Chief of Staff (to the SVP of Engineering) Job at SmartRecruiters

Job Description

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.

Job Responsibility

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

Requirements

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

Nice to have

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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Chief of Staff (to the SVP of Engineering)

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