Chief Technology Officer or Chief Product & Technology Officer

Atlas Obscura; New York (NY); On-site; USD 200,000 - 300,000; Full time

Job summary

Atlas Obscura is seeking a Chief Technology Officer (CTO) to drive innovation and strategy for the company's community travel platform. The ideal candidate will have extensive experience in technology leadership, development, and integration of AI solutions, ensuring the app's growth and user engagement.

Benefits

Flexible work arrangements

Travel opportunities

Competitive cash bonus and company equity

Qualifications

• 10+ years of technology leadership experience
• Proven track record in consumer-facing products
• Strong background in implementing monetization strategies

Responsibilities

• Lead technology strategy and roadmap.
• Collaborate with executive leadership on app vision.
• Develop AI-powered tools for content creation.

Skills

Technology Leadership

Software Development

AI Solutions

Monetization Strategies

Mapping/Geolocation

Data Collection

User Personalization

Community Engagement

Job description

Chief Technology Officer (CTO) or Chief Product and Technology Officer (CPTO) Atlas Obscura About Us

Atlas Obscura is a community platform for travelers looking to explore the world’s hidden wonders. Through our website, mobile app, books, podcasts and other channels, we celebrate the world's most curious places, extraordinary experiences, and passionate communities. We blend high-quality editorial content with public submissions to create a unique platform that we are building out to feature more planning, memory sharing, and real-time travel tools.

Position Overview

We are seeking an experienced and visionary Chief Technology Officer to lead our technical strategy and execution. As a key member of our executive team, you will help shape our vision to create the world's best travel community app—one that democratizes content creation for users through innovative AI integration, while also featuring content about travel from global thought leaders. The ideal candidate will drive innovation in our platform's capabilities, particularly in mapping technologies, user community features, advertising tech, and AI-powered content creation tools. You will be responsible for evolving our platform to better serve our growing community while ensuring scalability, security, strong data collection practices, and performance.

You will join the leadership team of Atlas Obscura’s new CEO, who is leading a company pivot to focus on Atlas Obscura as a community travel platform with wide and diverse users who find their own communities to share their travel tips and experiences with. You will be central to driving internal technology change and also large changes or even a complete rebuild of the product, leveraging the strong AO brand, its 2.5 million registered user base, and its strong tourism advertising business to design a new phase for the business that can thrive in an AI world.

Depending on the candidate’s experience and interests, this position may be a Chief Product and Technology Officer. For the product area, we are interested in candidates’ experiences focusing on platform engagement, audience acquisition, feature prioritization, optimization testing, design, user research, and commercialization of product features. We are happy to elaborate on the potential product part of this role for candidates who enter our process.

Key Responsibilities

• Lead the overall technology strategy, architecture, and roadmap for Atlas Obscura's digital platforms
• Collaborate with executive leadership to shape the vision for the world's best travel storytelling app
• Design and implement AI-powered tools that democratize content creation for users of all skill levels
• Develop monetization strategies including e-commerce capabilities and premium feature unlocks
• Create tiered product experiences that convert free users to paying subscribers
• Oversee the engineering team, fostering a culture of innovation, quality, and continuous improvement
• Enhance our mapping capabilities to create more immersive and interactive location-based experiences
• Develop and implement systems to efficiently process and showcase user-submitted content
• Improve our data collection and analysis practices
• Focus on our advertising technologies and develop new ad products in collaboration with our head of revenue
• Create personalized user experiences based on interests, contributions, and engagement patterns
• Integrate AI technologies strategically throughout our development processes and user-facing features
• Optimize our backend infrastructure to handle increasing scale and content volume
• Collaborate with product, design, and editorial teams to deliver cohesive and compelling user experiences
• Stay ahead of emerging technologies and trends in location-based services, social platforms, and AI
• Manage technology budgets, vendor relationships, and technical partnerships

Required Qualifications

• 10+ years of technology leadership experience, with at least 5 years in senior management roles
• Proven track record building and scaling consumer-facing products with mapping/geolocation features
• Extensive experience in designing, developing, and launching successful mobile applications
• Strong background in implementing various monetization strategies, including e-commerce and feature-based subscription models
• Experience building platforms that successfully convert free users to paying customers through premium feature unlocks
• Extensive experience developing and growing social or community platforms
• Strong background in modern technology stacks and cloud infrastructure
• Experience implementing AI solutions both for internal workflows and user-facing features
• A demonstrated use of AI tools to amplify the amount and quality of the work produced
• A demonstrated knowledge of how to structure our reading and publishing stack to take advantage of the latest advances in AI coding tools
• Vision for how AI can democratize content creation and storytelling for users of all skill levels
• History of successfully leading engineering teams through growth and product evolution
• Track record of building systems that can ingest, process, and showcase user-generated content at scale
• Deep understanding of personalization technologies and recommendation systems
• Excellent communication skills and ability to translate technical concepts to non-technical stakeholders
• Passion for travel storytelling and empowering users to share their unique perspectives

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience with travel, exploration, or location-based content platforms
• Background in implementing machine learning models for content classification and recommendation
• Knowledge of geospatial data management and visualization
• Experience with high-volume user-generated content platforms
• Understanding of content management systems and editorial workflows
• History of successful integration between editorial and community-driven content
• New York City area-based or ability to travel there is preferred

What We Offer

• Opportunity to shape the technical foundation of a beloved brand at the intersection of content and community
• Opportunity to work at a small company with lots of growth potential and with strong advertising revenue
• Chance to work with a passionate team dedicated to celebrating the world's hidden wonders
• Flexible work arrangements
• Travel opportunities to explore some of the world's most unique places
• A collaborative culture that values curiosity, creativity, and exploration
• Annual salary ranges from $200,000 - $300,000
• Competitive cash bonus and company equity

Atlas Obscura is committed to building a diverse team that reflects the community we serve. We encourage applications from candidates of all backgrounds and experiences.

To apply, please submit your resume and a cover letter explaining your interest in Atlas Obscura and your vision for how technology can help us become the best travel app in the world.