Chief Technology Officer

Aes Global; Cape Town; On-site; ZAR 600 000 - 750 000; Full time

Job summary

A leading e-commerce company based in Cape Town is seeking a Chief Technology Officer (CTO) to lead its transformation towards a modern, AI-first technology stack. The ideal candidate will have over 10 years of technical experience, with a strong emphasis on scalable platforms in e-commerce. This role emphasizes leadership, innovation, and strategic execution to align technology with business goals, presenting a unique opportunity to shape the company's future.

Qualifications

• 10+ years of technical experience, including 5+ years in senior leadership.
• Proven success scaling complex, high-traffic platforms.

Responsibilities

• Define and execute a forward-looking, AI-first technology roadmap.
• Oversee architecture and development across front-end, back-end, data, and infrastructure.
• Lead cross-functional teams across engineering, data, and DevOps.

Skills

Technical leadership

Cloud platforms

Microservices

API-driven environments

Data strategy

UX/UI design

Mentorship

Education

BSc / MSc in Computer Science or Engineering

Tools

React

PHP

MySQL

Azure DevOps

AWS

Power BI

Job description

Chief Technology Officer (CTO) Cape Town, Western Cape (On-site)

Overview

An established, high-volume e-commerce company is seeking a visionary Chief Technology Officer (CTO) to lead its next stage of growth and transformation. After more than a decade of strong performance, the business is ready to evolve its home‑grown technology into a modern, scalable, and AI‑first architecture.

The Role

As CTO, you'll play a strategic and hands‑on leadership role—balancing vision, architecture, and execution.

You'll assess legacy systems, build new scalable platforms, and lead cross‑functional teams across engineering, data, and DevOps. You'll also partner closely with the executive team to align technology with commercial goals and ensure the business continues to deliver speed, stability, and customer delight at scale.

Key Focus Areas

Technology & Platform Strategy

• Define and execute a forward‑looking, AI‑first technology roadmap.
• Lead replatforming efforts, transforming legacy systems into modular, API‑driven environments.
• Oversee architecture and development across front‑end, back‑end, data, and infrastructure.

Customer & Product Experience

• Champion world‑class UX / UI across web and mobile platforms.
• Drive initiatives such as personalisation, recommendation engines, and intelligent search.
• Foster a culture of experimentation, A/B testing, and conversion optimisation.

Infrastructure, Security & Scalability

• Architect secure, scalable, and resilient systems to support rapid growth.
• Oversee cloud strategy, performance monitoring, and deployment pipelines.
• Integrate critical enterprise systems (ERP, CRM, payments, WMS, etc.) for operational excellence.

Data, AI & Analytics

• Establish an organisation‑wide data strategy, from pipelines to real‑time dashboards.
• Lead initiatives in predictive modelling, AI‑driven personalisation, and data intelligence.
• Promote data literacy and empower teams with self‑serve analytics.

Key Requirements

• BSc / MSc in Computer Science, Engineering, or related field.
• 10+ years of technical experience, including 5+ years in senior leadership.
• Proven success scaling complex, high‑traffic platforms (ideally e‑commerce or digital).
• Deep technical expertise in:
  • Architecture: Cloud platforms, microservices, event‑driven systems, containerisation.
  • Front‑End: React, React Native.
  • Back‑End: PHP, Laravel.
  • Data: MySQL, Redis, BigQuery, Snowflake, Power BI, Tableau.
  • DevOps: Azure DevOps, Bitbucket, GitHub, CI/CD pipelines, AWS/GCP/Azure.
• Strong commercial understanding — comfortable making build vs buy vs partner decisions.
• Excellent people leadership and mentorship experience across engineering teams.

What Success Looks Like

• Highly scalable, resilient systems with exceptional uptime and performance.
• AI and data intelligence driving real‑time insights and customer engagement.
• Clear alignment between technology strategy and business growth objectives.
• A high‑performance engineering culture built on speed, learning, and innovation.

Why Apply

This is a rare opportunity to lead the end‑to‑end technology transformation of a household-name digital brand.

You'll set the pace for innovation, modernisation, and scale—directly shaping the company's technology and growth trajectory for the decade ahead.