Chief Technology Officer at CA Global

Job Description:
The CTO in partnership with the CEO is responsible for establishing the company’s technical visions, developing the product roadmap and leading all aspects of the company‘s technology development. This position is responsible for maintaining existing systems, while providing direction in all technology-related issues in support of information operations.
The CTO is responsible for the engineering team, which consists of development, IT and software testing.
 
Client Description:
Our Client is a Nigerian electronic commerce company. They offer a third-party online marketplace, as well as first-party direct retail spanning various categories including consumer electronics, fashion, home appliances, books, children's items, and personal care products.
 
Responsibilities:
 
Strategy & Planning:

• Identify opportunities and risks for delivering the company’s services as an e-commerce business, including identification of competitive services, opportunities for innovation, and assessment of marketplace obstacles and technical hurdles to the business success.
• Identify technology trends and evolving social behaviour that may support or impede the success of the business.
• Evaluate and identify appropriate technology platforms (including web application frameworks and the deployment stack) for delivering the company’s services.
• Lead strategic planning to achieve business goals by identifying and prioritizing development initiatives and setting timetables for the evaluation, development, and deployment of all web-based services.
• Participate as a member of the executive team in establishing governance processes of direction and control to ensure that objectives are achieved, risks are managed appropriately and the organization’s resources are used responsibly, particularly in the areas of software development, office networks and computers, and telecommunications.
• Collaborate with the appropriate departments to assess and recommend technologies that support company organizational needs.
• Establish a governance process that meets government, partner, and company expectations for customer information privacy.
• Direct development and execution of an enterprise-wide information security plan that protects the confidentiality, integrity, and availability of the company’s data and servers.
• Direct development and execution of an enterprise-wide disaster recovery and business continuity plan.
• Communicate the company’s technology strategy to investors, management, staff, partners, customers, and stakeholders.

Implementation & Deployment:

• As a member of the management team, manage the selection and registration of the company’s web site domain names, including any related-but-unused domains that could compromise the integrity of the business (through competition, typo squatting, etc.).
• Select and set up a software revision control system and repository (in the absence of a system administrator).
• Collaborate with the founders and potential customers to develop use cases (or user stories)             and specifications that describe the implementation of the company’s services as a web application.
• Collaborate with a User Experience Designer and potential customers to prepare wireframes or mock-ups of a prototype of the company’s web application.
• As a member of the senior management team, participate in the selection of a graphic designer who, with the direction of the Director of Marketing, will create the company corporate identity and design the web application’s look and feel. Ensure that the graphic designer has sufficient web experience, follows guidelines established in the User Experience design process, and delivers assets that can be easily adapted to web requirements.
• Select or define the company’s software development methodology.
• Establish a specification conformance and testing regimen based on user stories and the User Experience design.
• Review current best practices for the selected web framework and establish the initial architecture for the application.
• Select and manage company staff or outsourced vendors that will implement the application.
• Establish and supervise the software development process, setting short-term objectives and assessing progress as defined by the selected software development methodology.
• Select and manage company staff or outsourced vendors that will implement a design as web pages using CSS and XHTML conforming to web standards.
• Promulgate coding conventions and documentation standards.
• Conduct code reviews and specification conformance testing as defined by the selected software development methodology.
• Select, deploy, and monitor performance profiling tools and procedures.
• Establish an application deployment process and supervise deployment to staging and production servers. Establish and supervise a quality assurance process, including integration and system testing.
• Review and approve proposed development releases and manage the release process.
• Evaluate and select web application hosting providers.
• Monitor application performance and review any application failures in staging or production.
• Establish and monitor a web analytics regime that measures site traffic and application usage relative to business goals.
• Select and manage the vendor for website search engine optimization. 
• Establish a customer service and support process, with particular responsibility for web-based services that implement the support function.
• Establish a process to integrate customer service and support with the software engineering process to support resolution of customer issues and improve application usability.

Operational Management:

• Maintain up-to-date knowledge of technology standards, industry trends, emerging technologies, and software development best practices by attending relevant conferences and reading widely.
• Define and communicate company values and standards for acquiring or developing systems, equipment, or software within the company.
• Ensure that technology standards and best practices are maintained across the organization.
• Share knowledge, mentor, and educate the organization’s investors, management, staff, partners, customers, and stakeholders with regard to the company’s technological vision, opportunities, and challenges.
• Ensure company technical problems are resolved in a timely and cost-effective manner.
• Develop, track, and control the development and deployment of annual operating and capital budgets for purchasing, staffing, and operations.
• Supervise recruitment, training, retention, and organization of all development staff in accordance with the company hiring process, personnel policies, and budget requirements.
• Establish standards of performance and monitor conformance for staff (through performance reviews) and vendors (through service level agreements).
• Ensure the company’s internal technological processes and customer-facing services comply with community expectations and applicable laws and regulations for privacy, security, and social responsibility.
• Promote achievement of the company’s business goals within a context of community collaboration by developing policies for sharing software code, technological innovation, business processes, and other intellectual property.

Min Requirements:

• Demonstrated ability to envision and architect web-based services that meet consumer needs or solve business problems.
• Minimum of 15 years of professional experience. 
• Minimum of 7 years’ experience managing tech teams.
• Advanced knowledge of programming languages – PHP, Python, Java etc.
• Keen business acumen and proven executive management abilities based on prior experience.
• Forthright and a team player who is open to being a member of a high performance management team.
• An advocate for the development team.
• Ability to have effective two-way communication with management and development team.
• Provide leadership and motivation to the development team via a dynamic, confident and professional demeanour. 
• Experience with start-up companies. E-commerce industry experience
• Experience in coding in more than one currently popular web/mobile application framework.
• Familiar with more than one software development methodology.
• Ability to discern user requirements and develop specifications.
• Has contributed to one or more open source projects.
• Skills with CSS, XHTML, one or more Java script frameworks, and Node Js.
• Knowledge of web/mobile standards.
• Knowledge of Internet protocols and RFC standards, database management systems, and revision control systems.
• Familiarity with technical requirements of Internet marketing and search engine optimization.
• Familiarity with information security vulnerabilities and risk management.
• Familiarity with consumer privacy and payments industry compliance requirements.
• Exposure to business theory, business process development, governance processes, management, budgeting, and administrative operations.

Qualifications

• MBA preferred, must have BS/BA in business administration or information technology or related major or equivalent combination of education and experience. 
• A graduate degree in one of these fields is a plus.

Benefits and Contractual information:

• Competitive salaries offered;
• Benefits included: housing, utilities, car and a driver