Chief of Staff (to the SVP of Engineering)

As the Chief of Staff (CoS) to the SVP of Engineering, you will become an operational "Swiss Army Knife" and a strategic partner helping to scale the executive's time, attention, and decision-making capabilities. Your mission is to close the gap between business, product, and engineering strategies and day-to-day cross-functional execution across the entire enterprise.

Operating as an "air traffic controller" for the Engineering Leadership team, you will work to align priorities, unblock cross-functional dependencies (such as the intersections between Engineering, Product Management, Go-To-Market, and Finance), and translate strategic initiatives into actionable, measurable plans. While operations leaders focus on efficiency, your fundamental mandate is effectiveness: ensuring the engineering organization is working on the right things.

Key Responsibilities:

Strategic Planning & Goal Alignment

• Support the Engineering Strategy creation process. Help with collecting data and aligning Engineering with Product, Design, and Go-To-Market teams
• Translate the Engineering Strategy into Actionable Workstreams by breaking it down into departmental OKRs and quarterly initiatives
• Own the OKR framework and cadence by designing the annual and quarterly planning process
• Enforce organizational focus by limiting and safeguarding strategic WIP
• Foster the psychological safety required to set ambitious "stretch goals"

Rhythm of the Business & Executive Operations

• Design and facilitate the engineering leadership operating cadence
• Lead the weekly status calls by setting the agenda, circulating pre-reads, and following up on action items
• Capture critical decision logs and translate decisions into action
• Manage the Quarterly Business Review (QBR) and OKR grading cascades
• Own the cadence, content, and execution of engineering leadership off-sites

Strategic Communications & Culture

• Distill complex technical work into clear executive briefs, board-level narratives, and compelling organizational updates
• Prepare the SVP for the Executive Team and Board of Directors meetings by synthesizing complex technical progress into exec-ready presentations
• Help with building agenda and content for All Engineering and All R&D meetings

Financial Stewardship & Workforce Management

• Partner directly with the CFO, Chief People Officer and Executive Team to secure the overarching engineering budget and determine macro-level organizational design
• Support capacity planning and resulting hiring plan design and execution
• Partner with the People Team on designing Engineering Performance Management, Compensation Philosophy, and Promotion Processes
• Track Business Impact Metrics, including project Return on Investment (ROI), avoided costs, budget variance, and strategic resource allocation

Cross-Functional & Special Projects

• Act as a trusted proxy to resolve escalations and pressure-test assumptions without requiring the SVP's constant presence
• Lead ambiguous, cross-functional initiatives such as M&A technical due diligence, cross-departmental restructurings, or new market entry analyses

• Relevant Experience: proven experience in Engineering Operations, Technical Program Management, Management Consulting, or Engineering Leadership, preferably within a high-growth or scaling technology company
• Technical Fluency: strong systems and architectural literacy; able to engage deeply with Principal Engineers, understand complex technical trade-offs
• Strategic Execution: demonstrated success designing, implementing, and managing organizational goal-setting frameworks (e.g., OKRs) and operating cadences (e.g., QBRs, strategic planning) at an enterprise scale
• Business & Financial Acumen: proven track record of partnering closely with Finance and People teams to drive macro-level capacity planning, manage departmental budgets, and track project ROI.
• Executive Communication: Exceptional written and verbal communication skills, with a distinct ability to distill complex technical work into crisp, compelling board-level narratives and organizational updates
• Leadership & Influence: high EQ and low ego, with a proven ability to lead through influence without direct authority, pressure-test senior leaders' assumptions, and foster a culture of psychological safety

Preferred Qualifications

• Previous experience serving as a Chief of Staff, Staff/Principal TPM, or an Engineering Manager who transitioned into strategic operations
• Direct experience managing post-M&A technical integrations or driving cross-departmental organizational restructurings
• Strong data analysis skills (e.g., SQL, advanced financial modeling) to independently query and validate business impact metrics

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