CTO

Group Chief Technology Officer

Remote-first · Europe (CET)

Build the technology engine behind multiple companies and stay hands-on while doing it.

We are looking for a highly hands-on, AI-native Group CTO to lead technology across a growing portfolio of ventures.

This is not a traditional group CTO role focused primarily on strategy, governance and management.

We are looking for someone who builds.

You will be expected to work directly with engineers, prototype systems, make architectural decisions, write and review code, experiment with AI technologies and help turn ideas into production businesses.

You will operate at the intersection of venture building, technology and AI helping create new companies from the ground up while establishing the technical foundations that allow them to scale.

The Role

You will take technical ownership across a portfolio of existing and new ventures.

The objective is simple:

Turn promising ideas into technology-enabled businesses quickly, repeatedly and at scale.

You will establish the shared technology foundations that ventures can inherit rather than rebuilding everything from scratch.

At the same time, you will work directly with venture teams to determine what should be built, how it should be built and where technology can create a genuine competitive advantage.

This is a role for someone who is equally comfortable:

• Designing a group-wide technology architecture.
• Building a prototype themselves.
• Working directly with engineers.
• Testing a new AI model or agent framework.
• Making a build-vs-buy decision.
• Reviewing production code.
• Launching an MVP.
• Hiring a senior technical leader.
• Challenging an architecture decision.
• Killing a technical initiative that isn't working.
• Turning an early-stage concept into a scalable technology business.

What You'll Own

Venture Building

You will be deeply involved in the technical creation of new ventures.

From the earliest idea, you will help determine:

• Is the idea technically viable?
• Can it be built significantly faster using AI?
• What should the initial architecture look like?
• What can be bought rather than built?
• What needs to become proprietary technology?
• What is the fastest route to a production MVP?
• How can the technology create a defensible advantage?
• How does the architecture need to evolve as the venture gains traction?

You will help create companies, not simply support companies that already exist.

AI-Native Technology

AI should be fundamental to how you operate.

We are looking for someone who has actually built with AI, rather than someone who simply understands the market.

You should be comfortable with:

• LLMs and multimodal models
• AI agents and agentic workflows
• RAG and knowledge systems
• AI-assisted software development
• Model selection and evaluation
• Inference infrastructure and cost optimisation
• AI product architecture
• Model safety and governance
• AI automation of internal operations
• Rapid prototyping using AI
• Building AI systems into production products

You should also have strong opinions about where AI genuinely creates leverage - and where it is simply hype.

We expect the CTO to use AI as part of their daily operating system, not delegate it to an innovation team.

Hands-On Technology Leadership

This is a hands-on CTO role.

You will not be expected to spend your time exclusively in meetings, reviewing roadmaps or managing through layers of management.

You should be comfortable getting into the technology yourself.

That could mean:

• Writing code.
• Building prototypes.
• Reviewing pull requests.
• Designing APIs.
• Debugging production systems.
• Experimenting with new models.
• Building an agent.
• Setting up infrastructure.
• Reviewing architecture.
• Pairing with engineers.
• Turning an idea into a working proof of concept.

The expectation is that you can earn technical credibility through your work.

You don't need to be the person writing every line of production code, but you must remain technically close enough to the work to understand it, challenge it and contribute directly when necessary.

Shared Technology Platform

You will build and evolve the technology platform that allows new ventures to move from idea to production rapidly.

This includes:

• Cloud infrastructure
• Data platforms
• Developer tooling
• Shared services
• Security
• AI infrastructure
• Agentic tooling
• Observability
• CI/CD
• Technical standards
• Reusable components
• AI safety and governance

The goal is not to create a central technology bureaucracy.

The goal is to create a venture-building machine where each new company starts with a significant technical advantage.

Building the Technical Organisation

As the portfolio grows, you will build the technical leadership team around it.

You will:

• Define the engineering organisation.
• Establish the hiring bar.
• Recruit exceptional engineers and technical leaders.
• Hire and develop venture CTOs.
• Create technical leadership standards.
• Establish engineering culture and operating principles.
• Ensure teams remain fast and entrepreneurial as the portfolio scales.

You should be someone who enjoys building teams almost as much as building technology.

What We're Looking For

The strongest candidates will have a combination of deep technical capability, AI-native thinking and venture-building experience.

You will ideally have:

• A significant hands-on engineering background.
• Experience operating as a CTO, technical founder, VP Engineering or equivalent senior technical leader.
• Experience building companies, products or ventures from zero to one.
• A strong track record of shipping production technology.
• Deep practical experience with modern AI and LLM technologies.
• Experience building AI-native products or systems used by real customers.
• Experience using AI to dramatically accelerate software development and venture creation.
• Experience building or consolidating platforms used across multiple products or companies.
• Strong architectural judgement and the ability to make pragmatic technology decisions quickly.
• Experience hiring and developing exceptional engineering leaders.
• The ability to move between strategy and implementation without losing technical depth.
• Strong commercial judgement and an understanding of how technology can create enterprise value.

Particularly Valuable

Experience with:

• Venture studios or venture builders
• Startups and company creation
• Zero-to-one product development
• AI-native companies
• Agentic systems
• Developer platforms
• SaaS
• Consumer technology
• Regulated technology environments
• Scaling engineering organisations
• Building multiple products simultaneously

What Success Looks Like

After 18 months:

• Multiple ventures are being built on a common technology foundation.
• New companies can move from concept to working MVP significantly faster.
• AI is embedded throughout the venture-building process.
• Several AI-native products or systems are running in production.
• The technical platform is genuinely accelerating venture creation.
• The engineering organisation has a clear hiring bar and strong technical leadership.
• The first venture CTOs have been hired and developed by you.
• Engineers see you as a builder and technical leader, not simply an executive.
• There is technology in production that creates a genuine competitive advantage for the portfolio.

If you are an experienced technical leader who still wants to be close to the technology, deeply understands AI and wants to help build multiple companies rather than operate a single technology organisation, this is an opportunity to have exceptional scope and impact.