Chief Technology Officer

PayZeep – Chief Technology Officer

Position Summary

• The Chief Technology Officer (CTO) is responsible for defining and executing PayZeep technology vision, strategy, architecture, and innovation roadmap.
• The CTO leads the engineering, infrastructure, cybersecurity, data, and technology operations functions to deliver secure, scalable, resilient, and high-performing digital financial solutions.
• The role ensures that technology capabilities support business growth, regulatory compliance, operational excellence, and exceptional customer experiences while maintaining the highest standards of security and availability.

Key Responsibilities

• Define and own the technology strategy, architecture roadmap and build-vs-buy decisions across payments, core banking integrations and channels.
• Lead and scale the engineering organization (backend, mobile, DevOps, infrastructure, QA, data), including hiring, mentoring and performance management.
• Ensure platform reliability, uptime, scalability and disaster-recovery readiness for mission-critical payment rails.
• Own technology risk management in partnership with the CISO, including secure SDLC, code review standards and vulnerability management.
• Evaluate and manage relationships with core banking, switching, NIBSS/NQR and other payment-infrastructure partners and vendors.
• Set engineering budgets, tooling and cloud-infrastructure strategy, and report technology KPIs to the Board.
• Champion a culture of engineering excellence, documentation and continuous delivery.
• Present technology performance, risks, and strategic initiatives to the Executive Leadership Team and Board of Directors.
• Lead software engineering teams responsible for backend systems, frontend applications, mobile platforms, APIs, and integrations.
• Ensure successful delivery of scalable and customer-centric fintech products and technology solutions.
• Implement quality assurance frameworks to ensure product reliability and performance.
• Oversee cloud infrastructure, networks, databases, storage systems, and production environments.
• Ensure high availability, scalability, resilience, and disaster recovery readiness of all critical systems.
• Optimize infrastructure costs, performance, and operational efficiency.
• Establish monitoring, incident management, and service reliability practices.
• Ensure secure software development, security-by-design principles, and cybersecurity best practices.
• Oversee vulnerability management, penetration testing, and remediation activities
• Manage technology risks and ensure business continuity across all technology platforms.
• Provide strategic oversight for enterprise data platforms and analytics capabilities.
• Promote data-driven decision-making through business intelligence and reporting frameworks
• Ensure effective management, governance, and protection of organizational data assets
• Evaluate, select, and manage technology vendors, service providers, and strategic partners.
• Negotiate enterprise contracts, technology licensing agreements, and service-level commitments.
• Build, mentor, and retain high-performing technology teams.
• Foster a culture of innovation, collaboration, accountability, and continuous learning
• Implement succession planning and leadership development programs within the technology function.

Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Software Engineering, or a related technical field (required).
• Master's degree in a relevant technical discipline is an advantage.

Experience

• Total Relevant Experience: 0–15 years
• Fintech / Financial Services Experience: 10+ years building or scaling payments, banking or financial-technology platforms
• Leadership / People-Management Experience: 7+ years leading engineering teams or technology functions, including at least 3 years managing engineering managers or multiple squads, with demonstrated evidence of building engineering teams and platforms from early stage

Skills & Competences:

• Deep expertise in distributed systems, API design and payment-processing architectures
• Strong understanding of PCI-DSS, secure coding practices and cloud security
• Experience with high-availability, high-throughput transaction systems
• Strong people leadership, hiring and engineering-culture building
• Vendor and integration-partner management (processors, core banking, NIBSS)
• Cloud Computing (AWS, Azure, Google Cloud)
• Platform Reliability Engineering
• Cybersecurity & Secure Development
• Digital Payments Infrastructure
• Strategic Planning & Execution
• Budget Management & Financial Acumen
• Decision-Making & Problem-Solving
• Communication & Influencing Skills

Regulatory Considerations (Nigeria):

• Ensures technology architecture and controls meet CBN IT standards and the CBN Risk-Based Cybersecurity Framework for payment service providers.
• Owns technical compliance with PCI-DSS for any card and payment-data handling systems.
• Ensures systems and data flows comply with the Nigeria Data Protection Act (NDPA) 2023, including data localization and data-subject rights by design.
• Partners with CISO and Chief Risk & Internal Control Officer on technology-risk reporting for regulatory examinations.
• Support regulatory audits, examinations, and compliance reporting activities.

Application Closing Date

Not Specified.