Feb 2, 2026 7 min read

🫐 Strategy to Implementation, Stuck Employees, 10x Job Specs, Security Questionnaires, Estimation, Fear's Influence: TMW #467

How does your compensation compare to your peers?

Hello, hello, hello, welcome to the week!

As a senior technology leader in 2026, you can’t afford to negotiate your compensation on gut feel alone - you need to know what people like you are actually being paid across salary, bonus and equity.

This is why we’re running our 4th annual Compensation Survey with Albany, focused entirely on CTOs, VPs Engineering and heads of product/engineering leadership.

Take the 2026 Compensation Survey (completely anonymous, ~5 mins): ctocraft.typeform.com/ctocompensation

What you’ll get back this year:

A clear view of how leaders like you are using peer data and internal parity to negotiate better packages.
Detailed benchmarks for total compensation by role, funding stage, ownership type and geography.
A breakdown of long‑term incentives, from virtual options to equity as a percentage of the company.

What we’re asking you about:

Total rewards: How your base, bonus and LTIPs really look today — and how happy you are with them.
Accountability: How responsibilities like cost reduction, AI adoption and board engagement show up (or don’t) in your total package.
Negotiation intelligence: Whether you lean more on recruiters, internal parity or public data when you negotiate.

Your responses are completely anonymous: we don’t collect names or company identifiers in the data, and results are only reported in aggregate - we'll only ask your email if you'd like to be sent the report.

Everyone who takes part will receive early access to the full 2026 Compensation Survey Report, so you can walk into your next board, founder or hiring conversation with hard numbers instead of guesswork.

Start the survey: ctocraft.typeform.com/ctocompensation

Thank you for helping us keep compensation for tech leadership transparent and grounded in reality.

Andy @ CTO Craft

PS. If you want to see the kind of insight you’ll get back, you can skim last year’s 2025 Compensation Survey Report here. If you’re not yet in the CTO Craft Community and would like to be amongst the first to receive the 2026 report, you can apply to join here.

CTO Craft Con - Dates for Your Diary

As we enter February, the "New Year, New Me" buzz might be fading, but the momentum for professional growth is only just beginning. It’s the perfect moment to move past resolutions and into active development.

Lately, we’ve seen a surge in interest for our Mentoring Circles—a testament to the CTO Craft Community's drive for collaborative learning. If you’ve been looking for a way to sharpen your leadership edge, now is a great time. We are officially curating the March groups right now. Don't miss your chance to connect, learn, and grow alongside your peers.

Schedule a chat about Circles