams, create new roles
• Process optimization — Ceremonies, communication patterns, decision-making

Technical Strategy

Guiding technical direction:

• Architecture oversight — Ensuring technical decisions align with business needs
• Technical debt — Prioritization and paydown strategies
• Platform decisions — Build vs. buy, tooling investments
• Quality standards — Testing, deployment, operational excellence

Cross-Functional Partnership

Working across the organization:

• Product collaboration — Roadmap planning, prioritization, trade-offs
• Executive communication — Status, risks, resource needs
• Stakeholder management — Other departments, external partners
• Company-wide initiatives — Security, compliance, infrastructure

Director vs. Related Roles

Director vs. VP of Engineering

Director vs. Staff/Principal Engineer

When You Need Each

• Director — Growing engineering organization needs leadership across multiple teams
• VP — Company-wide engineering leadership needed
• Staff Engineer — Complex technical problems need expert-level solutions

Experience Levels

First-Time Director (0-2 years in role)

Capabilities:

• Manages 2-4 engineering managers effectively
• Sets team goals aligned with company strategy
• Handles performance management across teams
• Builds hiring pipeline for organization
• Navigates cross-functional collaboration

Learning areas:

• Organizational design at scale
• Executive communication
• Strategic planning beyond immediate teams
• Building senior leadership bench

Experienced Director (2-5 years in role)

Capabilities:

• Manages 5-8 engineering managers
• Designs organizational structures
• Drives technical strategy for large areas
• Builds and retains strong leadership team
• Partners effectively with executives
• Handles organizational change

Growing toward:

• VP-level scope
• Company-wide influence
• Executive presence

VP-Ready Director (5+ years in role)

Capabilities:

• Could run engineering for small company
• Builds directors and strong leaders
• Shapes company technical strategy
• Operates at executive level
• Drives organizational transformation
• Industry recognition

Interview Focus Areas

Leadership Track Record

Past performance predicts future success:

• "Tell me about a team you built from scratch. How did you hire and develop the first managers?"
• "Describe a time you had to restructure your organization. What drove the decision?"
• "Tell me about an underperforming manager. How did you handle it?"
• "How have you developed engineering managers into directors?"

Organizational Design

Structuring for scale:

• "How do you decide when to split a team?"
• "What's your approach to defining team boundaries and ownership?"
• "How do you handle platform vs. product team dynamics?"
• "Describe your ideal engineering organization structure"

Technical Strategy

Technology leadership:

• "How do you prioritize technical debt against features?"
• "How do you ensure technical decisions align with business goals?"
• "Tell me about a major technical decision you drove across your organization"
• "How do you stay technically credible without coding?"

Cross-Functional Collaboration

Working with the business:

• "How do you partner with product leadership on roadmap?"
• "Describe a conflict with another department. How did you resolve it?"
• "How do you communicate engineering needs to executives?"
• "How do you handle competing priorities from multiple stakeholders?"

Common Hiring Mistakes

Promoting Strong ICs to Director

Great engineers don't automatically make great directors. Director is primarily a people leadership role. Promoting someone who wants to code leads to frustrated teams and unhappy directors. Evaluate management track record, not technical skills.

Hiring Based on Company Pedigree

"10 years at Google" doesn't mean someone can build teams at a startup. Different contexts require different skills. Big company directors may struggle with startup ambiguity. Startup directors may struggle with big company politics. Evaluate for your context.

Ignoring Cultural Fit

Directors shape culture for dozens of engineers. A director whose values conflict with company culture creates organizational friction. Evaluate cultural alignment carefully—it's harder to change than skills.

Underweighting Manager Development

The best directors grow great leaders. Ask specifically about how they've developed managers. "I had good managers" is different from "I developed managers into directors." Look for deliberate leadership development.

Expecting Hands-On Technical Work

Directors should be technical enough to guide strategy and evaluate decisions, but their value is in leadership, not coding. If you need technical depth, hire Staff/Principal Engineers. If you need organizational leadership, hire Directors.

Where to Find Director Candidates

High-Signal Sources

• Growing companies — Engineering leaders at companies that scaled successfully
• Director networks — Engineering leadership communities, conferences
• Referrals — Other directors and VPs in your network
• Executive recruiters — For hard-to-fill senior roles
• Leadership programs — Graduates of engineering leadership training

Red Flags When Sourcing

• Only individual contributor experience
• Never managed managers (only managed ICs)
• Short tenures without clear growth
• Cannot describe team building with specifics
• Bad references from former reports

Recruiter's Cheat Sheet

Resume Green Flags

• Scaled engineering teams (specific numbers)
• Managed engineering managers (not just ICs)
• Cross-functional leadership experience
• Track record of developing leaders
• Experience at company growth stage similar to yours
• Specific accomplishments with metrics

Resume Yellow Flags

• Only large company experience (may struggle with ambiguity)
• Never managed managers before
• Technical focus without leadership breadth
• Vague accomplishments without specifics
• Short tenures at multiple companies

Compensation Components