Deputy Chief Technology Officer

Private Advertiser; Kuala Lumpur; On-site; MYR 210,000 - 270,000; Full time

Job summary

Private Advertiser in Kuala Lumpur is seeking a hands-on Deputy CTO to work alongside the CTO in a ~50-person technology organisation spanning software engineering, QA, design, infrastructure, cybersecurity and business analysis.

This role is not general management; you personally design and ship production systems rapidly, and you drive delivery quality and accountability across the team.

Qualifications

• 8–10 years of software engineering experience building and operating production systems.
• Experience managing about 20–30 people across different technical roles.
• Experience owning or supporting high-availability products (e.g. 99.9% SLA targets).
• Current hands-on strength with Claude Code or comparable AI engineering tools.
• Experience with multi-agent / autonomous AI delivery workflows — not only chat assistants.
• Strong in at least one modern backend stack; solid architecture, APIs, databases, cloud, deploy and production ops.
• Able to challenge weak delivery assumptions with evidence; clear communicator with technical and non-technical stakeholders.
• Working knowledge of secure development and data protection in a Malaysian or regulated setting.

Responsibilities

• Personally design, build and ship production systems end to end; unblock high‑risk technical problems yourself
• Be the role model for Claude Code, agentic engineering and delivery harnesses (agents, subagents, MCP, tools, evals, guardrails, cost control)
• Review how engineers use AI; improve how they break down work, prompt, test and validate
• Judge estimates and progress with technical evidence; review architecture, code and AI‑generated work
• Oversee IT capacity and timesheets; coach and hold technical leads accountable
• Support hard people decisions when performance does not improve, in line with the CTO
• Partner with the CTO on architecture, hiring and technical priorities; deputise with management, customers or vendors when asked
• Translate unclear business needs into practical technical plans; recommend what should not be built

Skills

Hands-on engineering

People management 20-30

AI tooling Claude Code

Multi-agent AI workflows

Backend stack depth

System architecture

Security/data protection

Strong communicator

Tools

Claude Code

Cloud platforms

APIs & databases

Job description

We are hiring a hands‑on Deputy CTO to work side by side with the CTO in a ~50‑person technology organisation covering software engineering, QA, design, infrastructure, cybersecurity and business analysis.

This is not another layer of general management. You remain an exceptional AI‑first engineer: you personally design and ship production systems in days or weeks, not months, and you raise the bar for how the whole team delivers with AI.

You will also keep the organisation accountable — review capacity and timesheets, check quality of work, challenge weak estimates, and take firm action when people or delivery do not meet the standard. You stay 100% aligned with the CTO and company direction.

Fully on‑site at our Kuala Lumpur office. No hybrid or remote.

Key responsibilities

• Personally design, build and ship production systems end to end; unblock high‑risk technical problems yourself
• Be the role model for Claude Code, agentic engineering and delivery harnesses (agents, subagents, MCP, tools, evals, guardrails, cost control)
• Review how engineers use AI; improve how they break down work, prompt, test and validate
• Judge estimates and progress with technical evidence; review architecture, code and AI‑generated work
• Oversee IT capacity and timesheets; coach and hold technical leads accountable
• Support hard people decisions when performance does not improve, in line with the CTO
• Partner with the CTO on architecture, hiring and technical priorities; deputise with management, customers or vendors when asked
• Translate unclear business needs into practical technical plans; recommend what should not be built

What you need

• 8–10 years software engineering experience building and operating production systems
• Experience managing about 20–30 people across different technical roles
• Experience owning or supporting high‑availability products (e.g. 99.9% SLA targets)
• Current hands‑on strength with Claude Code or comparable AI engineering tools
• Experience (or clear evidence of building toward) multi‑agent / autonomous AI delivery workflows — not only chat assistants
• Strong in at least one modern backend stack; solid architecture, APIs, databases, cloud, deploy and production ops
• Able to challenge weak delivery assumptions with evidence; clear communicator with technical and non‑technical stakeholders
• Working knowledge of secure development and data protection in a Malaysian or regulated setting
• High ownership, transparent about risk, strong bias to ship; willing to stay involved during launches, incidents and critical delivery