Chief of Staff to the CTO

northwoodspace•Los Angeles, CA

24d

About The Position

Northwood is looking for a Chief of Staff to the CTO to help scale the impact of Northwood’s engineering leadership by translating technical expertise into execution across the company. In this role, you’ll act as the CTO’s force multiplier – owning the operational, coordination, and execution work required to keep complex product and engineering efforts moving forward. You’ll work closely with the CTO, engineering Heads, and business development teams to translate strategy into clear plans, track progress, and ensure teams stay aligned as Northwood scales. This is a highly trusted, hands-on role at the intersection of technical leadership, execution, and organizational clarity.

Requirements

Bachelor's degree in an engineering discipline
5+ years of experience in technical program management, engineering, product operations, or similar roles
Experience coordinating complex work across multiple engineering teams
Strong organizational skills and comfort operating with ambiguity

Nice To Haves

Experience operating as an information hub for senior technical leadership
Excellent systems thinking and the ability to reason about dependencies and tradeoffs
High judgment, discretion, and ability to operate in a trusted leadership role
Ability to drive clarity, alignment, and momentum without formal authority
Bias toward action and ownership – seeing gaps and filling them

Responsibilities

Serve as a strategic thought partner to the CTO, pressure-testing priorities and shaping technical direction
Drive complex, cross-functional initiatives to completion, ensuring clear ownership, sequencing, and outcomes
Act as an extension of the CTO in key forums, aligning teams and reinforcing engineering priorities across the company
Partner with engineering leadership to define and continuously rebalance resource allocation across product and technical priorities
Maintain clear ownership models and execution visibility across major engineering initiatives
Design and run lightweight operating rhythms (planning reviews, roadmap syncs, weekly execution checkpoints)
Synthesize progress, risks, and dependencies into concise updates for leadership
Ensure alignment across engineering, product, and BD through structured, consistent communication
Support the development and maintenance of long-term technical and product roadmaps
Help manage the process of aligning engineering execution with business and customer priorities
Surface tradeoffs and constraints to support executive decision-making