Types of Technical Executives

Research and development (R&D)

• Some companies focus on expanding the cutting edge of technology, and therefore may have a senior leader in the technology organization who is focused on experimentation, research, and new technology generation. This role might own technology strategy, or it might be purely a role for finding new ideas. Technology strategy/visionary

• Technology strategy meets product development. This person often also manages the product organization. He’s focused on how technology can be used to grow the business and works to predict the evolution of technology as it applies to the company’s industry. This differs from R&D in that the visionary isn’t usually focused on research potential; he uses business and technology trends to guide his decisions.

Organization

• The organizational manager guides the structure and people in the organization. She owns the plans for staffing the team as well as organizational structure, ensuring projects are staffed accordingly. This role is often paired with “Execution,” discussed next.

Execution

• Usually paired with “Organization,” this person makes sure things actually get done. He helps align roadmaps, plan work, and coordinate large efforts. He makes sure that projects get prioritized. He breaks roadblocks, resolves conflicts, and makes decisions in order to get the team moving forward.

Face of technology, external

• When a company sells software-based products to other companies, one of the senior technology leaders usually is expected to participate in this sales cycle. She may attend client meetings and speak at conferences to encourage use of the product. A company that is invested in building an engineering brand for hiring purposes may also need one of the senior leaders to play this role by speaking at conferences and recruiting events.

Infrastructure and technical operations manager

• This is the person responsible for all of the technology infrastructure and infrastructure operations. This role might be cost-focused, security-focused, or scaling-focused depending on the company and stage of evolution.

Business executive

• This is someone whose first focus is the business itself. This person understands the industry and understands the other essential functions of the business at a high level. He balances internal development needs with business growth needs and owns prioritization of projects at a high level.⊕ (Fournier 2017, chap. 9)