Chief Technology Officer at Hello Tractor

Job Summary

• Hello Tractor has a fantastic opportunity for an experienced engineer who can work at a high level across the enterprise.
• You will be working with a world-class team of professionals who are enthusiastic about what they do and will expect no less from you. Having an insatiable hunger for learning new technologies and improving existing ones is key.
• Passion to apply technology to meet the needs of low-income farmers is an absolute must.
• The CTO is responsible for overseeing the technical aspects of our web and mobile infrastructure.
• You will work with Executive Management to expand our products capabilities, aligning them with our enterprise customers, which include large dealers and tractor manufacturers (OEMs).

Using practical approaches, the CTO will work alongside the technology team to attain our goals. Among these objectives are:

• Building Cloud services in the domain of the Internet of Things
• Web & Mobile application and services that interact with IP devices and web services
• Build & Expand web and mobile app features

In addition, we expect the CTO to:

• Collaborate with CEO and Product Manager to develop product / technology roadmaps and strategy
• Build overall organizational alignment and consensus for product/technology roadmaps and strategy
• Lead execution of common, cross-company projects as derived from Roadmaps domestically and internationally
• Ensure that all products meet appropriate national and international codes and standards
• Own the overall systems architecture
• Understand the “total cost of doing business” implications beyond the cost of hardware & software
• Present complex ideas, anticipate potential objections and persuade others, including senior management, customers, partners and industry groups, to adopt recommended design solutions
• Keep well-informed of, and educate leadership concerning technological advances associated with IoT
• Develop relationships with Universities / Research Groups associated with IoT Technologies.

Skills and Qualifications
General:

• Willingness to relocate to Nairobi, Kenya.
• BS in related field and about 10 years experience in the Information Technology arena
• Prior experience of leading engineers or strategic initiatives as senior developer or team lead hungry for that next step (to CTO).
• Willingness to travel to rural areas for stakeholder meetings, partner engagement and platform launch activities.
• Willingness to travel (international) for enterprise customer meetings
• Preference for prior experience in and exposure to IoT and blockchain technologies

Strong Cloud Background:

• Deep understanding of large scale computing solutions, including software design and development, database architectures, IP networking, security, and performance tuning
• Knowledge of cloud security, orchestration, management
• Experience with deploying and managing public and/or private clouds using Amazon Web Services or similar infrastructure service
• Familiarity with the “Internet of Things” space
• Proficient in fundamentals of object-oriented design, data structures, algorithm design, problem solving, and complexity analysis
• Ability to pick up multiple technologies (including back end, front end and mobile)

Organizational Skills:

• Experience working within a cross-functional team to provide technical expertise in the design and planning of system solutions
• Capability to simplify, streamline and automate to increase system scalability and reliability, improve efficiency, and minimize errors
• Prioritization skills that finds a good balance between strategic initiatives, product feature development, and day-to-day technical operations
• Strong interpersonal skills and ability to lead teams through influence
• High level of comfort communicating effectively across internal and external organizations
• Entrepreneurial thinking and the ability to act effectively with only high-level direction essential
• Desire for and comfort with wearing multiple hats a major plus