Chief Technology Officer

Sanderson King; Greater London; On-site; GBP 120,000 - 180,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Equity stake

Founding role

Direct founder partnership

High-growth brand equity

Job summary

Sanderson King is seeking a founding CTO in London to build the technology function from day one. This is a hands-on leadership role where you’ll code, architect systems and shape the product from scratch for a premium, design-led pet wellness brand.

Working directly with the Founder, you’ll define strategy, own platforms powering customer experience and operations across a growing multi-site network, recruit engineers and scale the team as the company grows.

Qualifications

• Built products and platforms yourself-not simply managed engineering teams
• Strong software engineering and architecture capability
• Experience scaling technology within a startup or high-growth environment
• Experience with multi-site consumer businesses
• Experience alongside founders or entrepreneurial leadership

Responsibilities

• Own technology strategy, architecture and delivery across platforms
• Hands-on coding, system integration and product development
• Recruit and develop the engineering team as the business scales
• Collaborate closely with the Founder to steer major technology decisions
• Build scalable cloud infrastructure, security and operations

Skills

Hands-on engineering

System architecture

Startup scaling

Product-focused leadership

Job description

One of London's most exciting consumer growth stories is building a premium, design-led, multi-site brand within the pet wellness sector, with ambitious plans to redefine its category.

We're looking for a Founding CTO to join the leadership team and build the technology function from the ground up alongside the Founder.

This is not a traditional corporate CTO opportunity.

We're looking for a technical builder-someone who still enjoys writing code, architecting systems, solving complex problems and creating products from scratch before scaling teams around them.

***Can you code like Elon, and worked in scrappy high-growth environments?***

The Opportunity

Technology is central to the future of the business.

You'll own the strategy, architecture and delivery of the platforms that power both the customer experience and day-to-day operations across a growing multi-site estate.

Initially, this is a highly hands-on role. You'll spend as much time building, integrating and improving systems as you will defining technical direction.

As the business scales, you'll recruit and develop the engineering team, but you'll always remain close to the product and technology.

Working directly with the Founder, you'll influence every major technology decision across the business.

What You'll Build

You’ll own technology across a real-world, multi-site operating environment, including:

• CRM and customer lifecycle systems
• Operational workflows and automation
• Payments and POS integrations
• Internal operational tools
• Data platforms, reporting and commercial insight
• API integrations across multiple systems
• AI-enabled workflow improvements
• Cloud infrastructure, security and scalability

Every technology decision should improve customer experience, operational efficiency or commercial performance.

What We're Looking For

We're specifically interested in people who have:

• Built products and platforms themselves-not simply managed engineering teams
• Strong software engineering and architecture capability
• Experience scaling technology within a startup or high-growth environment
• Built systems supporting multi-site consumer businesses
• Experience within retail, hospitality, healthcare, leisure or other operationally complex sectors
• Worked directly alongside founders or entrepreneurial leadership teams
• Built engineering teams after initially being the person doing the building

Most importantly, you're someone who genuinely enjoys creating technology.

If presented with a new product idea today, your instinct is to open your laptop and start building.

This Role Is Unlikely To Suit

• Career CIOs or corporate technology executives
• Large consultancy backgrounds where delivery has primarily been through third-party teams
• Enterprise transformation specialists
• Governance or programme-management focused technology leaders
• Leaders who have moved away from hands-on engineering
• Technology executives whose role is primarily managing suppliers rather than building products

Why Join?

• Founding technology leadership position
• Build the technology platform from day one
• Direct partnership with the Founder
• Significant influence across the entire business
• Meaningful equity participation
• High-growth, premium consumer brand with ambitious multi-site expansion plans
• Opportunity to build a category-defining business where technology is a genuine competitive advantage

The Ideal Person

You're an engineer first and a leader second.

You've earned leadership positions because you've built exceptional products, not because you've stepped away from technology.

You thrive in founder-mode environments, enjoy solving difficult technical problems and love turning ideas into products that customers use every day.

If you're happiest building rather than administrating, we'd love to hear from you.