Most companies hiring a CTO think they need “a strong technical leader.”
That sounds clear enough — until you actually start speaking to candidates.
What tends to happen is that the role gets pulled in multiple directions. Product, engineering, infrastructure, and strategy all end up bundled into one position.
This is where CTO recruitment often becomes misaligned before it even properly begins.
The Core Confusion: What Is the CTO Actually Responsible For?
One of the biggest issues is that “CTO” means very different things depending on the business.
In some companies, the CTO is:
- Leading engineering teams and building the product
In others, they’re:
- Setting long-term technology strategy and architecture
And in some cases, they’re expected to:
- Manage infrastructure, security, and internal systems
These are not the same roles.
When that distinction isn’t clear, the hiring process becomes inconsistent very quickly.
Why the Wrong Profiles Get Hired
When the role isn’t properly defined, companies tend to default to familiar profiles.
That usually leads to:
- Strong engineers stepping into leadership roles without experience at scale
- Technical leaders who lack product thinking
- Infrastructure-focused profiles when the business actually needs product leadership
None of these are bad hires in isolation.
But if the business is trying to build or scale a product, the gap becomes obvious quite quickly.
Product vs Platform vs Infrastructure
One of the biggest distinctions that often gets missed is the difference between three types of CTO profiles:
Product-focused CTO
- Owns how the product is built
- Works closely with product and commercial teams
- Focused on scalability, performance, and user experience
Platform / architecture CTO
- Focuses on systems design and long-term technical direction
- Ensures the business can scale without breaking
Infrastructure CTO
- Focused on internal systems, cloud, security, and reliability
Most businesses need one of these more than the others.
Trying to hire all three into one role is where things tend to go wrong.
Why Inbound Hiring Doesn’t Work
Posting a CTO role usually creates interest, but not alignment.
You’ll often see:
- Developers stepping up into leadership roles
- Technically strong candidates without strategic experience
- Profiles that look good on paper but don’t match the actual need
At this level, the strongest candidates are already leading engineering or technology teams and are rarely applying directly.
That shifts the process from attracting candidates to identifying the right ones.
The Netherlands Market Dynamic
In the Netherlands, this becomes even more pronounced.
There’s strong demand for CTOs, particularly in:
- SaaS and product-led businesses
- Scale-ups and venture-backed companies
- Organisations going through digital transformation
But the number of individuals who can combine:
- Deep technical expertise
- Product understanding
- Leadership at scale
…is relatively limited.
That’s why many CTO searches either stall or end up being restarted.
What Makes the Difference
The difference usually comes down to clarity before going to market.
Specifically:
- Is this a product-led or infrastructure-led role?
- How hands-on does the CTO need to be?
- Are you building, scaling, or stabilising?
- How closely does the role interact with product and commercial teams?
Once those points are clear, the process becomes far more focused.
Final Thought
Most issues in CTO hiring don’t come down to candidate quality — they come down to how the role is defined.
Once that’s clear, everything else tends to fall into place.
If you’re trying to get a better sense of how different CTO roles are approached in practice, this gives a fairly clear overview of how the process tends to work:
