Chief Technology Officer

Edinburgh, Scotland, United Kingdom

Role Overview

Reporting to the company’s CEO, the CTO is accountable for defining, directing and executing on the company’s technical strategy, with overall responsibility for all information technology and engineering functions of the business. This includes all software development, technical platforms and services, technical support, IT development and system operations. As part of the company’s leadership team the CTO will help to define and agree the company’s financial plan and work to ensure that the necessary technical resources are in place to achieve the company’s stated outcomes within these budgets.

As a member of the senior management team the role will make a critical contribution to the overall direction of the business, placing a strong commercial emphasis on both the strategic and tactical decisions made by the company.

Responsibilities

Key responsibilities of the CTO are focused on the development and delivery of the learner product, its supporting tools and underlying platform. The following is a summary of the role’s key responsibilities:

Define the business’ technical strategy. Identify the necessary technology, processes and human resources required to implement it and communicate it clearly to the company’s wider commercial, marketing & operational teams.

Work closely with the CEO and leadership team to develop the product offering as it goes to market.

Ensure effective management of the engineering team, providing support, guidance and training, as required, to help them achieve their objectives whilst promoting a collaborative approach with the wider team.

Define and communicate the technology roadmaps, gaining ‘buy-in’ and commitment across the company.

Continually work to improve the engineering team’s software development processes.

Define and lead all technical activities within the company, including foreseeing and providing for any necessary changes in their direction as the company grows.

Monitor and validate the company’s compliance with its security and data management policies and those of its users, customers and regulatory bodies..

Develop efficient communication processes to facilitate this on a consistent basis, liaising and collaborating with the company’s other teams.

Act as an ambassador for the company, raise its profile, branding and credibility within the market, with investors, partners and suppliers.

In collaboration with the CEO and leadership team help to develop and review the Business Plan on an ongoing basis to ensure it remains ‘on track’, identify aspects that need to be realigned and analyse their validity as the business evolves.

Manage the performance of the engineering team with regular performance reviews.

Define and agree objectives/targets with individual team members and monitor their performance on an ongoing basis.

Take responsibility for hiring and nurturing the necessary technical talent in the Engineering Team to meet the company’s strategic objectives in line with current budgets.

Experience and Qualifications

The following skills and qualifications will need to be demonstrated by successful candidates for this role:

Ten plus years of experience in a senior software development or technical delivery role, ideally gained in the development of mobile applications.

Up to date with the latest technology advances and in particular the use of artificial intelligence and large language models.

In-depth knowledge of working with cloud-based infrastructure services (e.g. AWS, Azure, Google Cloud Platform)

Experience of leading teams with an Agile development approach (e.g. Scrum) for rapid product design, development and release cycles.

Demonstrable leadership and communication skills to effectively steer the company’s technology strategy and delivery capability.

Strong decision-making skills to make choices that directly impact the company’s profitability.

An in-depth understanding of a small company’s challenges and objectives to effectively align technical, product and commercial strategies within tight budgetary constraints.

Excellent leadership and organisational skills to successfully coordinate the efforts of the engineering team.

The ability to think strategically, anticipate future developments and provide technical vision to the company.

Excellent time-management skills and the ability to prioritise tasks to cope with the multifaceted and dynamic nature of the role.

Proven ability to define and negotiate commercial contracts with third-party technology companies and other technical service providers.

Experience of establishing and managing effective hybrid delivery teams utilising both in-house development capabilities and third-party suppliers.

An understanding of the challenges involved in developing large scale systems in some of the following areas would also be advantageous:

Scalable mobile and web application architectures

Video and audio streaming

Computer based education and learning management systems

Content management systems

Operational and business support systems (e.g. e-Payments, CRM, help desk, etc.)

Bachelor’s degree level qualification or higher