Chief Technology Officer

IO Global•Longmont, CO

4d•Remote

About The Position

The Chief Technology Officer (CTO) is responsible for building a world-class engineering ecosystem, partnering with the CEO to define the engineering direction, and ensuring the roadmap is sound and executed at pace. This role involves shaping how the company builds in an AI-first world, embedding an agentic programming philosophy, and growing engineering talent through a Centre of Excellence. The CTO will own enterprise technology and architectural direction, shape the developer ecosystem, and ensure venture viability by assessing technical feasibility and advising on build approaches. They will also hold enterprise-level budget responsibility within the technology function and collaborate with C-suite peers on cross-functional financial decisions. The CTO will operate with executive-level autonomy to set policies, allocate resources, and shape strategic initiatives. Externally, the CTO will serve as the primary technical voice for the company, maintaining relationships with industry leaders and translating technical strategy for non-technical audiences. Internally, they will lead the technology function, own the leadership bench, and champion diversity and culture within the technology domain.

Requirements

Progressive technology leadership experience, including significant time in senior or executive technical roles.
Proven track record as a senior technical leader in a high-growth technology, blockchain, or venture studio environment.
Deep, demonstrable experience in Web3, blockchain, or distributed systems.
Direct experience shaping a developer ecosystem at scale, including engineering culture, standards, tooling, and platform decisions.
Experience contributing to executive-level strategy, board materials, and investment decisions.
A hands-on engineering leader who makes decisions, moves fast, and builds developer ecosystems that ship.
Deep technical credibility: someone engineers trust, with strong architecture instincts and a bias for getting things done.
Experience operating at the intersection of research and product in a fast-moving environment.
Someone who thrives in a high-trust, distributed leadership model and builds strong peer relationships naturally.
A clearly articulated engineering philosophy and proven ability to apply it - setting and upholding engineering, architectural, and security standards across a large, distributed organisation.
Deep expertise in Web3 technologies.
Strong systems thinking, with the ability to see a developer ecosystem as a whole and predict emergent behaviour.
Clear point of view on how AI is reshaping software engineering, and how to use it to amplify a healthy ecosystem rather than a chaotic one.
Hands-on technical credibility: commits code to engineering repositories, reviews engineering work, and works alongside engineers regularly.
Experience leading technical due diligence for acquisitions, partnerships, and venture investments.
Strong ability to translate complex technical concepts for board members, investors, and non-technical executives.
Strong external profile and the ability to represent IOG credibly at the most senior levels of the industry.
Deep familiarity with formal verification methods and cryptographic correctness, including zero-knowledge proof systems, consensus protocol verification, and provably secure system design.

Nice To Haves

Strong external profile within the Web3, blockchain, or wider technology ecosystem is a strong plus.

Responsibilities

Define the future engineering strategy for IOG in collaboration with the CEO.
Own enterprise technology and architectural direction.
Shape the developer ecosystem, including standards, culture, tooling, and working practices.
Develop and embed an AI-first engineering philosophy, focusing on agentic programming and the collaboration between engineers and AI agents.
Ensure the roadmap is technically sound, appropriately resourced, and delivered at velocity, working closely with the COO and CPO.
Partner with IO Labs and ventures to assess technical feasibility of new ideas, advise on build approaches, and facilitate the transition from research to reality.
Maintain alignment of advanced ventures with the wider ecosystem while respecting their autonomy.
Set the technology thesis, establish standards for all teams, and make decisions to ensure platform coherence, scalability, and security.
Attract and develop world-class engineers through a Centre of Excellence model, setting technical standards and ensuring their propagation across teams.
Hold enterprise-level budget responsibility for the technology function, including infrastructure, tooling, AI compute, and strategic investments.
Collaborate with the CEO and COO on cross-functional and enterprise-wide financial decisions where technology investment intersects with business priorities.
Operate with executive-level autonomy to set policies, allocate technical resources, and shape strategic initiatives within the technology domain.
Serve as a thought partner to the CEO in shaping company-wide technology strategy and represent engineering at the highest level.
Personally recruit, mentor, and serve as the technical authority for engineers.
Align roadmap ambition with engineering capability and assess the technical feasibility of product requirements with the CPO.
Define the boundary between technical standards and operational delivery with the COO, providing technical health metrics.
Translate research and strategic bets into working prototypes and products with IO Labs, providing an honest technical view on viability and speed.
Participate in Investment Committee, Venture Acceleration Boards, and acquisition discussions as the senior technical voice.
Provide venture-ready technical foundations to new ideas and proto-ideas.
Serve as the primary external technical voice for IOG at conferences, panels, investor forums, and key partnerships.
Maintain strong relationships with leading researchers, founders, and technical talent across the Web3 and wider technology ecosystem.
Translate IOG’s technical strategy into language understandable by boards, investors, and non-technical executives.
Lead the technology function at an enterprise level.
Own the leadership bench for the technology domain, ensuring structure, capability, and succession.
Collaborate with C-suite peers to align leadership expectations across the company.
Champion diversity, culture, and leadership excellence within the technology function.
Shape policies and initiatives across the organization where technology intersects, driving a performance culture.