Hiring programmers is probably one of the most important issues for any company. But there is one more position that is most important for a business, and that is Chief Technology Officer. Let’s look at the benefits of hiring a remote CTO.
For all companies and enterprises, having a technical leader on the team is a must. Senior developers or founders with a strong technical background can lead a software development team in the initial stages and control the technical scope of the project. As the company begins to grow, businesses need a technically trained manager to advise and lead the institution by delivering the ultimate technological experience to achieve corporate business purposes.
CTO (chief technology officer) – one of the company’s managers with responsibility for the creation of new services or products, and also for the optimization of production productivity: handling engineering processes in development groups, training, and staff growth, introduction and maintenance of various internal workflows in the company.
It is worth remembering that the “T” in CTO stands for It is worth remembering that the “T” in CTO stands for “technical”. CTO Candidates must have a good understanding of exactly the way the entire design and engineering processes work in the firm. In smaller startups, the CTO is most often involved in both writing code and releases, setting up environments, and developing technical architecture. In medium and large businesses, some of these functions are delegated to other people, but the CTO must understand all the details of production. Because of this, more often than not, engineers grow up to be CTOs. Becoming a strong developer, being an architect, and launching a couple of complex products into production is a typical path for good CTOs.
Tasks
Like all top managers, the technical director is in charge of the company as a whole, not for any of its products or services. But while the CEO / CFO determines what the company does and for whom, the CTO’s task is to provide the efficient use and allocation of the company’s resources, turning project execution into controllable processes with predictable results.
The focus of the CTO is the engineering side of the product, its quality, productivity, effectiveness, reliability, and service life. The goal is to ensure that the company’s technical policies are relevant to its own business needs.
The main difference from other top jobs is the emphasis on the management of the technological part of the company’s operation and manufacturing resources, as well as participation in making technical solutions. The CTO is definitely a technology specialist with a background in solving technical problems independently.
The duties of a CTO role can differ significantly according to the scale and kind of company (service or product). In general, a CTO is an executive top manager whose job involves making strategic decisions on technical and research issues in the enterprise and does not involve contributing to the creation of specific tasks and projects
The Responsibilities of a Technical Director May Involve:
- Ensuring the technical operation of facilities and equipment;
- Maintaining appropriate documentation;
- Ensuring that systems (drainage, heating, ventilation, etc.) are in good working order;
- Coordination of terms, budget for work to be done, coordination of details with suppliers;
- Approval of design documentation, control over the readiness of facilities for work and operation (this is primarily the responsibility of the technical director of the company involved in the construction);
- Searching for equipment, its purchase, and implementation;
- Assimilation of new technologies;
- Panning of repair and modernization;
- Working with customer projects;
- Development of instructions, rules of use of systems and equipment for employees;
- Conducting technical audits;
- Control over compliance with safety rules.
What the Technical Director Is Responsible For
The Chief technology officer heads the technology division (service). By the way, he is also involved in the selection of personnel for his division. The number of personnel and their competencies will determine the scope of the organization and its size.
The Area of Accountability of the Technical Subdivision Usually Includes:
- Creation, production, and accounting of design and engineering documentation;
- Technical facilities;
- Distribution of facilities due to the requests of structural subdivisions;
- Justification of economic necessity in the re-equipment of the company;
- Implementation of measures to save resources;
- Putting the purchased equipment into operation, including obtaining permits;
- Organization of explanatory activities, where the staff will be informed about the secure operation of hardware and systems;
- Performance monitoring of repair and construction works, etc.
The Role of CTO for Business
Outsourcing a CTO allows for a flexible payment model: depending on your company’s needs, a freelance CTO will work for you when you need it: from a few hours a week to a standard full-time job, or occasionally for a meeting with your development team or investors.
Here are a few examples of situations where the help of an outsourced CTO can be beneficial to your business:
- You have a great product idea but don’t understand how to implement it;
- You’ve developed your first product or part of an application, but you realize that its architecture doesn’t match the later stages of your product/service, or it’s outdated;
- Your company requires a specialist with years of technical leadership experience who can help create the product, effectively discuss the technical aspects with partners, evaluate suppliers, and build technical roadmaps for the project;
- At this stage in your company’s development, you may not require a permanent CTO, but you want the highest level of flexibility and cost-effectiveness, allowing you to pay only for the services your business needs;
- You need an objective view on various technical issues, and an expert to guide your development team.
- If you agree with at least one or more of the above statements, then CTO outsourcing services is something that can help your company.
It is often the case that the CTO is the link between business and development. He helps managers find a common language with programmers, protects technicians from the attacks of marketing specialists and gets software and hardware for the team. Without him, a conflict of interest would quickly arise in the team, and the IT department would be deprived of funds.
In big corporations, the chief technology officer is responsible for the strategy: he advises the general director on global trends, helps to make decisions on what to develop and what to abandon. For example, to introduce artificial intelligence into a product or launch a VR direction.
5 Things to Know about CTO Job
There are 5 main benefits of a CTO engineering job for a company that you should know:
- Reduced operational risk. The CTO helps establish sustainable operations, processes, and infrastructure by controlling IT costs and improving capacity management, participating in business crisis management, security issues, through overall leadership and risk management, product and plan development.
- Overseeing industry market trends and business transformation. Given the large number of projects we work with, it is important to define and implement development strategies in line with current development methodologies and best practices, focus on target business markets, and implement projects to support the customer experience.
- Create a digital transformation strategy by overseeing the transformation of each business process and suggesting options for how technology can help the company achieve greater success.
- Support in team building. Mentoring the team, coaching and assisting with professional development, hiring new employees, filling technical gaps in the process of finding the right technicians.
- A technical director is an in-demand specialist. He is needed in companies that produce goods, as well as in construction or IT companies, and in each case, he will have his own job duties. It is important to spell them out in job descriptions, this will speed up the process of entering the position of an employee, as well as increase the efficiency of his work.
It is not always easy to find a technical director, because the specifics of work are such that many requirements are imposed on him (higher specialized education, qualification, 3-5 years of work experience, knowledge of English, and mobility). However, a good specialist will at least be able to set up the effective work of the entire enterprise by solving technical issues, and at the maximum, he will help the business to grow and develop successfully.