Structured interviews enable any team member to conduct interviews, not just the CTO or hiring managers. Having more people be able to interview candidates skillfully and efficiently saves time for leaders and empowers team members to select their future colleagues (or managers), looking for signals the hiring manager wouldn’t look for. You should train team members to conduct interviews and know what to look for.

When interviewing a VP of Engineering, you should involve the following team members:

• An HR business partner (or a talent agency)
• The CTO (or another person if they’re not the hiring manager)
• A future direct report (Engineering Manager or Director)
• A future stakeholder from another department (Head of Product, Head of Sales…)

An interview schedule when hiring a VP of Engineering should look like this:

• Competencies (Behaviours) | | Session 2 | Future direct report + future stakeholder | Competencies (Knowledge and Skills) | | Session 3 | Hiring manager | Competencies (Knowledge, Skills and Behaviours) |