The right CTO or CPO isn't necessarily the strongest technologist or product expert you can find. It's the leader your company needs for its next phase. Having recruited 19 technology and product leadership roles since 2022, we're sharing what we've learned about defining these roles, finding the right candidates, and assessing leadership alongside technical expertise.

Hiring a Chief Technology Officer (CTO) or Chief Product Officer (CPO) is an important decision for any company, and getting it right starts long before the first candidate interview. While technical expertise and previous leadership experience are essential, the real challenge is understanding what the company needs from the role and finding someone whose experience matches those requirements.

As a recruitment partner, we've worked with companies across Norway and Sweden to recruit technology and product leaders at different levels. Since 2022, our Recruitment Projects have resulted in 19 leadership appointments, including seven CTOs, two CPOs, one CIO, and nine heads and VPs across engineering, technology, product, data, security, and UX. These recuritments span industries including health tech and med tech, maritime technology, banking, software and SaaS, AI, cloud storage, and robotics, with clients ranging from scaleups to large, established companies.

In this article, we'll look at what companies should consider when recruiting a CTO or CPO, how these two roles differ, and what our own recruitment data tells us about finding and assessing senior technology leaders.

Hiring a CTO or CPO: Getting the role right

When recruiting a CTO or CPO, the challenge isn't simply finding someone with the strongest technical or product background, but identifying the leader who fits the company's current needs and next stage of growth.

A CTO typically oversees technology strategy, architecture, and engineering teams, while a CPO connects product development with customer needs and commercial objectives. However, the responsibilities of both roles vary depending on the company's size, structure, and maturity.

In our experience, defining these responsibilities before starting the search is essential. This includes understanding what the new leader should accomplish, how hands-on they need to be, and how product and technology leadership should work together.

It's also important to look beyond job titles. Candidates with experience as VP Engineering, Head of Technology, VP Product, or Product Director may be equally well suited, provided they've navigated similar challenges and have the leadership capabilities the company needs.

The technology leadership roles we've helped companies fill

Most of our technology leadership recruitment has focused on two levels: C-level executives responsible for the overall technology or product function, and the heads and VPs who lead the teams and specialist areas within it.

Of the 19 appointments completed through our recruitment projects since 2022, ten have been C-level positions, consisting of seven CTOs, two CPOs, and one CIO. The remaining nine appointments have been leadership roles across engineering, technology, product, data, security, and UX.

One example of our work is our long-standing partnership with Unacast, where we've helped recruit key technology leaders, including a CTO, VP Data, and VP Engineering, alongside appointments across product, design, and engineering.

What our recruitment data tells us about hiring technology leaders

Having completed 19 technology and product leadership recruitments, we've also been able to look at how these searches have developed, from identifying potential candidates to making the final appointment.

One of the clearest findings is the importance of active search when recruiting senior technology leaders.

Of the 18 appointments where we've recorded the candidate source, 13 came through active search rather than job advertisements or referrals. That means approximately 72% of these hires resulted from us identifying and approaching candidates directly.

For companies looking to recruit a CTO or CPO, this highlights the value of looking beyond candidates who are actively applying for new positions. A significant part of our work involves mapping relevant companies and identifying individuals whose experience matches the requirements of the role, even if they aren't currently looking for another opportunity.

This also means considering different job titles when searching. Depending on the position, relevant candidates might currently be working as CTOs, Heads of Engineering, VPs of Engineering, or technology leaders under other titles. By focusing on responsibilities and experience rather than titles alone, we can identify candidates who might otherwise be overlooked.

What does a typical C-level technology search look like?

Another interesting finding from our data is how the candidate pool develops throughout the recruitment process.

Across our C-level technology searches with complete process data, the median search involved approaching 40 candidates directly. This was followed by 19 screenings, nine first interviews, five second interviews, and one offer.

These figures illustrate how a structured recruitment process gradually narrows the candidate pool, allowing the hiring team to focus on the people whose experience and capabilities best match the requirements established at the beginning of the search.

When looking at the time involved, the median period from project start to signed contract was 76 days, or approximately 11 weeks, for C-level technology hires with complete timing data. Naturally, this will vary depending on the role and the requirements of the company, but it provides an indication of the timelines we've seen across our own searches.

What matters when recruiting technical executives?

Although every CTO and CPO search has its own requirements, our experience has shown the importance of four areas in particular: defining the role properly, searching actively for relevant candidates, assessing leadership alongside technical expertise, and maintaining a structured recruitment process.

1. Define the role before defining the ideal candidate

Every project starts with a job analysis together with the hiring team, where we establish why the role exists, what the company needs the person to accomplish, and how the position fits into the organization.

For CTO and CPO appointments, this includes understanding the company's strategy, reporting lines, responsibilities, and how the role is expected to develop. We also work with the hiring team to distinguish between essential requirements and preferences, including previous experience, language, and location.

Based on this analysis, we establish a search strategy that outlines which companies, industries, and geographical markets are relevant, as well as any organizations that should be excluded from the search, such as close partners or sister companies.

The purpose is to make sure the recruitment process is built around the company's actual needs rather than a broad or unnecessarily restrictive candidate profile.

2. Search actively for candidates with relevant experience

Once the role has been defined, we begin mapping the market to identify candidates whose backgrounds match the requirements.

This involves researching relevant companies, identifying potential candidates across different leadership titles, and approaching them directly. We also establish weekly sourcing targets and track progress throughout the search to maintain a structured approach.

As our own recruitment data shows, active search has been an important source of technology leadership appointments, particularly for CTO and CPO positions where relevant candidates may not be actively applying for new roles.

3. Assess leadership as carefully as technical expertise

Technical expertise and relevant functional experience are important when recruiting technology executives, but they need to be assessed alongside the leadership capabilities required to succeed in the position.

At Amby, we use the initial job analysis to develop a scorecard that guides the assessment process, combining structured interviews, relevant cases, and psychometric testing.

Together with the hiring team, we identify the four personality competencies considered most important for the role and assess them using Aon's Adept-15 personality test. Where relevant, we also include ability tests to provide additional insight into candidates' capabilities.

This approach allows us to assess candidates against consistent criteria and gives the hiring team a more structured basis for making the final decision.

4. Keep the recruitment process structured and focused

A clear process is important throughout any recruitment project, particularly when several stakeholders are involved in assessing and selecting a senior executive.

For our CTO and CPO searches, each Recruitment Project has a dedicated search lead with specialist expertise in technology and product recruitment. This person manages the process from the initial job analysis through candidate search, assessment, reference checks, and the final offer.

The hiring company remains involved in defining the role, agreeing on the search strategy, participating in relevant interviews, and making the final hiring decision, while we manage the recruitment work and coordinate the process.

For companies that have already identified a potential CTO or CPO, we can also provide an independent final-stage assessment without conducting a full search.

Finding the right leader for your next phase

Whether a company is looking to recruit its first CTO, introduce dedicated product leadership, or strengthen an existing technology organization, the requirements of the role should reflect where the business is today and what it needs to achieve next.

Our experience across 19 technology and product leadership roles has shown us that successful searches start with a clear understanding of those requirements, followed by an active search and an assessment process that considers both functional expertise and leadership capabilities.

The right candidate isn't necessarily the person with the most senior title or the longest technical background, but someone with the experience and capabilities to take responsibility for the challenges the company is looking to solve.

At Amby, we support companies throughout this process through our Recruitment Projects, from defining the role and mapping the market to assessing candidates and completing the appointment.

Looking for your next CTO, CPO, or technology leader? Contact us.