I'm skipping over the issue of your CEO's motives - he could hate you and want you out, but assuming he doesn't.. despite the fact we've always done what we s

I'm skipping over the issue of your CEO's motives - he could hate you and want you out, but assuming he doesn't.. despite the fact we've always done what we said we would when we said we would. So you've got the commitment thing down: you make commitments and then stick to them. That's a reasonable baseline for reliability, but there is a whole world of value-add beyond it. The VPEng should be working to improve the company's ability to deliver product - even when the problems that need solving aren't with his direct reports. In particular, you say the front office has problems communicating their vision. Do you work to improve their flawed and/or vague requirements, or do you let them hang themselves, and point to the requirements document when they're unhappy with the end result? Longer term, have you tried to move towards more iterative processes (prototyping during requirements gathering, agile processes, etc) to reduce the damage done by poor requirements? You sound like you are happier around, and have performed better in, the technical aspects of your job than the management aspects. Your CEO may (grain-of-salt) have noticed this. He could even be trying to give you what he thinks you want. Consider that your CEO may have a management structure in mind where the process-and-timelines guy sits between him and the development team. Maybe you could have this job if you wanted it - but it would mean hiring a CTO to worry about the bigger picture, architecture, product etc. Your boss probably doesn't want to pervert the reporting structure he has in mind just so that roles in it matches what you want to do.