Technical Chief of Staff – CTO

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

📋 Description

• Facilitate technical leadership and execution.

• Serve as a force multiplier for the CTO by converting priorities and expectations into actionable steps, deliverables, and timelines.

• Minimize iteration overhead by collaborating with stakeholders across engineering and product teams to clarify next steps, enhance quality, and ensure outputs align with expectations prior to CTO review.

• Proactively pinpoint bottlenecks and drive progress through structured proposals, precise scoping, and follow-through.

• Prepare and engage with customers effectively.

• Take ownership of preparations for technical customer meetings, which includes understanding end-to-end technical stacks and (machine learning) workflows.

• Craft clear and compelling narratives and presentations for customers.

• Coordinate inputs from various teams.

• Ensure robust follow-ups after customer meetings by coordinating internal responsibilities and tracking execution.

• Prepare materials and agendas for subsequent sessions.

• As soon as possible, be capable of leading technical customer meetings, involving subject-matter experts as required, and ensuring high-quality outcomes.

• Propel cross-functional outcomes.

• Maintain momentum in cross-functional product and engineering initiatives by clarifying goals and expected outcomes.

• Assist stakeholders in breaking down complex tasks into manageable steps.

• Suggest initial drafts (e.g., architecture diagrams, workflows, or outlines) to expedite feedback and decision-making.

• Support process enhancements that boost execution speed and clarity while respecting clear ownership boundaries.

• Drive technical scoping and improve product communication across teams.

• Empower teams through shared frameworks, templates, and best practices to enhance alignment, speed, and quality in technical and product work.

• Contribute to customer-facing materials, proposals, and internal documents to elevate overall quality.

• Translate high-level feedback into tangible improvements in preparation, narrative, and execution.

• Engage in strategic and ad-hoc initiatives.

• Assist in the early scoping of new opportunities or special projects by structuring initial workflows and technical approaches.

• Coordinate early inputs from product, engineering, and computational drug discovery.

• Operate as an execution partner and force-multiplier, ensuring the right things are accomplished swiftly and to a high standard.

⛳️ Requirements

• 3-5 years of experience in dynamic, high-output environments such as strategy consulting (e.g., MBB), venture capital, or rapidly growing startups or scale-ups.

• A solid technical foundation (e.g., computer science, engineering, sciences, or related field) with the ability to comprehend and communicate complex systems end-to-end, encompassing infrastructure, ML models, data flows, and product workflows.

• Capability to develop a solid understanding of the complete technical stack and communicate effectively with infrastructure engineers, ML engineers, scientists, and product managers.

• Strong ability to distill complex and fragmented technical inputs into clear summaries, structured options, and decision-ready recommendations for leadership and customers.

• Capacity to operate amidst ambiguity, proactively propose initial solutions, and utilize structured drafts (e.g., architecture diagrams, workflows, outlines) to speed up alignment and progress.

• Proficiency in core tools, including the Atlassian suite, PowerPoint, product prototyping tools like Lovable/Bolt, and the ability to create high-quality materials quickly using modern AI and productivity tools.

• Exceptional execution skills, organization, and attention to detail, with a strong ownership mindset focusing on outcomes rather than mere tasks.

• High ownership mentality; you take responsibility for results, not just tasks.

• Comfort in a remote-first environment working with distributed teams.

• Curiosity and eagerness to learn about AI-driven drug discovery, the broader life sciences ecosystem, and Apheris’ customers.

• Excellent written and verbal communication skills, with confidence in customer-facing situations.

• Proficiency in English at a C2 level; knowledge of German is a plus.

🏝️ Benefits

• Industry-competitive compensation, including early-stage virtual share options.

• Remote-first working environment – operate from wherever you work best, whether from home or a nearby co-working space.

• A comprehensive benefits package, featuring a wellbeing budget, mental health benefits, a work-from-home budget, a co-working stipend, and a learning and development budget.

• Generous vacation allowance.

• Office Days at our Berlin HQ or an alternative European location (3 times a year).

• A fun, diverse team of mission-driven individuals with experience from leading organizations (e.g., MBB, Palantir, NVIDIA, top pharma) committed to using AI and ML for positive impact.

• Significant exposure to core strategic and technical topics, considerable ownership from day one, and ample opportunities for personal and professional growth while shaping your own role.