CTO – Fashion platform

Borow is the rental platform revolutionising fashion consumption. We are a young and dynamic team striving for change in linear consumer habits and working alongside brands to bring circular fashion to the forefront of the industry. The CTO will lead the technical arm of the company to help achieve this common objective.

The company leads a new and innovative business model, requiring a different and tailor-made approach to the end-to-end process of fashion retail (sales to inventory management). Borow needs a young and ambitious CTO, eager to join an exciting project and work in a fast-paced environment.

Responsibilities:

• Creating a technical strategy: Borow is navigating new waters in terms of sales and control of the business. The company wants to solidify the tech behind the business and control every aspect through a revamped management platform.
  One of the CTO responsibilities is to validate the feasibility of creating envisioned solutions considering the current state of technological progress. In addition, the chief technology officer is expected to also suggest innovative solutions that allow the company to meet its business objectives.
• Building an MVP: The CTO is expected to manage a subcontracted team but also code along them. As the person responsible for the minimum viable product (MVP), a CTO may design a product architecture, select a technology stack, suggest third-party services, and test the solution. The CTO role should be comfortable dealing with and assuming all these responsibilities, even if ultimately some are delegated to third party professionals.
• Product development: To remain relevant and bring real value to customers, software solutions must be constantly upgraded. A CTO is responsible for keeping an eye out for emerging technologies, looking for opportunities to improve the product, and building a plan for new releases. On top of that, the CTO leads product development and manages relationships with external tech providers. Specifically, he or she keeps track of their updates, changes to API, policy amendments, etc.
• Managing internal and external teams: The CTO candidate must be a generalist, even though many programmers specialise in a specific technology. The CTO should have great interpersonal skills to attract the right tech employees, manage team growth, and retain specialised people.
  Initially the CTO will have to manage third party providers developing and maintaining the actual product, as well as the delivery company providing the infrastructure for the product to run. In parallel the CTO will also lead the search and selection of the firm to develop the next generation product based on the agreed architecture. The CTO will eventually also be responsible of future hirings and managing the internal team(s).

Requirements:

• Background and experience in software development: As the CTO is expected to be tech-savvy, posessing good knowledge in all aspects of software development, from writing specifications to quality assurance. It requires experience as a tech lead and/or software architect, especially on E-commerce companies and web technologies. Some experience in DevOps concepts is also valued.

• Strategic thinking: The CTO must be able to see the big picture to achieve a product-market fit and meet the ever-evolving startup needs. It entails direct say in what direction the business will be moving, anticipating its tech needs at different stages, and considering product scalability a top priority.

• Project management skills: The CTO is a senior C-suite role which includes wide managerial responsibilities. It includes not only the management of an internal startup team but also working with freelancers, external partners, vendors, etc., as well as strict and tight deadlines. The main challenge is to ensure all these parties work together efficiently so they can successfully meet company objectives

• People skills: The CTO needs to have very strong communication skills in order to communicate effectively with internal and external parties. They must also be able to recognize, acquire, and retain talent, a key hurdle in fast-growing environments. A people-first attitude of encouraging a positive culture while meeting key deadlines is a top priority.

• Goal-Oriented: Borow is a VC-backed rapidly growing startup. The CTO is expected to define and track goals - which must be realistic, measurable and timely. They must be comfortable being held accountable against their goals and targets, and performing in an ambitious, results-oriented culture.

• Willingness to listen, grow and adapt day-to-day: Borow already has significant operational experience and has gone through several iterations of the management product. Listening, learning and adapting from these experiences is a must. The board also counts with experienced advisors who will offer guidance and mentorship. A rapidly-evolving environment requires every member of the team to adapt and pivot as necessary, and the CTO will be expected to be agile and efficient with their team and product. 

• Based in Madrid, central office-based, with availability to combine with remote work