Strategic Technology Leader – Enterprise Transformation (CTO)

Strategic Technology Leader – Enterprise Transformation (CTO)

Southern Lights is supporting an enterprise client in their search for a senior technology visionary, an experienced, hands-on CTO who blends technical depth with strategic foresight. This role is pivotal in bridging business ambition with cutting-edge digital capability, guiding large-scale transformation and engineering excellence across cloud, AI, data, and platform ecosystems.

You’ll operate at the heart of one of our long standing client partnerships, shaping solution architecture and technology direction while embedding best practices and high standards across delivery teams.

What You’ll Be Driving

Client Engagement & Strategy

• Act as embedded CTO within a key account, interpreting complex business and tech landscapes and translating these into scalable, actionable system designs.

Architectural Leadership

• Define enterprise wide technology roadmaps, design patterns, and platform adoption strategies across cloud-native, API-first and data-driven ecosystems.

Hands-on Engineering Excellence

• Lead by example with programming expertise across the MEAN/MERN stack, Python, RESTful APIs, and microservices. Stay deeply connected to code, design reviews, and hands-on PoC development.

Cloud & Data Fluency

• Apply expert knowledge of AWS, Azure, Kubernetes, Databricks and IAM security to architect secure, performant and scalable platforms.

Innovation & Thought Leadership

• Assess emerging tools (especially GenAI, ML and containerised services), influence adoption, and present informed perspectives to client stakeholders.

Collaboration & Influence

• Inspire and guide distributed engineering teams (UK and offshore), co-create with enterprise architects, and cultivate innovation across the account.

Your Toolkit

• Proven track record leading large-scale transformation as Enterprise or Solution Architect (5+ years in senior roles)
• Advanced understanding of cloud platforms (AWS, Azure), containers, cloud-native design (Kubernetes), and secure API ecosystems
• Commercial experience deploying GenAI and ML in production settings
• Hands-on skills in Java Spring, Python, Node.js, React/Angular, REST, and integration frameworks
• Experience building SaaS-enabled architecture and integrating 3rd party platforms
• Confident in shaping tech strategy and driving stakeholder buy-in across product, engineering, QA, and operations

Background & Credentials

• Degree in Computer Science or similar (BSc/MSc)
• 15+ years’ experience in software development and architecture
• Excellent communication and leadership skills under pressure
• Fluent in software scalability, systems reliability, and performance architecture
• Strong grasp of user driven design, functional requirements, and agile methodologies

Here at Southern Lights, we strive to create an inclusive environment where every employee feels valued and empowered to contribute fully. Our recruitment practices are designed to ensure that all candidates have an equal opportunity to succeed, regardless of their race, colour, ethnicity, gender, age, sexual orientation, gender identity, disability, religion, or socioeconomic background.