Hiring a VP of Platform? Look Beyond the Tech

Kieran
Nov 11
3 min read

Over the last few months we’ve interviewed 50+ platform leaders. Here’s what we’re hearing on repeat: the shared experiences, the traps to avoid, and the questions CTOs and hiring managers should be asking.

Platform is a product, not a police force

The mature mindset is enablement. Great platform leaders build paved roads, self-service environments, and design systems that make the “right” way also the fastest way. The best of them see adoption as a product challenge, not a mandate.

Why Developer Experience Is Key to Platform Leadership

Developer frustration remains one of the top drivers of attrition. Strong leaders treat DevEx as a first-class product: one-click environments, AI-assisted tooling, and systems that slash onboarding pain. Get this right and you don’t just move faster - you keep your best engineers.

Cost discipline, without killing speed

Smart leaders know when to trade short-term velocity for long-term reliability and cost control. The best can also show the numbers: infra spend before vs after, deployment frequency, MTTR.

Raising the bar with frameworks

Competency frameworks and levelling are everywhere. Not for bureaucracy sake, to give clarity. Setting expectations, enabling constructive feedback, and giving people a visible path to progress. Done well, this lifts performance and exposes underperformance quickly.

Leadership First, Tech Second

At VP level, deep technical expertise is a given - it’s the baseline, not the differentiator. The best platform leaders stand out for how they lead people, not just systems. They build trust across functions, break down silos between product, infra, and security, and create clarity in complex environments.

They know when to get into the detail and when to step back. They communicate trade-offs without jargon, turn competing priorities into shared goals, and set a tone where engineers feel empowered, not managed.

The strongest operators build alignment as deliberately as architecture - because a great platform isn’t just about the tools, it’s about the teams who use them.

Where Leaders Differ

Security & governance scars: Some have been through PCI, SOC2, GDPR or incident response at scale; others haven’t. If your business is exposed, hire the scars.
Commercial impact: A handful can tie platform uplift directly to revenue: enabling new product lines, securing enterprise clients, or driving M&A readiness. That’s rare and valuable.
DevEx obsession: Some treat it as hygiene, others as their differentiator. The latter group drive genuine velocity.
Cost take-out at scale: The strongest operators come armed with detailed before-and-after numbers. Storytellers don’t.

The Questions Worth Asking

When you’re hiring at VP of Platform level, too often the focus is on the tech, for real value you should be testing leadership. The best candidates balance architecture and alignment, clarity and influence.

Here are three questions that separate the good from the great:

“Tell me about a time you had to rebuild trust or alignment between platform and product teams. What caused the disconnect, and how did you fix it?”

This reveals how they lead through conflict, build cross-functional trust, and drive alignment when things get messy.

“How do you decide when to get into the technical detail versus stepping back and letting your teams lead?”

Tests self-awareness and leadership maturity; the ability to balance empowerment with accountability.

“What’s your playbook for breaking down silos across functions without slowing delivery?”

Shows how they turn collaboration into a system keeping speed and alignment in balance.

Motive View

Most hiring processes for platform leaders are too focused on tech depth and not enough on influence, alignment, and execution.

The best VPs of Platform act like product leaders. They build for adoption, lead with context, and balance engineering ambition with commercial reality.

If your candidate can’t explain how they build trust across functions, reduce infra spend, and keep engineers moving fast - they’re not ready.