#define CTO
How to define the role of CTO is a question which has been asked for many years, and there are some "general" answers.  I would recommend two things.<p>First, read these two articles.  They're older, but provide some answers into how others have defined the role.  You might be able to pick and choose to further define your role:<p><a href="http://www.cs.princeton.edu/courses/archive/spring12/cos448/web/readings/smith.pdf" rel="nofollow">http://www.cs.princeton.edu/courses/archive/spring12/cos448/...</a><p>and<p><a href="http://www.brixtonspa.com/Career/The_Role_of_the_CTO_4Models.pdf" rel="nofollow">http://www.brixtonspa.com/Career/The_Role_of_the_CTO_4Models...</a><p>Second, I think right now it's best to look laterally into the business world as to your role.  You are essentially the "CEO" of your company's technology realm.  The VP of Engineering is the "COO".  Look and talk to your business-side counterparts on how they handle their roles.<p>Your job is to work with the business to develop both business and technical strategies, and oversee the development of the technical architecture to get you there. To monitor competitors technology.  To monitor emerging technologies.  To prototype.  To provide business and technical analysis and advice for M&A's.<p>The VP Engineering's role is to handle the day to day stuff.  To be more tactical than strategic.<p>In the end, the role of CTO is still ambiguous, meaning different things to different companies.  And it's changed in the past few years--I'd never heard of developers being in the CTO role until maybe five years ago or so--and it will continue to change.