Chief Technology Officer
Posted 11 days 13 hours ago by Nexus Inclusion
Nexus Inclusion builds technology that advances digital inclusion and digital accessibility. Our goal is a world that is digitally equal for everyone, regardless of ability or background - and we're looking for the technology leader who will help us get there.This is a senior leadership role. As our Chief Technology Officer you will own our technology strategy and direction and you'll stay close to the code. We're looking for a genuine player-coach: an experienced engineer who can set the architectural vision, lead and grow our team of internal and external developers, and still open a pull request when it matters. The platform you shape will define how accessible technology gets built, here and for the people we serve.
- Reports To: CEO and COO
- Location: Ireland - hybrid working
- Type : Full-time, permanent
- Level: Executive leadership, hands-on
- Salary: Competitive salary + performance-related bonus + benefits
You will be the most senior technology voice in the company, accountable for everything we build and how we build it. Day to day, that means leading a blended team of in-house engineers and external development partners, owning the architecture of our web platform - React and Astro on the front end, Node.js services and REST APIs behind it, running on AWS - and making sure accessibility isn't a feature we bolt on, but the standard we engineer to.Because we're a fast-growing startup, the role spans the full range: one week you might be working through the twelve-month roadmap with the CEO and Head of Product; the next you're in a code review, untangling a performance issue, or deciding whether we build or buy. Product vision is set in collaboration with our Head of Product - you'll help shape it, and you'll be the person accountable for delivering it. If you want a CTO title that comes with distance from the work, this isn't it. If you want to shape a platform, a team and an engineering culture from the ground up, it is.
What You'll Do- Own the technology strategy and roadmap - translating an agreed product vision into architecture, technical priorities and delivery plans
- Shape the product vision in collaboration with the Head of Product, and take full accountability for delivering it
- Design and evolve a scalable, low-latency, high-availability architecture across front end, back end and APIs
- Make pragmatic build-versus-buy and tooling decisions for a startup budget, including our AWS footprint and CI/CD pipelines
- Set the standard for security, data protection and GDPR compliance across everything we ship
- Embed digital accessibility (WCAG) into how we design, build and test - it's the heart of our mission
- Lead development across our stack: React and Astro interfaces, Node.js services, secure REST APIs, and SQL/NoSQL data layers
- Stay hands-on - contribute code, lead technical design, and act as the final escalation point on hard problems
- Run code reviews and own coding standards, reusable component libraries and engineering best practice
- Champion performance: responsive design, front-end optimisation and web performance across the product
- Lead delivery through Agile and Scrum, working in two-week sprint cycles with Product, Design and DevOps
- Build a testing culture - unit, integration and end-to-end - so quality is engineered in, not inspected in
- Keep documentation thorough and current across front-end and back-end solutions
- Continuously improve our processes, tooling and infrastructure as the team grows
- Lead, support and develop our internal and external engineering team - and shape how it grows from here
- Manage external development partners and agencies, holding them to the same standards as in-house work
- Act as the technology point of contact for teams across the business
- Represent technology at leadership level - in planning, with customers, and as we scale
- 8+ years in software engineering, including 3+ years leading development teams
- A track record of architecting scalable, performant, high-availability web applications
- Experience designing, building and securing RESTful APIs
- Solid understanding of database design and management across SQL and NoSQL
- Strong hands-on proficiency AWS, CI/CD pipelines and version control with Git
- Experience with modern testing frameworks and a genuine commitment to engineering quality
- Experience leading blended teams of internal engineers and external development partners
- A real commitment to digital inclusion, digital accessibility and inclusive design
- Excellent communication skills in English - with engineers, leadership and non-technical colleagues alike
- Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Software Engineering or a related field, or equivalent professional experience
- A senior leadership role in a fast-growing startup with a digital inclusion and digital accessibility focus
- Competitive salary with a performance-related bonus
- Eligibility to participate in the company share scheme
- 25 days annual leave, plus Irish public holidays and our December holiday closure
- Hybrid working and quarterly team off-site days
Applicants must be based in Ireland with a valid right to work in place.