Chief Technology Officer

Location and work arrangement

• This is a full-time, in-person position in Kitchener-Waterloo, Ontario, Canada.
• The role will establish and lead Martell Ventures’ Waterloo technical hub.

Compensation

• The stated base salary range is CAD $150,000–$250,000; no pay cadence is specified.
• A proposed portfolio-level phantom equity component is subject to confirmation of final terms.

Role overview

Technical strategy and architecture

• Evaluate portfolio infrastructure, architecture, codebases, and engineering practices for quality, security, scalability, and performance improvements.
• Work with engineering teams to diagnose challenges, improve architecture, and implement practical solutions.
• Set shared engineering standards, development practices, frameworks, and tooling.
• Promote modern AI and agentic development; ensure appropriate infrastructure, security, backups, and resilience.
• Help portfolio leaders assess technical risks and priorities and support readiness for acquisitions, investments, and exits.

Talent and product execution

• Build the Kitchener-Waterloo technical presence and local engineering community; recruit, assess, and develop engineering talent.
• Advise on technical hiring, mentor engineering leaders, and create shared practices, knowledge-sharing, and training.
• Develop relationships with the University of Waterloo, Communitech, and the wider Waterloo technology ecosystem.
• Translate business ideas into prioritized technical plans, provide hands-on support, and evaluate build-versus-buy decisions.
• Help teams deliver reliable, scalable products and identify opportunities to share capabilities, infrastructure, and resources.

Strategic partnership and leadership

• Act as a trusted technical thought partner to the founder and Ventures leadership team, offering independent judgment and challenging unrealistic commitments.
• Build a culture of technical excellence, accountability, and continuous improvement across businesses.
• Communicate technical decisions, risks, and progress to technical and nontechnical stakeholders while balancing strategy and execution.

Required experience and capabilities

• Deep hands-on software engineering and systems architecture experience building scalable production applications.
• Recent practical experience with modern AI technologies, LLMs, agents, and agentic development tools.
• Ability to assess architecture, identify weaknesses, and implement solutions; strong credibility working with experienced engineers.
• Experience shipping software products in startups, scale-ups, or similarly fast-moving environments.
• Product and business judgment, technical hiring experience, and ability to balance quality with speed and commercial priorities.
• Strong communication, ownership, adaptability, and comfort working across multiple businesses and changing priorities.

Preferred background

• Previous CTO, technical co-founder, VP of Engineering, or senior technical leadership experience is preferred.
• Experience with portfolio companies, early-stage engineering functions, company exits, technical due diligence, shared infrastructure, or Waterloo technology networks is preferred.

About Martell Group