Chief Technology Officer

Exalto Consulting; United States; On-site; USD 250,000 - 350,000; Full time

Job summary

Exalto Consulting is assisting a client at a pivotal turnaround to appoint a technology leader who can align product and engineering with aggressive growth targets. The CTO will own the technology vision, roadmap and delivery engine, driving a startup-like ethos within a scalable enterprise platform.

The role demands strategic leadership across product, engineering and security, with close collaboration to the CEO, CCO and CFO to prioritize investments and accelerate time-to-market.

Responsibilities

• Define and own technology and product vision aligned to commercial strategy and growth targets.
• Build and maintain a product roadmap reflecting customer needs, market opportunity and competitive position.
• Translate GTM priorities into clear product and engineering plans.
• Run a disciplined prioritization process balancing new revenue, retention, health and technical debt.
• Track competitors and emerging tech (AI, biometrics, fraud) and turn insights into product advantage.
• Lead product management and design, building a strong product discipline from discovery through launch.
• Establish a customer-led discovery process with sales, CS and key accounts to validate ideas.
• Own launch readiness with the CCO, ensuring readiness for every release across teams.
• Shape the product portfolio across direct, API and partner channels, including IAM integrations.
• Define and report on product success metrics like adoption, usage, retention and revenue impact.
• Lead all engineering functions (dev, QA, DevOps, infra, data, security).
• Ensure the platform is scalable, highly available and can deliver sub-second decisions at high volumes.
• Modernize architecture, tooling and delivery for speed and predictability.
• Champion security, privacy and compliance posture (SOC 2, data protection, audits).
• Make build/buy/partner decisions and manage key technology vendors.
• Own technology and product budget with the CFO, including headcount and cloud spend.
• Build business cases for major investments with clear ROI and track delivery.
• Assist the CFO on capitalization and cost forecasting.
• Improve unit economics through architecture and efficiency gains.
• Build, lead and develop a high-performing product and engineering organization.
• Attract and retain senior talent; set clear structures and career paths.
• Create a culture of ownership, customer focus, quality and commercial awareness.
• Represent technology to the Board, investors, major customers and partners.

Job description

Our client is an established leader in identity verification, helping businesses stop identity-based fraud before it happens. Its proprietary SaaS platform validates government-issued identity documents in real time, delivering near-instant, highly accurate decisions both in person and in digital channels.

The platform processes identity transactions at very large scale across Americas. Customers span retail, financial services, banking and lending, age-restricted goods, and other sectors that depend on KYC, AML, fraud prevention and age verification.

It is now at a turning point and needs a technology leader to drive a turnaround: running the business with the pace, focus and ownership of a startup, and turning a differentiated platform into a broader, faster-moving product portfolio.

The opportunity

The CTO will lead the combined engineering and product organization and make sure everything it builds serves the go-to-market strategy. This is a business-first technology leadership role, not a back-office one.

This is a turnaround role. The CTO will reset how product and engineering operate, cutting through legacy process and running the organization like a startup: small, empowered teams, rapid iteration, tight control of spend and relentless focus on what wins and keeps customers.

Working as a core member of the executive team, the CTO will partner closely with the CEO, CCO and CFO to set product direction, prioritize investment and convert market demand into revenue-generating products. They will own the technology vision, the product roadmap and the delivery engine that brings both to market.

The identity verification market is growing quickly and competition is intensifying. The successful candidate will sharpen the company's differentiation, speed up time to market and build a scalable, secure platform that supports new channels, partners and customer segments.

Key responsibilities

Strategy and GTM alignment

• Define and own the technology and product vision, tied directly to the company's commercial strategy and growth targets.
• Build and maintain a product roadmap that reflects customer needs, market opportunity and competitive position, agreed jointly with the CEO and CCO.
• Translate GTM priorities (target verticals, channels, partnerships, pricing and packaging) into clear product and engineering plans.
• Run a disciplined prioritization process that balances new revenue, customer retention, platform health and technical debt.
• Track competitors and emerging technology (AI and machine learning, biometrics, document forensics, synthetic identity and deepfake fraud) and turn insight into product advantage.

Product leadership

• Lead product management and design, building a strong product discipline from discovery through launch.
• Establish a customer‑led discovery process, working with sales, customer success and key accounts to validate ideas before investment.
• Own launch readiness in partnership with the CCO, so that sales, marketing and customer teams are equipped for every release.
• Shape the product portfolio across direct, API and partner‑integration channels, including integrations with identity and access management platforms.
• Define and report on product success metrics such as adoption, usage, retention and revenue impact.

Engineering leadership

• Lead all engineering functions: software development, QA, DevOps, infrastructure, data and security engineering.
• Ensure the platform is scalable, highly available and able to deliver sub‑second decisions at very high transaction volumes.
• Modernize architecture, tooling and delivery practices to increase release speed and predictability.
• Champion a strong security, privacy and compliance posture (for example SOC 2, data protection and privacy regulation, and customer audit requirements).
• Make sound build, buy and partner decisions, and manage key technology vendors.

Financial and operational stewardship

• Own the technology and product budget in partnership with the CFO, including headcount, cloud and vendor spend.
• Build business cases for major investments, with clear ROI, and track delivery against them.
• Support the CFO on capitalized development, technology cost forecasting and related public‑company reporting.
• Improve unit economics, including cost per transaction and gross margin, through architecture and efficiency gains.

People and culture

• Build, lead and develop a high‑performing, accountable product and engineering organization.
• Attract and retain senior talent; set clear structures, career paths and ways of working.
• Create a culture of ownership, customer focus, quality and commercial awareness.
• Represent technology to the Board, investors, major customers and partners when required.