Wireless – Chief Technology Officer

Our client, based in Southwestern Ontario, is rapidly transforming the consumer telecommunications landscape by providing consumers with ultra-affordable, contract free plans that feature unlimited talk and text by leveraging both Wi-Fi and traditional cellular connectivity. Billed as the world’s first all-IP, cloud-based phone carrier, our client’s products and services have been adopted by 50 million users globally and in 5 short years the company has gone from start-up to revenues of $25M+.

Funded by a Silicon Valley based Venture Capital firm and led by a visionary founder, CEO,our client’s future is bright.

Scope of Position

Broadly, the objective of the role of the Chief Technology Officer is to cultivate an environment that attracts, deploys and retains the human and other resources required to effectively develop, deliver and support the company’s platform and applications providing value to the company’s customers, while meeting the business strategy and goals for profitable growth.

Reporting to the CEO, the CTO is responsible for providing leadership in all activities related to the development and delivery of the company’s products and services from definition and specification through design, release, enhancement, quality assurance, implementation and support.

The successful candidate will hire, develop and lead a team of approximately 35 experienced and highly capable individuals who are characterized by their loyalty, creativity and commitment to company’s innovative products and the satisfaction of their customers.

Functional Tasks

- Hire and manage direct reports, along with their goal setting, performance measurement and development feedback
- Develop reliable, robust solutions on-time, within cost targets, using accepted state-of-the-art Agile methodologies balancing the demands of release content, quality and desired release dates
- Maintain keen awareness of the trends and conditions in technology, products and development tools relative to the needs of the company’s target audience
- Audit existing and establish new scalable development platforms and processes which meet current organizational requirements, anticipates future growth and complexity and balance the need for predictability and creative license
- Establish key indicators for competitive performance in completion of development projects and for rapid, realistic decisions on strategies, plans and projects
- Ensure the optimal application of technology and engineering resources to meet the product development and/or customer requirements and deadlines.
- Align the engineering organization’s activities with the company goals and strategic direction, as well as with the company’s corporate values in areas such as people, integrity, passion and innovation
- Foster an environment that enables highly technical staff to consistently perform with excellence, to set and meet personal and team goals, and to develop and be recognized for best in class competence in their field(s) within the context of the company’s software development programs
- Establish and maintain succession plans and programs for all positions within the engineering organization to ensure the smooth transition and minimize vacancies for critical roles

Key Performance Deliverables

In light of the identified responsibilities, the following arespecific deliverablesthat the position is designed to achieve.

- Acquisition and retention of industry leading talent
- Development of a highly innovative and ‘best of breed’ development team
- Delivery of engineering roadmap
- Productivity as measured by developers/revenue ratio
- Technology functionality and performance; Reliability and defects per design

Competency Profile

The following competencies listed below define the role ofCTO.

Drive
Adopts an energetic approach. Works towards goals and willingly tackles demanding tasks. Demonstrates capacity for sustained effort and hard work over long periods of time, even in the face of adversity.

Communication
Expresses ideas in a clear, fluent and concise manner; written and oral arguments are compelling and responsive to the needs of the audience; comprehends communications from others and responds appropriately.

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

Quality Orientation
Strives for excellence in products, processes and/or services through continued evaluation, enhancement and redefinition of quality standards.

Innovation
Generates new ideas. Challenges existing assumptions. Goes beyond the status quo. Recognizes the need for new or modified approaches. Brings various perspectives and approaches together, combining them in a creative fashion to implement effective improvements.

Results Orientation
Focuses strongly on achieving agreed upon outcomes and ensures that key objectives are met. Conveys a sense of urgency and drives issues to closure. Aims to improve upon past performance. Establishes aggressive personal targets and strives to achieve them.

Preferred Experience / Education

- The preferred candidate will have experience working in highly dynamic, entrepreneurial, fast-paced and innovative environments
- The successful candidate will have superior communication and people management skills with a proven ability to motivate and mentor teams, instill accountability and achieve agreed upon outcomes.
- The successful candidate will have a proven record of inspiring teams to deliver
- The successful candidate will bring strong experience in agile development and will boast a track record of success in developing highly scalable B2C software using agile methodology.
- Preference will be given to candidates with a proven track record of leading and scaling consumer oriented software development teams from 30 to 100 engineers
- The successful candidate will be hands-on, detail oriented and be able to anticipate problems and head off projects that are headed astray and have the ability to get products back on track.
- Highly competitive base, variable and stock plan for the successful candidate.

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