Fractional CTO

Digthisdeal.com are seeking an experienced and visionary Fractional Chief Technology Officer (CTO) to lead and shape the technology strategy for our market-disrupting company. As a fractional member of our executive team, you will play a key role in driving the technical direction, architecture, and scalability of our systems, while managing and mentoring the development team. This role requires deep technical expertise in cloud architecture, full-stack development, data systems, and emerging technologies, as well as the ability to bridge business goals with technical execution.

The Company:

Founded in 2023 and soft launched late 2024, Digthisdeal.com is a revolutionary online shopping assistant created to promote sustainable buying of pre-loved and refurbished products whilst saving consumers significant time and money via its unique AI-driven exact product matching price comparison technology.

Following a successful fund-raise and recent soft launch, the company is now seeking a Fractional CTO to support the board driving the growth of the business and lead the technology strategy.

Role Responsibilities:

• Develop and execute the company’s technology strategy, ensuring alignment with business goals.
• Drive innovation and ensure the organisation stays ahead of industry trends in relevant technologies such as cloud infrastructure, AI/ML, and modern web technologies.
• Identify, evaluate, and integrate new technologies to improve products and services.
• Lead the design, architecture, and scaling of AWS infrastructure (e.g., EC2, S3, Lambda, RDS, etc.).
• Ensure high availability, disaster recovery, and scalability of cloud-based applications.
• Implement monitoring, security, and cost management best practices for cloud resources.

Full-Stack Development:

• Oversee the development of applications using TypeScript, React, and PostgreSQL.
• Drive technical decisions and design patterns for front-end and back-end systems.
• Guide the team on best practices for coding, testing, and deployment processes.

Data Management & Search:

• Manage and optimize PostgreSQL databases for performance, reliability, and scalability.
• Design and implement data architectures for real-time search using OpenSearch.
• Develop strategies to handle large-scale data storage, retrieval, and analysis.

AI and Large Language Models (LLMs):

• Lead efforts to integrate Large Language Models (LLMs) (e.g., GPT, BERT) into products and workflows.
• Implement AI/ML pipelines for natural language processing (NLP), recommendations, and automation.
• Evaluate and recommend new AI technologies to improve user experience and business outcomes.

Web Scraping:

• Design and implement web scraping systems for gathering structured data from the web.
• Ensure scraped data is cleansed, transformed, and stored appropriately for downstream applications.
• Address scalability, legal, and ethical considerations in web scraping projects.

Team Leadership:

• Mentor and support a growing remote-based development team of 8, providing technical guidance and fostering a collaborative, high-performance culture.
• Collaborate with other departments (product, marketing, finance) to ensure technology aligns with business needs.
• Assist in hiring, onboarding, and training developers.

Stakeholder Communication & Reporting:

• Communicate technology vision, progress, and roadmaps to executive stakeholders and key shareholders/investors.
• Ensure transparency in development timelines, potential risks, and resource requirements.
• Foster clear and open communication across all levels of the organization.

Required Experience:

• 10+ years of experience in software engineering and technology leadership, with at least 5 years in a senior technical leadership role.
• Proven experience working with AWS cloud infrastructure, particularly in scaling and securing applications.
• Expertise in database management, particularly with PostgreSQL and OpenSearch.
• Strong background in implementing and managing AI/ML systems, including Large Language Models (LLMs).
• Experience with web scraping tools and techniques, including managing legal, ethical, and performance considerations.
• Experience in agile development practices and working with cross-functional teams. Experience in DevOps practices, CI/CD pipelines, and infrastructure-as-code (e.g., Terraform, CloudFormation).
• Familiarity with containerization and orchestration tools like Docker and Kubernetes.
• Experience in data engineering and working with big data technologies (e.g., Kafka, Spark).
• Familiarity with emerging technologies in AI, data science, and automation.

Required Skills:

• Strong knowledge of TypeScript, React, and Node.js for full-stack development.
• Familiarity with web scraping frameworks (e.g., Puppeteer, BeautifulSoup, Scrapy).
• Strong problem-solving, analytical, and debugging skills.
• Excellent communication and leadership skills, with the ability to influence both technical and non-technical stakeholders.
• Ability to manage remote teams.
• Flexible work hours and remote work environment – expected time commitment of 2 to 4 days per month initially. Occasional meetings in London or Manchester.
• Negotiable compensation based on experience, with material equity stake with the opportunity for a life-changing payout on exit within the next 3 years.
• Opportunity to shape the technology vision of a fast-growing company.
• Work with cutting-edge technologies and a collaborative team.

How to Apply:

• Please submit your CV and a cover letter outlining your relevant experience and why you’re a great fit for this role. We look forward to learning how you can contribute to our growing company and its exciting future!

Seniority level

• Executive

Employment type

• Part-time

Job function

• Information Technology
• Technology, Information and Internet

#J-18808-Ljbffr