Chief Technology Officer

Bluesquare SA; Brussel Hoofdstad; Hybrid; EUR 150,000 - 230,000; Full time

Job summary

Bluesquare SA in Brussels seeks a CTO to lead the Tech Team, shape the technology vision and drive the product strategy for IASO and OpenHEXA. You will own the P&L for the tech function and partner with the Executive Committee to align engineering with business goals.

You'll manage a 24-engineer team across product, engineering and operations, lead AI-enabled development and ensure robust security, reliability and compliance across hosted and national deployments.

Qualifications

• 10+ years of experience in software engineering with leadership of multiple teams.
• Proven experience in CTO/Head of Engineering or similar.
• Experience managing P&L and profitability of a tech team.

Responsibilities

• Lead and align product and engineering teams on IASO/OpenHEXA and custom projects.
• Own technology vision and roadmap, and ensure SaaS profitability.
• Represent Bluesquare in global health forums and partnerships.
• Oversee hosting infrastructure and security/compliance strategy.

Skills

Leadership

Strategic thinking

Product sense

Pragmatism

Curiosity

Collaboration

Clear communication

AI awareness

Tools

Python & Django

AWS

Kubernetes

Job description

Mission

The Tech Team builds and operates Bluesquare's software products and technology platforms. It develops and sells our products, IASO and OpenHEXA, delivers custom software projects for Global Health partners, and runs the infrastructure on which Bluesquare and its clients rely, from cloud environments to national, locally hosted deployments.

The team currently counts 24 people: an OpenHEXA team (4), an IASO team (around 10), an operations team (2), a product, marketing and sales team (2), and engineers working on custom projects.

The Chief Technology Officer (CTO) leads the Tech Team and owns Bluesquare's technology vision. The role is accountable for the product strategy and roadmap, the commercial development of our SaaS offering, the performance and profitability of the product and engineering teams, the quality and security of everything we build and host, and the adoption of artificial intelligence in the way we develop software.

The CTO is a member of the Executive Committee and reports to the CEO. The CTO works closely with the Directors of the Service Business Unit (SBU), who rely on our products and engineering capacity to deliver country programs, and represents Bluesquare as a technology actor in the global health community.

Location: Brussels (preferred).

Start date: As soon as possible.

Reporting line: CEO.

Role and responsibilities

1. Engineering Leadership & Development Practices

• Lead and develop the product and development teams working on IASO and OpenHEXA, as well as the teams dedicated to custom projects such as GAPS, supporting polio financing.

• Ensure that teams have the right skills, structure and resources, and that responsibilities and accountability are clear.

• In coordination with HR and team leads, anticipate recruitment needs, support performance management and career development, and identify skills development priorities.

• Set and monitor development practices and quality standards: code review, testing, CI/CD, documentation, release management and reliability.

• Lead the integration of artificial intelligence into how we build software (AI-assisted development, agents, new ways of working) and help teams adapt their practices and skills accordingly.

• Organize technology watch and bring relevant innovations into our products and practices.

2. Product Strategy & SaaS Development

• Lead the definition of Bluesquare's future products and the evolution of IASO and OpenHEXA, grounded in the needs of ministries of health, funders and implementing partners.

• Drive the SaaS go-to-market approach: positioning, pricing and packaging, and support to sales and partnerships.

• Arbitrate the product roadmaps between product development, client‑specific requests and technical investment.

• Track product adoption, client satisfaction and the economics of each product line, with the goal of making each product financially sustainable.

3. Executive & Strategic Leadership

• As part of Bluesquare's executive management team, contribute to setting and executing the company's strategic vision and priorities, bringing a technology and product perspective to strategic, organizational and investment decisions.

• Define and own Bluesquare's technology vision and translate it into clear priorities, plans and objectives for the Tech Team.

• Own the Tech Team's P&L and ensure the profitability of the tech team: review financial results, arbitrate investment and resourcing decisions, and report to the Executive Committee.

• With the CFO, monitor the key drivers of profitability (billable utilization, project margins, SaaS and hosting revenues, infrastructure and tooling costs) and take corrective action when needed.

• Ensure strong alignment between products, engineering capacity and the needs of the SBU and its country programs.

4. Global Health Representation & Partnerships

• Represent Bluesquare as a technology actor in global health forums, communities of practice and technical working groups.

• Build and maintain technical relationships with funders and partners, including the Gates Foundation, and with the stakeholders of our custom projects.

• Over time, take on the leadership of a Bluesquare practice in a technical domain, such as interoperability, custom software development or AI for global health.

5. Infrastructure, Internal Systems & Automation

• Oversee Bluesquare's hosting infrastructure, on AWS as well as on local and national instances, ensuring availability, scalability and cost control.

• Ensure the maintenance of integrations between internal tools, including our ERP and our websites.

• Contribute to the automation of Bluesquare's internal processes, in a management and oversight role, working with the CFO and operations teams.

6. Security & Compliance

• Hold overall accountability for information security, data protection and compliance across our products, infrastructure and internal systems.

• Manage Bluesquare's security and compliance lead, and ensure that policies, audits, certifications and incident response processes are in place and effective.

• Ensure that our products and hosting arrangements meet the data protection and data sovereignty requirements of our clients and the countries we work in.

Profile

We are looking for an experienced technology leader combining product vision, engineering credibility, people management skills and a genuine interest in global health.

Required

• 10+ years of experience in software engineering, including significant experience managing engineering or product teams.

• Prior experience in a CTO, VP Engineering, Head of Engineering, Head of Product or similar technology leadership role.

• Proven experience managing multiple team leads or managers, ideally across distributed teams.

• Experience building and operating software products, ideally in a SaaS model, from roadmap to adoption.

• Solid understanding of modern development practices and hands‑on experience with AI‑assisted software development.

• Experience with security and compliance topics (e.g., data protection, ISO 27001, GDPR).

• Experience with budget and P&L ownership, including accountability for the profitability of a team or business unit.

• Excellent written and spoken communication in English; French is a strong asset.

Technical environment

• Our stack is mainly Python and Django, hosted on AWS and on Kubernetes, with many deployments on local and national infrastructure. Familiarity with these technologies is a plus.

• We do not expect mastery of every element of the stack: with today's AI tools, an experienced engineer can quickly become productive on unfamiliar technologies. Breadth, judgment and the ability to learn matter more.

Preferred

• Experience in global health, international development or a related technology-for-development sector.

• Experience with digital health systems and standards (e.g., DHIS2, health information systems, FHIR, interoperability).

• Experience working with ministries of health, donors such as the Gates Foundation, global health organizations and NGOs.

• Experience with on‑premise or government‑hosted deployments in low-resource settings.

• Experience representing an organization in technical forums, working groups or conferences.

• Experience leading organizational change.

Soft skills

• Leadership: Ability to structure, support and develop product and engineering teams.

• Strategic awareness: Capacity to connect technology choices to the company's strategy and to impact.

• Product sense: Ability to understand user needs and turn them into products people adopt.

• Pragmatism: Balances ambition with simplicity, reliability and cost.

• Curiosity: Keeps up with technology, especially AI, and turns it into concrete improvements.

• Collaboration: Strong cross-team coordination with other executives, the SBU and partners.

• Clear communication: Ability to engage both technical and non-technical stakeholders, from developers to funders.

What we offer

• You will work in an impact‑first company at the crossroads between global health and technology, at an exciting time in this highly dynamic field.

• You will join Bluesquare's executive management team and help shape the company's direction.

• You will lead a team of 24 engineers, product and operations specialists building products used by ministries of health and global health organizations in more than 30 countries.

• You will shape how a mission‑driven technology company adopts AI in its products and its engineering practices.

• You will work in collaboration with a wide variety of actors (ministries, donors, global health organizations, NGOs and other implementing partners).