Chief Technology Officer

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

About the Role

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

Hands-On Engineering Leadership

• 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

Delivery & Quality

• 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

Team & Partners

• 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

What We're Looking For

• 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

Education

• Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Software Engineering or a related field, or equivalent professional experience

What We Offer

• 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.