Tech Lead / CTO To Handle End-To-End Development For Portfolio Of Projects

Senior Product Engineer / Technical Lead — Build, Own & Innovate Software Products We’re looking for an exceptional Senior Product Engineer / Technical Lead who can take complete ownership of software products from idea through development, launch, maintenance, optimisation and ongoing innovation. This is not a traditional “write the tickets you’re given” developer role. We’re looking for someone who thinks like a technical founder / CTO / product architect — someone who can look at a product, identify what is broken or inefficient, understand what users actually need, and figure out how to make the product significantly better. You should be highly technical, extremely proactive, creative, commercially minded and obsessed with building excellent software. What You'll Be Responsible For 1. End-to-End Product Development Take ownership of the end-to-end development of complete software products. Architect, build, launch, maintain and continuously improve products. Build new features and functionality in existing products. Upgrade, refactor and completely redesign parts of products when necessary. Work on complex software systems that require genuine engineering ability — not simple websites, basic CRUD applications or ChatGPT wrappers. Make strong technical decisions without needing to be micromanaged. Take a product from concept → architecture → development → launch → iteration. 2. Product Ownership & Reliability You will be responsible for ensuring the products you own are functioning properly and reliably. This means: Products need to be live and operational 24/7. Monitor and identify issues proactively. Troubleshoot and resolve problems quickly. Prevent recurring issues rather than repeatedly fixing the same symptoms. Identify technical weaknesses before they become major problems. Improve performance, reliability, security and scalability. Take full ownership when something goes wrong. We want someone who thinks: “I own this product. If something is broken, I need to find it and fix it.” —not someone who waits to be told there is a problem. 3. Build & Manage Technical Operations As the products grow, you will help build the systems and processes required to operate them efficiently. This includes: Development workflows Deployment processes Monitoring and maintenance QA processes Documentation Project management systems Technical processes Internal tooling Development standards Team workflows You should constantly ask: “Is there a better, faster or smarter way to do this?” If the answer is yes, you should implement it. 4. Hiring & Managing Developers As we scale, you will help build and manage the development team. Responsibilities may include: Identifying the developers we need. Helping interview and assess candidates. Hiring strong technical talent. Structuring development teams. Delegating work effectively. Reviewing code and technical decisions. Managing developers and contractors. Establishing standards for quality. Onboarding new developers. Making sure the team operates efficiently. You should be capable of both doing the technical work yourself and leading other engineers to do it well. The Type of Person We're Looking For This is the most important part of the role. We are not primarily looking for someone who can simply follow instructions. We want someone who can think. You should naturally: Challenge assumptions. Question inefficient processes. Find problems that other people don't notice. Come up with better solutions. Think several steps ahead. Identify opportunities for innovation. Improve products without being asked. Think about the user experience, not just the code. Understand why something is being built, not just how to build it. Take ownership of outcomes rather than individual tasks. Innovation & Creative Problem Solving You should have a genuine product mindset. We want someone who can look at a product and say: “Why are we doing it this way?” “This process is unnecessarily complicated — here's how I'd redesign it.” “Users are likely to struggle here — we should solve that before they encounter it.” “Our competitors do X, but there's a much better way to do X.” “We could completely rethink this functionality rather than simply improving the existing version.” You should be able to innovate far beyond existing benchmarks rather than simply copying what competitors are doing. We value people who: Think outside the box. Invent new functionality. Create better user flows. Identify hidden bottlenecks. Simplify complicated processes. Find ways to dramatically improve efficiency. Challenge conventional approaches. Reimagine existing systems. Turn difficult technical problems into elegant solutions. Product Vision We want someone with a genuine vision for the products they build. You shouldn't just think: “What feature was I asked to build?” You should think: “What would make this product substantially better?” For example, rather than simply implementing a requested feature, you might identify a completely different approach that solves the underlying user problem more effectively. We want someone who can explain: “We added X because users were experiencing Y problem, and this solves it by Z.” That level of product thinking is extremely important to us. Quality Standards We have very high standards for the products we build. Software should have: Clean, well-structured code. Logical architecture. Excellent organisation. Strong documentation. Appropriate comments where they add value. Clear naming conventions. Maintainable systems. Minimal technical debt. Robust error handling. Strong testing where appropriate. Excellent UX. Minimal bugs. Minimal unnecessary complexity. When another developer joins the project, they should be able to understand the codebase and become productive quickly. We do not want messy code that only the original developer understands. User Experience & Design You should care about the experience of the person using the software. We want products that are: Intuitive. Fast. Simple to understand. Visually polished. Easy to navigate. More enjoyable to use than competing products. You should be able to identify awkward user flows, unnecessary steps, confusing interfaces and friction points — and proactively improve them. You don't need to be a world-class visual designer, but you do need strong product/design instincts. Technical Complexity Our projects are intended to be genuine software products with sophisticated functionality. We're not looking for someone whose primary experience is: Simple websites Basic landing pages Basic CRUD applications Simple WordPress projects Basic API integrations Simple ChatGPT wrappers “Vibe coding” without understanding the underlying architecture We need someone capable of working with complex systems, advanced functionality, integrations, automation, data, APIs, infrastructure and sophisticated product logic. You should understand the difference between quickly generating code and actually engineering a reliable software product. Continuous Improvement One of your core responsibilities will be finding ways to make everything better. This applies to: The product The code The architecture The user experience Development processes Team processes Operations Testing Deployment Documentation Project management We want someone who is constantly looking for: What is slowing us down? What is unnecessarily complicated? What keeps breaking? What are users struggling with? What are developers wasting time on? What can be automated? What can be simplified? What should be completely redesigned? Then — importantly — do something about it. Ideal Candidate You are likely a strong fit if you have experience as a: Senior Full-Stack Engineer Staff Engineer Lead Engineer Principal Engineer Technical Lead Founding