Chief Technology Officer

Chief Technology Officer

Location: United Kingdom / hybrid, with a globally distributed teamReporting to: Founder & CEOLeadership team: Executive Leadership TeamThe opportunityA technology company is entering its next phase of growth.

We are looking for a hands-on, commercially mindedCTO to shape company strategy and lead technology, engineering and data science.This is not a purely managerial role. You will move comfortably between architecture, AI and product discussions,executive decision-making, and conversations with customers and investors. You will combine strategic perspectivewith the technical depth to challenge assumptions and get into the detail when it matters.The missionOver the next 24-36 months, you will:

• Turn technology and data science into a clear competitive advantage.
• Build and execute a technology strategy that supports growth.
• Scale engineering and data science while protecting speed, quality and ambition.
• Make clear build, buy, simplify and stop decisions.
• Improve the path from idea to production and customer value.
• Develop an outstanding technical leadership team and high-performing culture.
• Represent the company's technology and AI story to customers, partners and investors.What you'll actually do1. Set the technology strategyOwn a pragmatic multi-year strategy covering product and platform architecture, AI and data science, cloudinfrastructure, security, technical operations, developer productivity and investment priorities. Translate long-termdirection into clear near-term decisions.2. Remain technically engagedStay close enough to the technology to review critical designs, challenge architecture, explore ML approaches,diagnose scalability or performance issues and help Product decide whether something should be built. Leadthrough leverage without becoming the decision-making bottleneck.3. Build the organisationDevelop strong engineering and data science leaders, establish clear ownership, hire excellent talent and create aneffective structure for the company's stage. Build a culture of curiosity, pace, accountability, autonomy and highstandards.Confidential - Anonymised Chief Technology Officer Search 14. Improve velocity and qualityStrengthen architecture, development practices, CI/CD, testing, automation, observability, reliability, security,incident management and technical debt management. Use practical measures such as cycle time, deploymentfrequency, uptime, defect rates, infrastructure efficiency and developer productivity to drive improvement.5. Advance AI and data capabilitiesGuide the evolution of machine learning, advanced data modelling, personalisation, data products, real-timeprocessing, experimentation and model deployment. Help move research into production and focus investment ongenuine differentiation and commercial value.6. Connect technology to commercial outcomesPartner closely with Product, Commercial, Customer Success, Marketing and Operations. Align the roadmap tocustomer needs, revenue, retention and strategic differentiation. Identify what to productise, what should become aplatform capability and which constraints could limit growth.7. Act as an external technology leaderExplain complex technology clearly to technical audiences, executives, customers and investors. Support enterprisesales, strategic partnerships and future fundraising by articulating the value, scalability and defensibility of thetechnology.8. Own economics and riskManage technology budgets, headcount, infrastructure costs, suppliers, capacity planning, security, compliance,resilience and business continuity. Connect technical choices to cost, risk and commercial return.What success looks likeWithin 12-24 months, we expect to see:
• A clear technology strategy aligned with company priorities.
• A scalable, secure and appropriately governed architecture.
• Faster, more predictable delivery and stronger engineering quality.
• Better reliability, developer experience and infrastructure efficiency.
• Reduced technical debt and clearer build, buy and sunset decisions.
• Faster movement from research to production and customer value.
• Strong technical leaders with clear ownership and increasing autonomy.
• Visible contribution from technology to growth, retention and differentiation.
• Transparent technology investment tied to business priorities.The technologyThe environment includes technologies such as Scala, Python, Kubernetes, Spark, Hive, AWS, Docker, Terraform,Vault, TypeScript, React, Go and Rust.You do not need experience with every technology. Technical depth, architectural judgement and the ability to learnquickly matter more than matching the stack exactly.Confidential - Anonymised Chief Technology Officer SearchWhat we're looking forYou will likely bring:
• Strong engineering credibility and the ability to go deep technically.
• Senior technology leadership in a complex, data-intensive or enterprise SaaS environment.
• Deep knowledge of cloud architecture, distributed systems and operational excellence.
• Significant exposure to data science, AI or ML at scale.
• Experience governing architecture across data, ML, platform and customer-facing products.
• A track record of scaling engineering organisations and developing leaders.
• Strong product instincts and a focus on solving customer problems.
• Commercial judgement and experience linking technology investment to business outcomes.
• Confidence with customers, investors and other senior stakeholders.
• Experience managing meaningful budgets, vendors and resource allocation.
• The ability to make difficult trade-offs and communicate them clearly.Leadership style The strongest candidate will be a builder, operator and strategist who:
• Is hands-on without needing to be the hero.
• Thinks strategically and converts strategy into execution.
• Holds strong opinions but changes course when evidence changes.
• Raises standards while building trust, autonomy and psychological safety.
• Creates clarity and enables teams to make good decisions independently.
• Leads with warmth, intellectual rigour and low ego.A particularly strong fit You may be especially well suited if you have worked in a high-growth SaaS, data or AIcompany; scaled an engineering organisation without losing culture or velocity; helped turn R&D into commercialproducts; worked with enterprise cust