FWIW Carmack did this as CTO of Oculus [0]. Another configuration I've seen is for the CTO to have like 1 direct (VP Eng) who does actual eng managing. You coul

FWIW Carmack did this as CTO of Oculus [0]. Another configuration I've seen is for the CTO to have like 1 direct (VP Eng) who does actual eng managing. You could argue it's a staff engineer role but I've never seen staff engineers actually get much say over org direction/structure or be empowered to break gridlock like this. [0]: https://www.uploadvr.com/john-carmacks-app-reviews-series/ https://www.uploadvr.com/john-carmacks-app-reviews-series/