> Simplifying, we could say that the CTO role is closer to architecture and code; whereas the VPE would be in charge of processes and management.<p>Hmm, not sure I fully agree with this separation between CTO and VPE (Engineering).<p>At large companies, the CTO is more of a public-facing technical person (e.g. Amazon's Werner Vogels), who doesn't necessarily have a team under him/her; or, if it does, it's a team of other CTOs (e.g. Google's Will Grannis, or VMware's Chris Wolf), as part of an "office of the CTO".<p>My sense is that, for startups, the CTO role is usually interchangeable with VP of Engineering; but most people prefer the former because it almost implies "founder" too.<p>It's a pity that there's confusion around these roles, especially if applied to different type of companies, or stage of companies (early stage vs late stage vs public).