Chief Technology Officer

This is a fully remote position, open to applicants in Europe.

📋 Description

• Oversee Prerender's technology vision, roadmap, and engineering strategy.

• Ensure engineering efforts align with business goals and deliver customer value.

• Lead the implementation of AI-assisted development tools while upholding quality standards.

• Drive architectural and infrastructure decisions by evaluating total cost of ownership, maintenance impacts, and engineering opportunity costs.

• Manage a multi-region, Kubernetes-based rendering fleet focusing on cost efficiency, reliability, and operational excellence.

• Represent Prerender's technical capabilities to clients, partners, and the wider market.

• Uphold standards for software quality, performance, security, and reliability.

• Stay informed on technological and engineering practice advancements and apply pertinent improvements.

• Oversee security and compliance, including SOC 2 Type II and ISO 27001 operational duties.

• Maintain clear ownership of security programs, vendor communications, auditor relationships, and continuity plans.

• Coach and mentor engineers, set expectations, and create development opportunities.

• Foster a culture of engineering ownership, promoting diversity and inclusion.

• Drive continuous delivery enhancements and eliminate team bottlenecks.

• Improve DevOps practices, CI/CD pipelines, and monitoring systems.

• Define and monitor meaningful engineering metrics to optimize workflows.

• Manage changes thoughtfully, ensuring proper notice, consultation, and channels for inquiries.

• Collaborate with the CEO and leadership team on company strategy.

• Communicate technology advancements to leadership and the board.

• Work with Product teams to align engineering capacity with customer demands.

• Translate technical concepts for non-technical stakeholders and advocate for investments in business growth.

• Manage the complete R&D budget, encompassing personnel, infrastructure, tools, and vendors.

• Maintain infrastructure cost models and report forecasts against actual expenses.

• Make independent engineering decisions that align with the company's strategic objectives.

⛳️ Requirements

• Over 10 years of experience in software engineering.

• More than 5 years in senior engineering leadership roles (VP/Director/CTO) within a SaaS organization.

• Strong background in infrastructure.

• Experience managing large-scale distributed systems and production Kubernetes environments.

• Proven ability to make strategic trade-offs between cost, maintenance requirements, and engineering speed.

• Experience reducing unit costs on owned fleets.

• Demonstrated capability to integrate AI tools into engineering workflows to enhance team productivity.

• Proven track record in coaching, mentoring, and developing engineering teams, particularly through significant transformations.

• Experience in enhancing engineering delivery speed through measurement and process improvements.

• History of implementing sustainable process and platform changes while involving affected individuals prior to execution.

• Experience managing ongoing SaaS security and compliance programs, such as SOC 2 or ISO 27001.

• A business-oriented, hands-on approach that connects engineering decisions to revenue and customer value.

• Familiarity with scalable, high-performance web products, CI/CD, DevOps, and security principles.

• SEO or search-related experience is advantageous.

• Excellent communication skills.

• Comfortable presenting to boards, collaborating with executives, and working cross-functionally.

• Proficient in async-first communication, providing clear and timely updates, maintaining current documentation, and proactively sharing context.

🏝️ Benefits

• 100% remote work; you can work from anywhere at any time.

• High-trust environment offering substantial independence and support.

• Minimal bureaucracy and few meetings.

• C-level role with a seat at the executive table, board visibility, and the authority to transform product development.

• Small, friendly team atmosphere.

• Access to the saas.group community of SaaS professionals.

• Flexible time off policies.

• Generous learning budget for courses, conferences, books, and other educational resources.