Software Company – Chief Technology Officer, Toronto

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About the company

Our client is a North American leader in its market segment that is continuing to experience explosive growth. The company has experienced an average 59% annual growth over the last year 3 years, and is on pace to double in the next 18 – 24 months. The company has been recognized by Deloitte for multiple years as one of the fastest growing technology companies in Canada and North America. As part of its growth plan, the company is refocusing its executive leadership group and is seeking to add another technology leader at the executive level to the team, as the CTO or EVP Engineering (depending on the candidate).

In 2016, the World Economic Forum stated that the fourth industrial revolution “will create realities that were previously unthinkable.” Knowing that revolutionary technology will drive the transformation of business models in every industry, our client is playing a leadership role as the dynamics of the industry alters to meet the expectations of the consumer. Based in the Greater Toronto Area, the company is taking its highly successful SaaS model and will continue to push innovation and transformation further into its market through mobile customer experience applications, and business intelligence.

Position Scope

Broadly, the objective of this role is to cultivate an environment that attracts, deploys, and retains the human and other resources required to effectively develop, deliver, and support our client’s transition to new business models, while meeting the business strategy and goals for profitable growth.

Reporting to the CEO, this executive position is responsible for providing leadership in all activities related to the development and delivery of the company’s technology from software design, software development, quality assurance, release, enhancement, and implementation. The successful candidate will assume responsibility for the development, QA and IT groups which are split between onshore and offshore teams, totaling more than 120 professionals.

Responsibilities

• Recognize and develop trends in mobile and SaaS technology delivery to aid in enhancing the technology roadmap and corporate vision
• Contribute to overall technical vision and architecture of the company products.
• Own all aspects of the solution service delivery. Collaborate with product management and sales organizations to prioritize product roadmap.
• Collaborate with the Executive Team to identify potential acquisitions and 3rd party partnerships. Lead the successful integration of acquired or 3rd party technologies.
• Provide technology and SaaS platform subject matter expertise.
• Develop and communicate long-term technology vision and scalable technical architecture.
• Deliver technologies and solutions on schedule, within budget, while meeting high-quality standards.
• Manage operational issues systematically and ensure customers and internal teams receive an outstanding service level from the development organization. Anticipate roadblocks, diagnose problems and create effective solutions.
• Optimize development and QA costs over time and scope by applying a disciplined, quantifiable approach to the definition, development, testing, and maintenance of the software architecture and its code.

Key Performance Deliverables

In light of the identified responsibilities, the following are specific deliverables that the position is designed to achieve.

• Cycle time excellence and on-time product delivery to market
• Quality of Service and customer satisfaction
• Retention and recruiting
• Employee satisfaction and motivation
• Development of staff e.g. Goals completed, performance reviews completed etc
• Functionality and performance of the system and applications
• Budget management as well as technology cost
• Responsiveness e.g. to technology advances, consumer behavior trends
• Achievement of overall corporate goals

Competency Profile

The following competencies listed below define the role of Executive Technology Leader

Role Expertise

Demonstrates critical technical or professional knowledge/skills related to the role. Has thorough knowledge of relevant products, services and methods. Expands technical knowledge/skills and keeps up-to-date in own area of expertise.

Planning & Objective Setting

Systematic in approach to work. Produces action plans in which objectives are defined and steps for achieving them are clearly specified. Plans by breaking down large task into subtasks. Develops plans that anticipate obstacles. Is realistic about time-scales and builds in appropriate checkpoints, milestones and controls in order to ensure that desired results are realized.

Team Skills

Helps to create a sense of team spirit and harmonious relations through cooperation and support. Balances personal goals with those of the team. Fosters collaboration among team members

People Management

Establishes and communicates clear priorities and sense of direction. Clarifies roles and responsibilities. Adapts management style to achieve optimum results.

Developing & Coaching Others

Accurately assesses strengths and development needs of employees. Adjusts coaching style based on each employee’s ability and motivation level. Challenges others to improve their abilities and actively supports their development. Continually provides timely and constructive feedback, coaching and challenging learning opportunities

Customer/Client Orientation

Strives to provide customers/clients with personalized and efficient service. Anticipatescustomers’/clients’ needs. Quickly follows up on customer/client contacts and complaints. Monitors and acts on measures of customer/client satisfaction.

Industry & Market Awareness

Seeks to anticipate and respond to industry and market changes/challenges by understanding key

characteristics, issues and the factors driving them. Aware of competitor’s products, services and position.

Preferred Experience / Education

The following indicates specific industry, academic and functional experience/qualifications that are important to the successful achievement of the identified responsibilities and performance deliverables.

• Expansive knowledge and enthusiasm for SaaS.
• University degree in computer science, software engineering, or related subjects.
• Fifteen or more years’ experience in increasingly senior software engineering roles, including five or more years at an executive level.
• A leadership style that ensures each software engineering project is driven by a unified purpose, a development process suitable to the project at hand, a team culture of understanding the problem, and a flow of ideas such that the best ideas rise to the surface.
• Demonstrated experience building and delivering a SaaS platform with full life cycle services. Provisioning, Fulfillment, Subscription Management, Commerce, and Services Delivery.
• Experience leading software engineering teams of at least 50 professionals across more than one location.
• Capable of engaging with customers, prospects and technology partners.
• Experience managing a diverse set of development projects within a structured release framework (long term platform roadmap items, customer solutions, operational enhancements managed through a bi weekly release process).
• A technologist with an extensive background in architecture and development, combined with superb executive management skills.
• A leader, who has hired, mentored and developed strong technology and development teams.
• Expertise leading development in an Agile environment.
• Our client is prepared to create an industry leading package for the best candidate.