Engineering Leadership: A Hiring Blueprint for $0 to $50M ARR
An analysis of the backgrounds of Engineering executives at SaaS companies from $0M to $50M ARR
We believe executive hiring is the final frontier within the modern organization that has yet to benefit from the proliferation of data. Despite having data to guide nearly every other business decision – and despite the criticality of executive hiring decisions – CEOs and Founders have heretofore largely relied on anecdotal guidance.
We hope this analysis, which examines the backgrounds of Engineering executives at SaaS companies from $0M to $50M ARR, serves as a north star as you build and scale your engineering organization.
Head of Engineering Hiring Overview
- Companies typically have 2-3 Heads of Engineering from founding to IPO, with co-founders often leading the engineering organization initially.
- Companies with 2 leaders tend to transition to an externally hired leader during the mid-growth stages ($20M - $100M ARR).
- As a company matures, more formal management systems become necessary, requiring a different skill set from the Head of Engineering.
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Hiring for Success
- One of the key operational traits we evaluated is whether having prior experience in leading entire engineering organizations is necessary.
- We found that leaders with prior Head of Engineering experience often stay 2x longer than those without this qualification.
- CEOs should prioritize leaders with prior Head of Engineering experience at private SaaS companies, particularly those from <$50M ARR companies, as they have the greatest longevity.
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