Chief Technology Officer

About the role

The Chief Technology Officer will lead the engineering organization and drive the technological development of the product portfolio for a growing European defence-tech company. This role involves scaling the engineering team, fostering a software-defined development approach, and ensuring the architecture supports a scalable product range. The CTO will act as a strategic partner to the founder and management team, balancing technical depth with organizational leadership.

Responsibilities

• Lead and further develop the engineering organization
• Build a robust second management layer by recruiting engineering and team leads
• Develop structures and ownership models to ensure efficiency during rapid growth
• Assemble project and product teams with appropriate technical competencies
• Strengthen software engineering and integrate it with hardware development
• Define the technological direction of new products in collaboration with management
• Ensure product architecture supports a scalable and extensible portfolio
• Collaborate with product management and business development to assess technical feasibility and strategic fit

Required skills

• Engineering Leadership
• Team Scaling
• Defence Industry
• Software-defined Systems
• Hardware-Software Integration
• Technical Architecture

Nice to have

• Embedded Software
• Real-time Systems
• Robotics
• Autonomous Systems
• Cyber-physical Systems
• Hardware Development
• Aerospace

Qualifications

• Extensive leadership and management experience in technical organizations
• Experience in building or scaling engineering teams
• Solid experience in the defence sector and understanding of military requirements
• Experience in a fast-growing start-up or scale-up

About the Company

Our client is a growing European defence-tech company that develops technologically sophisticated unmanned systems for military users and is already active in the international market.