Software Architect/Solution Architect/CTO

For a startup run by a serial founder:

Job Description :

- Architect and develop our B2B platform, focusing on delivering an exceptional user experience.

- Recruit and mentor an engineering team to build scalable and reliable technology solutions.

- Work in tandem with co-founders to ensure technology strategies are well-aligned with business objectives.

- Manage technical architecture to guarantee performance, scalability, and adaptability for future needs.

- Drive innovation by adopting advanced technologies into our product development cycle.

- Promote a culture of technical excellence and collaborative spirit within the engineering team.

Qualifications :

- Over 8 years of experience in technology team management roles, with a proven track record in software development and system architecture + Dev Ops

- Entrepreneurial mindset with a strong interest in building and scaling innovative products.

- Exceptional leadership abilities with experience in team building and mentorship.

- Strategic thinker with a history of delivering effective technology solutions.

Skills :

- Expertise in modern programming languages and application frameworks.

- Deep knowledge of cloud platforms, databases, and system design principles.

- Excellent analytical, problem-solving, and decision-making skills.

- Strong communication skills with the ability to lead cross-functional teams effectively.

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.

We are looking for a technology leader that can lead a group that builds and runs a product. We are a product company so we develop, manage and grow our own products. Our key objectives include acquiring clients and growing our user base. Product development is an ongoing process.

We need a leader that has experience in developing technologies but also understands how to leverage 3rd party platforms. Integration into FB and Google systems are critical to our success.

We operate in the Marketing technology world. Understanding marketing data is a key requirement. The great opportunity of this position is that the Team Lead gets to design and participate in the entire product cycle. We manage our own product, marketing and sales process within the company.

We Work globally and you ll have a chance to interact with teams in New York, Europe, Latin America and India. We are looking for a software engineer who has played the role of a team lead and who has worked on all phases of SDLC from prototyping to feature delivery and scaling features. A capable result oriented visionary Technology lead with a unique experience in leading high performance development teams, increasing efficiency and productivity while reducing costs. Somebody with the ability to build and run technology platforms, evaluate opportunities and risks and deliver innovative new solutions to meet customer needs. Hands on experience on all facets of software application development, covering deployment, support, quality assurance, customer support, project management and process improvement. Strong planning abilities and setting product and technology strategies in B2C and B2B environments.

• Responsible for leading the team for successful delivery of projects assigned.
• Risk assessments for architectural solutions and proposed systems and technologies; should know how to do module planning and effort estimation.
• Develop overall technical strategy for projects from technical requirements.
• Help in Project planning, progress tracking & delivery verification.
• Keep track of time spent on individual project tasks, provide guidance & advice best technology approach to the team.
• Follow guidelines for quality delivery, project documentation, code management, etc.
• Implement new technologies which are good for business & guide the team members
• Must possess personality to switch tasks and projects frequently as each will have different priorities.
• Meet stipulated deadlines and timelines.
• Work in Agile based project methodology.
• Open for frequent short-term travel to US.

• Having a strong IT experience, minimum 10 years, along with team handling role.
• Expertise in PHP, MVC Frameworks and good technology exposure of at least one framework such as Laravel, Zend etc.
• Expertise in at least one JavaScript framework such as jQuery, AngularJS, React JS etc.
• Excellent exposure with bespoke and open-source technologies (e.g., Drupal/Magento, etc..).
• Sound knowledge of database designing and application architecture planning for Core & MVC projects
• Excellent knowledge of SQL scripting and MySQL database administration
• Sound understanding of OOP and MVC development.
• Must have strong experience in handling International Clients and overseas accounts.
• US Travelled would be preferred.
• Good debugging skills with browser extensions & server tools
• Experience with GIT/Jira/Agile.
• Experience in enterprise level architecture design including server management.
• Experience in handling AWS/cloud/ Dedicated enterprise servers.
• Experience in handling high volume, high traffic sites.
• Strong in technical knowledge and documentation.
• Should be able to think out of the box, solution driven and passionate about the work.
• Ability to communicate ideas and concepts.

• Experience in defining new architectures, design all layers of the solution, create architectural blueprints that can be used for final code development.
• Interface with client business/technical teams to understand complex requirements.
• Anticipate on technological evolutions(example use MySQL Lite not MS SQL, use C# not ASP, don't use JSF use Angular).
• Resolve technical issues.
• Bridge between Developers, Project Managers/Leads, and Client, ensuring smooth communication channel.
• Ensure quality of project implementation deployed.
• Provide technical guidance to projects/programs for complex components of a multiple technology suites.
• Ensuring documentation of the complete project architecture.
• Lead actions to determine root cause of problems and drive resolution.
• Participate in cross-functional work groups to assess business needs, develop a systems architecture strategy, and implementation plans.
• Leads work groups that are responsible for software development.
• Ensure that all components of the technical architecture are properly integrated and implemented by the development team.
• Coach the technical team in the development of the technical architecture and help them solve challenging technical problems
• Provide technical support and technical quality control throughout all stages of the project.
• Spearheads the development, implementation and communications of architecture roadmap strategies to ensure that systems are scalable, reliable, secure, supportable, and achieve.
• Identify existing architecture weaknesses and find opportunities for process reengineering and perform cost benefit analysis

• Time Management- Organizes own workload to achieve maximum productivity and completes work in a timely and professional manner. Handles multiple short and long term modules by proper planning while anticipating potential problems and planning for contingencies.
• Identify high-potential team members for next level positions and creating learning and development plans for them.
• Enable strong process in place and reducing dependencies on individual.

Technical Skills and Qualification

• Excellent knowledge of Web technologies, Java, Javascript, Contact center environment.
• Experience of current technologies including Open Source, J2EE (JSP, Servlet, JSP, etc.), web application development, web services (REST/SOAP/XML), Rich Internet Applications, messaging infrastructures and databases.
• Adaptability and willingness to learn new tools and applications.
• Should be comfortable for 40%-60% coding.
• Able to convert requirements into executable code
• 9 to 12 yrs experience
• Qualification: BE/B-Tech /MCA or any equivalent degree

Desirables

• Excellent written and verbal communication skill
• Ability to lead discussions with all levels of the organization and provide balanced information of an idea or communication of an issue regardless of written or verbal
• Demonstrated ability to work collaboratively across project teams.
• Having Analytical and problem-solving
• Ability to translate complex requirements into functional and Technical architecture
• Experience managing the technology aspect of multiple complex projects
• Ability to think ahead and anticipate problems, issues and solutions and Assist team members in complex task
• Willing to take ownership and being accountable.
• Openness, communicates honestly, openly, and consistently.
• Positive Attitude encourages a positive rather than negative viewpoint.
• Integrity maintains the highest standard of personal conduct in performing all duties.
• Should be a good listener.
• Dependable, can be relied upon to get the job done.
• Able to avoid mistakes that could/should be anticipated.
• Should be able sense and grab the opportunities to innovate and improvise.
• Very high competence in presentation skills.
• Negotiator: Excellent negotiation skills which comes handy in hard selling new ideas/ new technical implementations etc.
• Risk Management: Should be able to take calculated risks in trying out new technical implementation avenues
• Able to communicate the org level vision to the team effectively

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.