Chief Technology Officer

TalentGuide is an innovative HR-tech company that provides an AI-driven SaaS platform to help organizations understand, develop, and plan the skills of their workforce through skills-based insights.

Lead the technical strategy and team for a scaling HR SaaS company, building scalable architecture and influencing company direction.

Job Description

What you’ll do:

This is a CTO role with influence, ownership, purpose. You’ll have real influence, real ownership, and a team that relies on you.

Talentguide is growing fast. With that growth comes complexity, trade-offs, and the need for clear direction. To scale our product in a thoughtful, secure, and sustainable way, we need a technical leader who can think strategically, act decisively, and inspire others.

As CTO, you own the technical product development plan. You lead with technical depth and human insight, acting as a strategic sparring partner to the CEO, Chief Product Officer, and the Board. You weigh in on everything from roadmap trade-offs and long-term technical bets to development team and platform infrastructure budgets.

You translate today’s needs into a technical foundation that scales for tomorrow.

Here’s how you’ll make a difference:

• Technology Leadership: Own the technical strategy and align it with talentguide’s long-term vision. You'll solve today’s challenges while laying the groundwork for tomorrow’s growth.
• Team Development: Build and nurture a high-performing development team, mentoring individuals and fostering a culture of curiosity and ownership.
• Hands-on Contribution: Stay actively involved in deep technical challenges, especially during the early growth phase, while setting the standard for development quality. You'll stay hands-on and keep coding.
• Engineering Excellence: Implement modern practices, from version control and automated testing to CI/CD and structured release processes - ensuring the team moves fast without compromising quality.
• Product Collaboration: Work closely with the product and AI teams to turn ideas into elegant, scalable features that truly move the needle.
• Decisive Direction: Bring structure to complexity, helping the team navigate trade-offs and stay focused on priorities.
• Leadership Influence: Participate in strategic discussions, shaping both product direction and long-term technical investments. You'll regularly engage with the Board of Directors, showcasing product achievements and providing roadmap updates.
• Champion Security & Quality: Guide cross-functional initiatives that keep the platform reliable, compliant, and robust as it scales.

What you get in return:

This is not a "come maintain code" kind of role. It’s a "come shape the company" kind of role. From day one, you’re in the room where it happens with genuine influence and ownership.

You'll join a team that’s small but ambitious, driven by trust, responsibility, and the desire to build something that lasts. Autonomy here is real. So is your impact. From product vision to leadership decisions, you'll help shape not just how the platform works, but how talentguide grows.

You can expect:

• A competitive salary, tailored to your experience and scope.
• The possibility to participate in the company’s upside through actual stock, giving you a real stake in what you help build.
• A hybrid work rhythm: on-site in the Wintercircus, Ghent; close collaboration matters, especially in a scaling phase.
• A low-ego, purpose-driven culture, where alignment beats hierarchy.
• Flexible working hours that support a healthy work-life balance, no clock-watching.

You're a full-stack leader with a love for product, a builder's spirit, and a strategic brain. You combine ambition with empathy – and code with culture.

You recognise yourself here:

• You’ve architected and built full-stack platforms with Typescript (React + Node.js), and worked with modern cloud environments like Azure, AWS, or GCP.
• You’ve led teams and developed people, not just processes.
• You bring structure to chaos and thrive in fast-moving settings.
• You communicate clearly across the company, from the boardroom to the backend.
• Bonus points: Experience with Python, DevOps, GitHub Actions, or B2B SaaS.

But above all, this describes you:

• You own it – You act without waiting. You anticipate, execute, and follow through.
• You think big – Tech is your tool, but value creation is your goal.
• You lead people – Coaching and uplifting others gives you energy.