Key Takeaways
- At seed-stage companies, the Head of Product reports to the CEO about 90% of the time; at later stages ($500M+ raised), that drops to about 75%.
- Reporting to the CTO or Head of Engineering becomes somewhat more common as companies mature, but it's still the minority path.
- A Head of Product reporting through engineering tends to be less customer-facing, while one reporting to the CEO tends to stay closer to company vision and go-to-market strategy.
- A Head of Product is typically the senior-most product leader at an earlier-stage or smaller company; a CPO is the C-level version of that role, almost always reporting to the CEO.
Originally published October 24, 2024. Updated July 2026.
We’ve looked into a few questions around the CEO reporting chain. For example, is it a red flag if the Chief Information Security Officer (CISO) doesn’t report to the CEO? What about the Chief Human Resources Officer (CHRO)?
Today, let’s ask the same question about the Head of Product. We’ll take a look at Head of Product reporting chain benchmarks, as well as how much Product Managers (PMs) and Heads of Product make in terms of compensation.
Who does the Head of Product report to?
We analyzed the data across 2,411 Pave customers, identifying the senior-most product leader at each of these companies—titles like Head of Product, VP of Product, Chief Product Officer, etc. Then, we looked at who this person reports to: the CEO, the CTO (or the senior-most engineering leader), or another executive.
At the seed stage ($0-5M capital raised), the Head of Product reports to the CEO about 90% of the time. At later stages ($500M+ capital raised), the Head of Product reports to the CEO about 75% of the time.
Over time as companies mature, it becomes a bit more likely for the Head of Product to report to the Head of Engineering (CTO/VP Eng/equivalent), but having your product leader report to your engineering leader is still in the minority.
There are numerous pros and cons to the decision here, and all companies are different. One key consideration is the zone of genius for your CEO (particularly if they are also the founder). Are they a product visionary, a sales savant, or an operational wizard? This can certainly have an impact on the reporting structure.
The trade-off is worth naming directly. A Head of Product who reports through engineering may build a more technically rigorous product, but could end up less customer-facing and slower to pick up on go-to-market or commercial signals. A Head of Product who reports to the CEO might stay closer to company vision and strategy, since they sit at the same table as sales, marketing, and other go-to-market functions from the start.
Neither structure is universally correct; it depends on where your company's biggest execution risk actually lives.
A similar dynamic shows up one layer down in the org chart too: see Pave's data on who your Head of Product Design should report to, where the same CEO-vs-function tension plays out between reporting to the CEO, the Head of Product, or engineering.
Product Manager Salary Benchmarks
While we’re on the topic of Heads of Product, how much do Product Managers, Managers of Product Managers, and Product execs make in terms of compensation?
When you’re going through your actual benchmarking and range pricing exercises, it’s best practice to get more granular with your peer set. Here, however, let’s focus on all public companies in Pave’s dataset across all USA locations.
As we can see, base salary benchmarks for individual contributors in the 50th percentile range from $111,250 for P1 to $292,420 for P6. For managers, the benchmarks start at $192,756 for M3 and shoot up to $307,019 for M6, the Senior Director level.
For executives in the 50th percentile, the data shows salary benchmarks of $342,200 for E7 (VP) and $423,000 for E9 (C-Level).
Equity Benchmarks for Product Leaders
Equity compensation is another crucial benchmark to consider. First, let’s look at the gross intended annual new hire equity for the product management ladder.
We’ll call out the total equity ownership benchmarks for VPs of Product and Chief Product Officers separately, because they are staggering.
For an E7 (VP Product) in the 50th Percentile, the total equity ownership benchmark is $2,486,551. For E9 (Chief Product Officer), it’s $6,197,688.
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Matt Schulman is CEO and founder of Pave, the complete platform for Total Rewards professionals. Prior to Pave, he was a software engineer at Facebook focusing on user-centric mobile experiences. A self-proclaimed "comp nerd," Matt is known for sharing data-driven thought leadership around all things compensation and personal finance.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) About Head of Product Reporting
What does Head of Product do?
A Head of Product owns the company's product strategy and roadmap, prioritizing what gets built and why. The role typically manages Product Managers, sets the vision for what the product should become, and represents the product organization in cross-functional and executive conversations.
Who does the Head of Product typically report to?
Most commonly, the CEO. Pave data shows this holds true about 90% of the time at seed-stage companies, easing to roughly 75% at later-stage companies as some organizations shift the Head of Product under a CTO or Head of Engineering instead.
What's the best tool to benchmark Head of Product compensation and reporting structure?
A live, continuously updated compensation platform is more reliable than a static survey for benchmarking a role that shifts as quickly as Head of Product. Market Data Pro and Market Data Lite both give you real-time salary and equity benchmarks alongside reporting-structure data like what's shown above.
Head of Product vs. CPO: how do the roles and reporting lines differ?
A Head of Product is typically the senior-most product leader at an earlier-stage or smaller company, a role that hasn't yet been formalized into a C-level title. A CPO (Chief Product Officer) is the C-level version of that same role, generally found at larger, later-stage companies, and, per the data above, almost always sits on the executive team reporting directly to the CEO.
