VP

VP is the abbreviation for “Vice President.” But this almost never refers to a politician — instead, it means an executive within a company. The title originated in the USA and has spread from there across the tech industry worldwide. A VP typically leads a large division of a company, such as software development or sales. Above them stand only a few people, usually the executive board with the company’s chief at the top. Anyone reading news about Google, Meta, or OpenAI that “a VP is leaving the company” learns something important: someone with considerable influence is departing.

Why the title appears so often in tech news

Large technology corporations have tens of thousands of employees. The executive board cannot possibly steer every product itself. That’s why the company is broken down into divisions, and each division gets a VP as the person in charge. These individuals decide on budgets, staffing, and the direction of entire product lines. Their names therefore appear regularly in business news.

For investors and journalists, changes at the VP level serve as an early warning sign. If the VP of artificial intelligence leaves a company and moves to a competitor, they take knowledge — and often entire teams — with them. In the AI industry, such departures have made major headlines in recent years, because experienced specialists are extremely scarce. Some companies pay eight-figure sums to poach individual executives.

At the same time, the title is an indicator of how seriously a company takes a particular topic. Creating a dedicated VP position for security or for AI ethics gives that topic weight and budget. If this position is not refilled after someone leaves, it often signals a course correction.

Where the VP sits in the hierarchy

American corporations are built in tiers. At the very top sits the CEO, the chief executive officer and thus the ultimate boss. Below that follow other “C-level” roles, whose abbreviations all begin with C for “Chief”: the CFO for finance, the CTO for technology. Only after that comes the VP level. Below the VPs work directors, below them team leads, below them individual employees.

Within the VP level there are further gradations. A “Senior VP” or “Executive VP” ranks above a plain VP and is responsible for several departments at once. At Google there is additionally the title “Google Fellow” for outstanding engineers, positioned at a similar level but without personnel responsibility. So anyone wanting to advance their career has two paths: lead, or excel technically.

A common misconception is that VP means the same thing everywhere. At investment banks like Goldman Sachs, VP is a mid-level position typically reached after about five to seven years. There, hundreds of employees hold this title. In the tech industry, by contrast, a corporation might have only a few dozen VPs. So you always have to ask in which industry the title was awarded.

VP, executive board, and German titles compared

In German companies, the title is less common because corporate law here prescribes its own terms. At the top sits the Vorstand (executive board), overseen by the Aufsichtsrat (supervisory board). Someone who leads a division below the executive board is often called “Bereichsleiter” (division head) or “Geschäftsführer” (managing director) of a subsidiary. However, corporations like SAP or Siemens also use the English titles because they operate internationally.

You will mainly encounter the term in press releases, on LinkedIn, and in reports about personnel changes. VPs also turn up in court proceedings, for instance when a Vice President testifies as a witness about internal decisions. So when you read the title, classify it roughly like this: important enough to make the news, but not quite at the very top. The rest depends on the industry and the qualifier placed in front of the title.