Modern Democracy wishes to recruit a hands-on CTO to join our Senior Management Team and would like to invite applicants who feel that they have the relevant experience and are ready to join a diverse team who are passionate about delivering innovative services to customers.
Following the successful delivery of the UK General Election, our client base is forecasted to grow significantly over the next 12-18 months so this will be a very exciting time for the successful candidate to come on board.
You will be an empathetic, creative, driven person, with effective technical leadership and communication skills. You will be a self-starter and someone who is able to operate in a team environment with a good degree of autonomy and a good instinct for process improvement.
As our CTO, you will be involved in all aspects of the software development life cycle. Working with Development, Product Management, UX design and QA you will get to deliver amazing software to our clients. You will set the technical direction of our product roadmap and ensure that we consistently deliver high quality software in one of the harshest environments with a no fail delivery and immovable deadline of each election cycle.
Responsibilities:
* Develop and execute the company's technology strategy, aligning it with business goals
* Define the innovation strategy and oversee the implementation across the organisation
* Lead and mentor a team of skilled developers, a product manager and UX designer, fostering a culture of innovation and best practices
* Actively participate in coding and architecture decisions, ensuring high-quality, scalable solutions
* Oversee the entire software development lifecycle, from conception to deployment
* Ensure the security, reliability, and performance of our election day solutions, including maintaining compliance with ISO27001and other relevant security standards
* Stay abreast of emerging technologies and industry trends, particularly in election technology
* Collaborate with other Senior Managers to drive business growth and product direction
* Manage relationships with key technology partners and vendors
* Work closely with Product Manager to ensure projects remain on time and on budget
* Be ready to help those who need it and be patient with those who are developing their skills.
* Communicate clearly and often, and in turn encourage the team to communicate effectively.
Experience
* Proven experience as a CTO or senior technical leader in a scaling software company
* Strong hands-on coding skills, particularly in Node.js, TypeScript and JavaScript
* Deep understanding of AWS services and serverless architecture
* Experience with both SQL (RDS) and NoSQL (DynamoDB) databases
* Proficiency in front-end technologies, specifically Angular and React
* Knowledge of security best practices, especially in handling sensitive election data
* Experience with third-party vendor management, particularly in the context of cloud infrastructure and security.
* Excellent communication skills and ability to explain complex technical concepts to non-technical stakeholders
* Experience mentoring and developing talent within a small, high-performing team.
* Understanding of UK election processes and regulations (desirable)
Skills & Qualifications (Desirable)
* Bachelor's or Master's degree in Computer Science, Software Engineering, or related field
* Minimum of 10 years of software development experience, with at least 5 years in a leadership role
* Proven track record of successfully delivering large-scale, mission-critical software projects
* AWS certifications (e.g., AWS Certified Solutions Architect, AWS Certified DevOps Engineer).
* Experience managing budgets and specifically cloud cost analysis and control.
* Experience with iOS/Xcode/Swift
* Experience with Agile methodologies and modern CI/CD pipelines, AWS CDK.
* Sound commercial awareness
* Strong leadership skills
* Excellent verbal and communication skills
* Excellent interpersonal skills with a ‘can do’ attitude.
Benefits
Modern Democracy offer generous benefits, including:
* Competitive salary, with defined bonus on meeting agreed targets throughout the year.
* Flexible and hybrid working arrangements, including condensed working.
* Free food and drinks from onsite Café
* Health and Wellness benefits include a subsidised gym membership and a bike to work scheme.
Additional Information
Hybrid working is assumed but current company policy requires that all employees work from the office a minimum of 3 days per week.
Location: - Northern Ireland