At the point where you are:

1. Controlling a budget or P&L
2. Making strategic decisions on how to use those funds to meet strategic/future, vs tactical/immediate, business objectives

The first part is obvious, the latter point is where some interpretation’s required, but on exploration it’s usually obvious which folks are working on strategic elements vs. just ensuring they’re full on headcount. Recall that “executive” literally means “having the power to put plans […] into effect.” Plan = Strategy.

The above definition usually lands you at VP and higher levels, but some companies have directors that work at this level as well.

Note this does not require revenue generation activities… if it did, roles like CIO, CRO, CMO would not be considered “executives” as they just manage costs centers… and so too narrow a definition.