There is very little public discussion on the topic, because these roles are lucked into, at best (outside of founders, as people mentioned here already).

Here are the Engineering VPs I have personally met / worked with. These are for billion-dollar-revenue companies (Banking and Health Care specifically)

1. 20-something year old Developer (not senior) who followed a non-technical CTO to a new company and got the VP title before.

2. Architect of a small start up that got bought - right time, right place.

3. Scrum master who was a friend of someone at the company who has no technical background.