Chief Technology Officer (CTO)

About the Role The Chief Technology Officer (CTO) is the senior executive responsible for Digital Factory’s overall technology strategy, engineering direction, technical architecture, and technology organization. The CTO will lead the Company’s technology function, ensuring innovation, product development, software engineering, and emerging technology initiatives align with enterprise strategy and are executed within a scalable, secure, and disciplined technology framework. This role requires an accomplished technology executive with extensive hands-on software development and engineering experience. The successful candidate will have progressed from software development and engineering into increasingly senior technology leadership roles and will have the technical depth to evaluate architecture, engineering quality, development practices, technical tradeoffs, and emerging technologies. As a member of the Executive Team, the CTO will partner closely with the CEO and executive leadership to translate business strategies into technology priorities, strengthen the Company’s technical capabilities, accelerate development, and position technology and innovation as drivers of enterprise value. This is an equity-only, fractional opportunity for experienced, entrepreneurial-minded professionals who want to put their expertise to work beyond their current role or consulting portfolio. Help scale a next-generation data analytics and technology company, earn an ownership stake, and participate in the potential financial upside of the value you help create., * Set technology and engineering direction aligned with Digital Factory’s product strategy, market opportunities, commercialization objectives, and long-term enterprise value.

• Provide the technical and architectural leadership necessary to continuously evolve Digital Factory’s products into scalable, secure, differentiated, and commercially viable solutions.
• Translate product and business priorities into focused technical roadmaps, architecture decisions, development priorities, and measurable outcomes.
• Advise the CEO and Executive Team on technical feasibility, emerging technologies, investments, risks, and strategic tradeoffs.

Innovation & Engineering Leadership

• Lead the Innovation Team, leveraging product history, institutional knowledge, and innovation expertise with deep software development, engineering, and architectural leadership.
• Serve as a technical thought partner to the Chief Innovation Officer (CINO), strengthening execution while enabling continued focus on innovation, product evolution, and emerging opportunities.
• Provide hands-on technical leadership when needed, including the ability to evaluate architecture, code, development approaches, technical debt, and engineering quality.
• Establish the engineering standards, development practices, technical governance, decision rights, and accountability required to move products efficiently from concept through production and continuous evolution.
• Build, develop, and optimize engineering capability using the appropriate mix of fractional talent, internal resources, external development partners, and technology vendors.

Commercialization & Enterprise Value

• Ensure technology and product priorities are informed by customer needs, market opportunities, competitive dynamics, commercial potential, and revenue objectives.
• Partner with Client Services to translate market and customer intelligence into product capabilities, technical solutions, and differentiated value propositions.
• Identify opportunities to leverage existing products, intellectual property, data, and technology capabilities to expand use cases, accelerate customer adoption, create revenue opportunities, and strengthen enterprise valuation.
• Prioritize engineering and innovation resources toward initiatives with the greatest potential to accelerate product readiness, commercialization, revenue generation, and enterprise value.
• Evaluate build-versus-buy decisions, technology investments, platforms, vendors, and development partners based on speed to market, strategic value, scalability, risk, resource capacity, and long-term value creation.

Technology Leadership & Governance

• Partner closely with the Chief Data & Security Officer (CDSO), Chief Innovation Officer (CIO), and other functional leaders to ensure alignment across engineering, innovation, data, security, infrastructure, AI, and enterprise technology.
• Ensure appropriate security, privacy, scalability, reliability, documentation, and risk considerations are incorporated throughout product architecture and development.
• Establish clear technology decision rights, performance expectations, and meaningful KPIs focused on product readiness, engineering quality, delivery, commercialization, customer value, and business impact.
• Operate effectively by maintaining disciplined priorities, maximizing available resources, and personally engaging where technical depth or executive intervention is required.

• 10+ years of progressive software engineering and technology experience, with extensive hands-on software development experience and demonstrated progression into senior technology and executive leadership.
• Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Software Engineering, Computer Engineering, Information Technology, or a related technical discipline, or equivalent demonstrated technical expertise.
• Deep hands-on engineering expertise who can lead product development and support commercialization.
• Proven experience as a CTO, VP Engineering, Head of Engineering, Chief Architect, or comparable senior technology leader, with responsibility for leading engineering teams and senior technical professionals.
• Deep technical expertise across modern software architecture, application development, APIs, databases, cloud environments, DevOps, CI/CD, and software development lifecycle practices, with the ability to evaluate architecture, code quality, technical debt, and engineering tradeoffs.
• Demonstrated experience taking complex technology products from concept and development through production, continuous evolution, and commercialization.
• Proven ability to connect technology and product strategy to customer value, revenue generation, market differentiation, and enterprise value creation.
• Strong knowledge of AI, machine learning, data-driven products, and emerging technologies, with the judgment to evaluate their practical and commercial application.
• Demonstrated success in startup, scale-up, entrepreneurial, or resource-conscious environments, with the ability to operate strategically while remaining close to the work.
• Exceptional executive leadership and communication skills, including the ability to lead and develop senior technical leaders, influence across functions, challenge technical assumptions, and translate complex technology decisions into clear business implications.
• Relevant technical certifications, including AWS Certified Solutions Architect or comparable cloud certifications, may be beneficial but are not required.

This opportunity is offered on an equity-only basis as we continue to scale. There is no salary or hourly compensation at this time.