Chief Technology Officer

Snapbau is an AI-powered SaaS procurement platform built for the construction industry. In under a year, we’ve achieved strong traction in the Swiss market and are now entering a rapid scale-up phase with international expansion ahead. We are building software for real-world construction environments — fragmented systems, low-connectivity job sites, fast operational workflows, and high execution pressure. The next phase of the company requires a deeply technical leader who can architect scalable systems while shipping production code daily. This is a hands-on builder role for someone who wants to own architecture, infrastructure, engineering execution, and technical product evolution from the ground up. The Role We are looking for an experienced CTO / senior technical leader who combines strong product engineering instincts with pragmatic startup execution. This is not a delegation-only executive position. You will: - writing production code daily - defining system architecture - building scalable infrastructure - leading engineering execution - hiring and mentoring the first engineering team - translating real construction workflows into technical systems You will work directly with the CEO and customers to build software that functions reliably in real operational environments. Tasks Technical Architecture & Product Development - Own system architecture and technical direction - Build scalable multi-tenant SaaS systems across backend, APIs, infrastructure, and frontend - Drive pragmatic architecture decisions balancing speed, scalability, and maintainability - Ensure platform reliability, performance, and extensibility Full-Stack Engineering (Hands-On) - Develop production systems primarily with PHP 8.3+ and Laravel 13+ - Build APIs, async jobs, queue systems, caching, and event-driven services - Contribute across frontend technologies including Vue.js, React, and Alpine.js - Own debugging, monitoring, security, performance, and production reliability Construction-Tech & Offline-First Systems - Design systems for low-connectivity, mobile-first construction environments - Build offline-first workflows enabling real-time field-to-office collaboration - Create reliable operational workflows for procurement, approvals, and tracking Integrations & Infrastructure - Build integrations with ERP and accounting systems, and auxiliary software providers i.e. Autodesk, etc - Develop scalable APIs, interoperability layers, and construction data pipelines - Own cloud infrastructure, CI/CD, databases, monitoring, and production environments across GCP/AWS Engineering Leadership - Hire and mentor the first engineering team - Establish engineering standards, development practices, and code quality - Drive fast, high-quality execution in a startup environment Product Collaboration & Execution - Work closely with the CEO to translate operational workflows into product systems - Assess technical feasibility and execution trade-offs - Prioritize effectively between rapid shipping and long-term scalability Requirements Experience - 10+ years of professional software engineering experience - Proven experience as: - CTO - senior engineering leader - or principal/full-stack engineer in a high-growth B2B SaaS company - Strong track record building and scaling systems from early-stage through rapid growth - Experience operating in startup environments with high ambiguity and rapid execution cycles - Strong history of shipping complex systems into production Technical Depth - Strong backend and infrastructure expertise - Deep experience with PHP and Laravel in production environments - Strong API architecture and systems integration experience - Experience building scalable SaaS products and distributed systems - Strong understanding of: - databases - caching - asynchronous processing - performance optimization - production debugging - Comfortable operating across backend, frontend, infrastructure, and cloud systems Execution Mindset - Strong ownership mentality from architecture to production deployment - Bias toward shipping fast and iterating from customer feedback - Pragmatic approach to technical trade-offs - Comfortable making decisions with incomplete information - Strong product intuition grounded in real user constraints Languages - Professional English required - Fluent French required Benefits Why Join Snapbau - Build at the intersection of AI, SaaS, and construction-tech - Direct impact on a fast-growing product entering its next scale phase - Shape technical architecture and engineering culture from the ground up - Work closely with real users and see immediate operational impact - Contribute directly to how AI will transform procurement and construction workflows - Join a highly execution-oriented team with fast iteration cycles and visible outcome - Significant growth opportunities into long-term technical leadership What This Role Is NOT - Not a pure executive or delegation-only CTO role - Not an enterprise architecture role disconnected from product execution - Not a theoretical systems design position without shipping responsibility - Not an isolated engineering role detached from customers and field operations Find more English Speaking Jobs in Switzerland on Arbeitnow