If you examine different CTO job roles currently on job boards, you'll find that there's no established job spec for a CTO. The role varies dramatically depending on the type of company. A CTO may be hands-on in one company, and a "big vision" role in another.

Some companies also interchangeably use the CTO and VP, Engineering job roles. Bloom employed me as a VP, Engineering but my role often overlapped into areas outside engineering - such as data, security, vision, finance and stakeholder management.

After thinking about it some more, I believe there are multiple archetypes of CTO, and as a company evolves the CTO job role does too. Your mileage may vary - but in my mind the CTO job is actually six different roles depending on the stage of the company.

Not every CTO walks in a straight line through these different archetypes. Some CTOs move fluidly between stages, while others find their niche. One might be a wizard at the early stage prototyping but step aside once the team hits 100 engineers. The most effective CTOs are those who know when to evolve, when to stay in their lane, and when to hand off the baton.

1. The "Let's Get Started" CTO

The "Let's Get Started" CTO is often either the technical co-founder or the first technical member of the team. When they join, there isn't a product - just an idea. The company is likely in Pre-Seed or Seed stage.

This CTO will:

• Make foundational technology choices that will impact the company for years.
• Be a capable, self-starting technical engineer who can build working prototypes and pivot quickly to change, balancing technical debt with speed of delivery.
• Prioritise Time to Market and finding Product Market Fit as these are critical for the business.
• Be capable of working in multiple technical areas (such as infrastructure, front end, back end, IT, compliance).
• Have a keen eye for first hires and be unafraid to make changes when personnel aren't working out.
• Manage individual contributors.
• Be the technical voice in fundraising conversations with investors.

2. The "Early Stage" CTO

After the product has launched and started to gain traction, the company will begin to grow and the CTO role will too. Usually this occurs around Seed to Series A.

As the company will need further focus on process and team building, there may be a decision on whether the existing CTO continues in the role, or if they become a lead engineer.

This CTO will:

• Have a strategy for how the technical side of the company will develop.
• Be responsible for designing the processes that will define the company's technical culture and outputs.
• Delegate! They need to be capable of managing multiple teams and delegating day-to-day control to a senior within the team.
• Establish metrics and KPIs aligned with business goals - e.g. uptime percentage, time-to-hire etc
• Take part in budgets and recruitment processes.
• Build relationships with key customers for technical discussions.
• Balance longer term strategy with day to day requirements.
• Ensure the system remains live and operational - and handle and resolve any downtime incidents.
• Spend a lot less time in the codebase, and avoid the critical path!

3. The Scaling CTO

Now the business has a clear Product Market Fit, the momentum will move to onboarding customers in the product rapidly.

Business focus moves to uptime and scalability. The codebase is a distant memory and the CTO's focus is on strategy, growing the business and technical architecture.

This CTO will:

• Understand and have a strategy for how to scale the architecture for growth.
• Build partnerships with key technology vendors.
• Have a hiring plan that allows for developer growth.
• Implement incident response and on-call rotations.
• Understand the security and data implications of having larger "enterprise" clients.
• Influence the product roadmap based on technical constraints and opportunities.

4. The Expansion CTO

With customers onboarded, the company will look to new paths for expansion - this could be acquiring other companies, adding new products or moving to other markets.

At this point the CTO is fully in the strategy and business side of work. They will need to ensure they have the right set of reports and leads to ensure they are not disconnected from how the engineering team is performing.

This CTO will:

• Standardise the technology stack across multiple teams and establish technology governance frameworks for multiple teams/products.
• Create centers of excellence for specialized technical areas.
• Have an established set of contacts and relationships that they can call upon to help growth.
• Have a deeper understanding of the competition and have expertise in what to look for during acquisition due diligence.
• Manage technical integration of acquisitions.
• Navigate regulatory requirements across different markets (data residency, compliance variations)

5. The Pre-Exit CTO

At some point, the goal of many companies becomes to sell for big bucks through acquisition. In order to do this, the CTO will need to bulk up the areas which make the company attractive to buyers.

This CTO will:

• Articulate the technical vision and roadmap to potential acquirers.
• Build relationships with technical leaders at potential acquiring companies.
• Prepare comprehensive technical documentation for due diligence.
• Ensure intellectual property is properly documented and protected.
• Build redundancy in key technical roles to reduce "key person risk".
• Demonstrate technical competitive advantages and moats.
• Prepare for technical presentations to acquirer boards/leadership teams.
• Ensure the technical team can operate independently during transition periods.

6. The Interim/Turnaround CTO

No process is perfect - and sometimes a company will hit unexpected roadblocks or find themselves without a technical leader.

Some CTOs specialise in coming into struggling companies at any stage to fix technical debt, reorganize teams, or prepare for acquisition. These are often experienced technical leaders who thrive in high-pressure situations and can quickly assess what's broken.

This CTO will:

• Conduct rapid technical audits to identify critical issues and prioritize fixes.
• Make tough decisions about legacy systems, technical debt, and underperforming team members.
• Rebuild engineering culture and restore confidence in technical delivery.
• Establish emergency processes to stabilize systems and prevent further outages.
• Communicate transparently with stakeholders about technical realities and timelines.
• Bring in specialised contractors or consultants to address skill gaps quickly.
• Implement interim solutions while planning longer-term architectural improvements.
• Often serve as a bridge leader while the company searches for a permanent CTO.
• Balance urgent firefighting with building sustainable foundations for future growth.

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The CTO role is ultimately about matching technical leadership to business needs. Early-stage companies need hands-on builders; scaling companies need process architects; and expanding companies need strategic operators.

Transitions often hinge on inflection points such as raising a fund round, product market fit, the need for velocity or scale, or a re-org or acquisition. As a CTO growing with your company, proactive upskilling is key - learning to delegate and document, how to manage managers and how to embrace product and business metrics and goals - not just engineering ones.

When there's alignment between what the business requires and what the CTO is focused on, then the company will be primed for success. As a CTO, whether you evolve through all the stages or specialise in your sweet spot, success comes from being honest about where you add the most value - and where you don't. Being a great CTO isn't about holding the title. It's about recognizing what your company needs at its current stage - and whether you're the best person to lead it there.

What do you think about the stages listed here? Every company is different and some companies do activities in different orders. What is your experience with CTO roles across companies - is there anything you feel is missing?