Snews

Company Summary

Snews is a mobile app company providing an audio news aggregator for professionals and individuals interested in the news. Snews sources news content, produces audio clips, aggregates the clips based on user preferences and then distributes to users on demand via the app. The company will be utilizing a freemium business model and initially targeting the American young professional market.

Stage

Initial prototyping and user testing of the iOS mobile app is complete. We are seeking a Chief Technology Officer to lead and manage development of our market ready iOS app, additional Android app and web based Audio Publishing Platform. The position will be the key technical member of our small team in a fast growing company with existing customers that are eagerly awaiting our new product.

Position

Reporting to the CEO, the CTO has executive level responsibility for guiding the technical direction of the company including technology selection, product architecture, software development, processes and quality, and dev ops. The CTO should have broad based software experience including data management, analytics and reporting, web site design and user experience, data communications and cloud hosting environments. Working in a start-up company environment the CTO should have experience project managing small, fast-moving outsourced teams in an agile environment and be prepared for hands-on development as required. He or she should be an experienced coder who can understand systems architecture at all levels and integrate legacy systems with a cloud platform. We are looking for a person with vision and patience to build a truly great company.

Duties

Being an early stage company, duties of the CTO will be broad and varied. Some specific near term responsibilities include:

• Work with the CEO to translate the product strategy into system software architecture and technical implementation strategy, roadmap and schedule.
• Identify the requirements and recruit the right outsourced team members to execute development per the plan.
• Establish the development environment and processes, including product development flow, version control and intellectual property protection.
• Define and implement the dev ops and IT approach and plan for both development and production environments.
• Manage on-time development of the initial and follow-on product releases using agile methods and tools.
• Establish quality assurance, defect tracking and release processes.
• As required, collaborate on new business development, including major customer, partner and conference presentations, white paper generation and high-level technical support.
• As required, support the CEO in meeting with investors as part of raising an initial round of funding.

Requirements

We are seeking a passionate and driven individual with at least 5-10 years’ experience in the definition and development of enterprise and web-based software, including at least 3 years’ managing a team of software developers. Prior experience working in a start-up environment is strongly desired. Knowledge and experience with a variety of coding languages, frameworks and operating systems including Linux and Windows, PHP or Python, C# and/or C++, .NET, AJAX, JAVASCRIPT, Apache/Tomcat. Experience with communications systems in a public service environment is a strong plus. BSEE or BSCS required with MS preferred. Knowledge about productivity software such as: Microsoft Office suite, Google Drive Suite, DropBox, Evernote, Basecamp, Pivotal Tracker, Kanban Board, FogBugz, Zendesk is desired. Superior communication skills are essential.