Head of Engineering / Senior Software Engineer (CTO)

About the role

Stellas Bank is looking for a senior technology leader to shape and execute its engineering vision. This full‑time hybrid position will drive the design, development and security of our digital banking platforms, ensuring they are scalable, reliable and compliant.

Key responsibilities

• Define and implement the technology strategy and roadmap aligned with business goals.
• Lead a team of 10‑30 engineers, setting coding standards, deployment processes and architectural principles.
• Design and maintain high‑availability, fault‑tolerant systems, including micro‑services and event‑driven architectures.
• Oversee integration with payment schemes (Verve, Visa, Mastercard) and double‑entry ledger systems.
• Ensure compliance with PCI‑DSS, NDPR and other banking security standards.
• Manage cloud infrastructure (AWS, Azure or hybrid), CI/CD pipelines, containerisation and monitoring solutions.
• Drive incident response, fraud detection and risk‑control initiatives.
• Support regulatory audits and maintain documentation for compliance reviews.

Required profile

• 6‑10 years of progressive software engineering experience, with at least 4‑6 years in senior engineering leadership.
• Strong background in fintech, banking or payment systems.
• Proven ability to build and manage engineering teams of 10‑30+ members.
• Experience leading high‑pressure deliveries and cross‑functional collaboration.

Required skills

• SQL databases: PostgreSQL, MySQL
• Message brokers: Kafka, RabbitMQ
• Cloud platforms: AWS, Azure (or hybrid)
• Containerisation: Docker, Kubernetes
• CI/CD pipelines with zero‑downtime deployments
• Micro‑services architecture and API‑first design
• Payment integration with card schemes (Verve, Visa, Mastercard)
• Banking‑grade security standards: PCI‑DSS, NDPR
• Encryption of data at rest and in transit
• Fraud detection and risk‑control systems