Chief Technology Officer (CTO)

Job Title : Chief Technology Officer (CTO) – Blockchain & Web3

Location : Bangalore & Gurgaon

Job Type : Full-Time, On-Site

Working Days : 6 Days

About the Role :

• We are seeking an experienced and visionary Chief Technology Officer (CTO) to lead our Blockchain & Web3 initiatives.
• The ideal candidate will have a strong technical background in Blockchain, Distributed Ledger Technology (DLT), Smart Contracts, DeFi, and Web3 applications.
• As a CTO, you will be responsible for defining and implementing the technology roadmap, leading a high-performing tech team, and driving innovation in the Blockchain and Web3 space.

Key Responsibilities :

• Define and execute the technical strategy and roadmap for Blockchain & Web3 products and services.
• Lead the architecture, design, and development of scalable, secure, and efficient blockchain-based applications.
• Oversee Smart Contract development, Layer-1 & Layer-2 solutions, DeFi, NFTs, and decentralized applications (dApps).
• Manage and mentor a team of engineers, developers, and blockchain specialists to ensure high-quality product delivery.
• Drive R&D initiatives to stay ahead of emerging trends and advancements in Blockchain & Web3 technologies.
• Collaborate with cross-functional teams including Product, Marketing, and Business Development to align technology with business goals.
• Ensure regulatory compliance, security, and scalability of Blockchain solutions.
• Build and maintain relationships with industry partners, investors, and technology vendors to drive innovation.

Required Qualifications & Experience :

• 10+ Years of overall experience in software development with at least 5+ Years in Blockchain & Web3 technologies.
• Deep understanding of Blockchain protocols (Ethereum, Solana, Polkadot, Hyperledger, etc.), consensus mechanisms, cryptographic principles, and tokenomics.
• Hands-on experience with Solidity, Rust, Go, Node.js, Python, or other blockchain programming languages.
• Proven track record of building and scaling decentralized applications (dApps), DeFi platforms, or NFT marketplaces.
• Experience with cloud infrastructure (AWS, Azure, GCP) and DevOps best practices.
• Strong leadership and management skills with experience in building and leading high-performing teams.
• Excellent problem-solving skills with the ability to work in a fast-paced, high-growth environment.
• Strong understanding of Web3, DAOs, Metaverse, and the evolving regulatory landscape.

Preferred Qualifications :

• Prior experience in a CTO, VP Engineering, or similar leadership role.
• Experience in fundraising, investor relations, and strategic partnerships.
• Knowledge of cross-chain interoperability and Layer-2 scaling solutions.
• Understanding of data privacy, security, and compliance regulations related to Blockchain & Web3.

CTO + CoFounder wanted for our Tech startup where we're trying to build Connected Mobility in parallel to a "short videos app" meant for dashcam videos getting recorded straight from the user's smartphone. So you can say we're a TikTok of dashcam videos at the front.

Expecting the individual is capable & willing to work on these below languages-

Our backend codes are in CakePHP,
Admin Panel in Laravel,
Android is in Java.
No iOS app yet but we plan to roll it out soon.

Hence, we're expecting the CTO to be having fair idea/expertise about these languages. Also, we don't have an iOS app at this point, but it would be benefecial if there's a fair knowledge about iOS apps as well. Also, since the server being used is AWS we are hoping the person knows how to efficiently utilize various features of the same while linking the things.

Proposed Salary may be available only after angel investor, VCs come on board.

CTO / Head of Engineering

About our Client

Our client is a B2B2C tech firm backed by India’s largest retailer and tech venture capitalist founded by founders - IITB Graduates who are experienced in retail, ecommerce and fintech

It aims to become one app to manage all your brands loyalty points, cashback and coupons. It will have additional content and discovery layer for customers and brands for further engagement and commerce.

The company currently powers closed-loop loyalty programs for all different brands under its parent retail group. Currently, it has 20Mn+ registered customers and 3Mn MAU across 8 brands. Its vision is to be at the center of D2C Brands and the consumer consumption ecosystem

Role description:
We are looking for a competent CTO (Chief Technology Officer) who will be our first technology go-to expert and play an integral role in setting the company’s strategic direction, development and future growth. In this position, you will oversee our overall technology development and technology utilization plan to manage all information technology resources of our company.

Key Responsibilities

•  CTO will be leading, building, and operating exciting products with a passionate team.
•  We are looking for someone who has developed and deployed software with a strong focus on end-user experience. We are seeking someone with a proven track record of shipping web scalable products.
•  The ideal candidate will have a track record of building and delivering cloud solutions with delightful consumer experiences, combined with ease of implementation/reliability.
•  Experience with massively scalable distributed compute product architectures.
•  Experience with micro services-oriented architectures, Experience with scaling Big Data infrastructure.
•  Experience delivering platform technology and creating an ecosystem of applications and services across multiple verticals and solution offerings
•  Experience successfully scaling technology infrastructure to support rapid customer /data growth.
•  Experience with fast-paced, rapidly-iterating, design-forward, product-focused companies.
•  "Roll-up-your-sleeves" entrepreneurial, start-up attitude, team player with record of leading and mentoring employees

Candidate Experience: Desired skills

•  He/she should have prior work experience of 7-12 years on large-scale mobile app products and can rapidly familiarize yourself with complex products
•  Have inclination to learn and build new age products with blockchain and web3 tech
•  Strong track record of being able to develop and set release plans, track deadlines, deliverables, resource allocations, issues/risks and create mitigation strategies as needed to deliver a quality product on time
•  Strong technical and architecture skills in wide areas of platform engineering with proven ability to dive deep in any area as needed.
•  Extensive experience with eCommerce platforms, cloud systems, payment solutions, digital marketing technology, automation, and multi-device development is required; AWS experience is a strong plus
•  Experience managing Small teams and remote teams is a strong plus
•  Competent in driving a culture of continuous learning to improve technology and remove roadblocks that hold the team back.

Why is this a great opportunity for the right candidate :

•  Experienced founding team
•  Backed by Future Group which gives an edge over working with different D2C and traditional brands ecosystem which is necessary to win in this market
•  Existing app customer base of 20Mn registered and 4-5 Mn MAU + which gives us a head start and starting customer base of FuturePay necessary for pivoting the product to Carrot as described earlier
•  Right to win - The founding team knows the business & its secrets inside out. We are starting with a significant head start and a precise plan of action
•  Barriers to entry - This is a specialized play with natural barriers to entry, allowing for significant value creation for all equity holders
•  Exposure to all aspects of company building - exposure to investors, fund-raising, decision making, building the team & culture
•  All of the above perks of joining a high potential company very early, along with a competitive market salary.

• Advanced knowledge of software and solution architecture
• High-level project management skills
• Ability to solve complex software system issues
• Well experienced with software design and web development
• Proficiency with JAVA, and strong front-end knowledge of HTML5, JSF, Angular, React
• Familiar or working experience with Apache Kafka working, Containers, Docker, Kubernetes
• Professional, precise communication skills
• Deep understanding of 'under the hood' knowledge of frameworks worked on
• Work experience in implementing Unit Tests
• Work experience in applying the best practices of Design, Architecture and Application
• development
• Extensive experience with HTML5, CSS3, XML and JSON
• Thorough understanding of Reactive Programming, RxJS framework, Databases, API,
• Implementing of Caching and RESTful services
• Troubleshooting design and performance flaws and system bottlenecks
• Conducting system performance tests
• Working experience in an Agile team, especially with SCRUM
• Good understanding of DevOps, CI/CD principles and practices to improve Software
  
  Quality & Efficiency
• Following Skills will be an added advantage
• Work experience with Cloud Services like AWS and Azure
• Familiar with common microservices patterns
• Service / API test – to test endpoints as thoroughly as possible
• End to End integration test systemFeb.2021 - Technical Manager Requirement

Behavioral Skill

• Should be a quick learner with a problem-solving mindset
• Attention to detail and follow-through to achieve good quality
• Ability to work effectively in a team
• Excellent written and verbal communication skill

• 9+ years of experience in enterprise web application design and development with 4+ years of experience as an automation architect.
• Experienced in technology stack selection and the definition of solution, technology and integration architectures for small to mid-sized applications and cloud hosted platforms
• Strong understanding of various design and architecture patterns
• Experience in implementing and governing software engineering processes, practices, tools and standards for development teams
• Experience of setting up and operating the DevOps and automation infrastructure for continuous integration and delivery
• Full SDLC experience leveraging Agile, TDD and BDD for building and rolling out highly transactional and highly available platforms hosted on premise and on the cloud
• Proficient in effort estimation techniques
• Must be hands on technology and able to troubleshoot critical issues in design or code
• Experience in Mobile Applications automation using SeeTest, Appium
• Strong hands-on experience of designing and developing technology frameworks and micro-services, APIs, REST Web Services, leveraging Java and open source technology stack (i.e. Java, JavaScript, Node.js/ Angular.js/ React.js, Spring Bot, Non-blocking Java, etc. )
• Hands on experience with JBehave, Cucumber, TestNG, Extent Reports
• Strong design, development and performance tuning skills on at least two or more databases such as Oracle, SQL Server, NOSQL and NewSQL (e.g. PostgresQL, Cassandra, Mongo DB, Cosmos DB, MySQL etc.)
• Experience on enterprise architecture patterns and a couple of past examples of architecting high availability, scale and performance applications 
• Strong experience with code review and evaluate the architecture as well as design towards a set of business and technology goals
• Experience with SonarQube code coverage and code quality
• Experience with Cypress JavaScript automation
• Experience on command prompt tools like Shell Script, UNIX
• Hands on experience on Cloud stacks (AWS preferred)
• Hands on experience with standalone applications automation using UFT, LeanFT and VB Script
• Knowledge of principles on code quality, distributed applications, TDD & test automation, self-monitoring applications, refactoring and technical debt

• upGrad was awarded the Best Tech for Education by IAMAI for 2018-19,
• upGrad was also ranked as one of the LinkedIn Top Startups 2018: The 25 most sought-after startups in India.
• upGrad was earlier selected as one of the top ten most innovative companies in India by FastCompany.
• We were also covered by the Financial Times along with other disruptors in Ed-Tech.
• upGrad is the official education partner for Government of India - Startup India program.
• Our program with IIIT B has been ranked #1 program in the country in the domain of Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning.

• Work with Product Managers and Business to understand business/product requirements and vision.
• Provide a clear architectural vision in line with business and product vision.
• Lead a team of architects, developers, and data engineers to provide platform services to other engineering teams.
• Provide architectural oversight to engineering teams across the organization.
• Hands on design and development of platform services and features owned by self - this is a hands-on coding role.
• Define guidelines for best practices covering design, unit testing, secure coding etc.
• Ensure quality by reviewing design, code, test plans, load test plans etc. as appropriate.
• Work closely with the QA and Support teams to track quality and proactively identify improvement opportunities.
• Work closely with DevOps and IT to ensure highly secure and cost optimized operations in the cloud.
• Grow technical skills in the team - identify skill gaps with plans to address them, participate in hiring, mentor other architects and engineers.
• Support other engineers in resolving complex technical issues as a go-to person.

• 12+ years of experience in design and development of ecommerce scale systems and highly scalable SaaS or enterprise products.
• Extensive experience in developing extensible and scalable web applications with
  • Java, Spring Boot, Go
  • Web Services - REST, OAuth, OData
  • Database/Caching - MySQL, Cassandra, MongoDB, Memcached/Redis
  • Queue/Broker services - RabbitMQ/Kafka
  • Microservices architecture via Docker on AWS or Azure.
  • Experience with web front end technologies - HTML5, CSS3, JavaScript libraries and frameworks such as jQuery, AngularJS, React, Vue.js, Bootstrap etc.

• Extensive experience with cloud based architectures and how to optimize design for cost.
• Expert level understanding of secure application design practices and a working understanding of cloud infrastructure security.
• Experience with CI/CD processes and design for testability.
• Experience working with big data technologies such as Spark/Storm/Hadoop/Data Lake Architectures is a big plus.
• Action and result-oriented problem-solver who works well both independently and as part of a team; able to foster and develop others' ideas as well as his/her own.
• Ability to organize, prioritize and schedule a high workload and multiple parallel projects efficiently.
• Excellent verbal and written communication with stakeholders in a matrixed environment.
• Long term experience with at least one product from inception to completion and evolution of the product over multiple years.

Responsibilities

• Design and implement features spanning across systems in a manner that satisfies requirements of performance, scale, security and robustness
• Contribute to improvement of technology and execution processes in the company
• Collaborate in setting technology standards with technology leaders across the company
• Serve as a knowledge center on current and emerging technologies, and help train others when required
• Foster a strong technical culture by mentoring other engineers
• Keep up to date with the latest technologies, evaluate new tools

Relevant Experience and Qualifications 

• Demonstrated expertise in system-level design of large scale distributed systems on the Java stack, and experience with web services and service oriented architectures
• Solid experience with Spring (Core/Boot/Security/MVC/Data)
• Have 8 - 12  years of professional experience in software development.
• Extensive experience with modern open source systems including relational / non relational data stores and bigdata processing
• Experience with AWS stack, at least the common datastores and services 
• Experience with containerization technologies and concepts including Docker
• Basic knowledge about security concepts and secure coding
• Excellent analytical, conceptual and communication skills in spoken and written English.
• Experience leading projects developed across continents.

Great to have Experience and Qualifications 

• Knowledge of machine learning concepts, and some hands-on experience implementing machine learnt models
• Experience with infrastructure design for cloud based apps, especially AWS.
• Past experience with information and data security standards (PCI-DSS, ISO27000) very nice to have.