The Chief Technology Officer (CTO) will be responsible for defining and delivering the technology vision and strategy of the company, ensuring alignment with business goals and regulatory obligations. As a member of the executive leadership team, the CTO will oversee the development, security, and scalability of the firm’s payment platforms, ensuring innovation, compliance, and resilience in a competitive environment.
Roles & Responsibilities
- Define and execute the company’s technology vision, roadmap, and long-term engineering strategy.
- Ensure all systems and platforms are scalable, secure, and resilient to meet customer demand and regulatory expectations.
- Advise the CEO and Board on technology trends, risks, and opportunities that impact the payments industry.
- Champion innovation and the adoption of emerging technologies that enhance competitive advantage.
- Lead the design, build, and optimisation of acquiring and issuing platforms, including transaction processing, settlement, reconciliation, and chargeback management.
- Oversee integrations with card schemes (Visa, Mastercard, etc.).
- Ensure full compliance with card scheme rules, PSD2 and other regulatory requirements.
- Support the launch and scaling of existing and new product.
- Develop technical solutions to optimise merchant onboarding, KYC, and payment acceptance capabilities across channels.
- Manage vendor and scheme relationships, ensuring strong connectivity, performance, and resilience of payment rails.
- Lead the end-to-end design and development of the company’s core payments platform, ensuring scalability, resilience, and innovation.
- Oversee the full product lifecycle for technology solutions.
- Collaborate with Product, Business Development, and Operations to define product roadmaps aligned with customer needs and commercial goals
- Implement robust platform architecture to support acquiring, issuing, risk management, and reporting functions.
- Ensure effective integration of APIs, partner solutions, and third-party services into the platform.
- Drive a culture of customer-centric product development, ensuring technology directly supports business growth.
- Oversee day-to-day operations of IT and payments infrastructure, ensuring system stability and uptime.
Maintain strong relationships with processors, acquirers, issuers, and external technology vendors.
- Build, lead, and mentor a high-performing technology team (engineering, IT operations, architecture, security).
- Oversee IT budgets, vendor contracts, and resource planning to ensure effective use of company resources.
Key Skills & Competencies
Proven leadership in technology strategy within a FinTech, payments, or financial services organisation.
Strong expertise in acquiring and card issuing technology, including scheme integrations, BIN sponsorship, and transaction processing.
Deep experience in platform architecture and product lifecycle management.
In-depth knowledge of regulatory frameworks (e.g., PSD2, FCA, PCI-DSS, AML, GDPR).
Excellent stakeholder management and board-level communication skills.
Strategic thinker with the ability to translate vision into execution.
Deep understanding of cybersecurity, fraud prevention, and data protection in payments.
Strong vendor and scheme relationship management skills.