[Hiring] Chief of Staff to the CTO @Fundraise Up

Role Description

Engineering orgs rarely stall because nobody can decide. They stall because nobody owns the decision.

You build and run the operating system of our engineering organization: the leadership cadence, the OKR and QBR cycle, the record of decisions and follow-ups, and the executive synthesis that reaches the CTO, the exec team, and — when the topic calls for it — the CEO and board. You work through process and influence rather than line authority; the engineering directors continue to report to the CTO, and architecture and technical strategy stay with the CTO, the directors, and our staff and principal engineers.

This is a senior leadership role, not an executive-assistant one. You are not measured by how much you own — you are measured by how fast ownerless chaos becomes clear ownership, and how cleanly you hand it off. Our engineering leadership and much of the company work in English across European and US hours.

What You'll Do

• Run the engineering leadership cadence.
• Own director-level syncs and the leadership rhythm end to end: agenda, documented decisions, follow-through.
• Take over the quarterly OKR and QBR cycle.
• Keep one live record of leadership decisions and commitments, and chase every one to closure by its agreed date.
• Scan continuously for stalled or ownerless cross-team work and bring it back on track with a named owner.
• Drive special projects to a chartered state, then hand them off — and stop holding them.
• Turn complex organizational and project inputs into concise, decision-ready material for the CTO, the executive team, and board-level audiences.
• Facilitate delegated decisions to closure — documented, escalated when they stall, communicated to the people they affect.
• Standardize how engineering leadership plans, tracks, and communicates.
• Partner across the organization on cross-cutting initiatives, procurement, pilot contracts, and engineering tool budgeting.
• Expect every team member to actively use AI in their day-to-day work, identify where AI can change the shape of problems in their function, and grow their fluency as the tools evolve.

Cross-Department Interfaces

• Engineering Directors — alignment on execution, OKRs, and resolution of systemic bottlenecks.
• Product — new work-distribution models, the AI-agent platform, and most cross-cutting initiatives originate or terminate here.
• Data / Analytics — the data-team ownership question and the data/agent platform sit across this boundary.
• Executive Team — data gathering and synthesis for board meetings and executive reporting.
• BizOps — co-stakeholder on security and other operational initiatives.
• Finance, Legal & IT — procurement, contract negotiation for pilots, and engineering tool budgeting.

Key Performance Indicators

• % of leadership follow-ups closed by their agreed date.
• Cross-team initiatives with a named DRI and a live checkpoint — versus work that is ownerless or untracked.
• OKR freshness — share of engineering OKRs with a current owner, status, and checkpoint date, with drift reduced quarter over quarter.
• Operational threads removed from the CTO's plate, quarter over quarter.
• Stalled or lost cross-team projects surfaced and reactivated per quarter.
• Initiatives handed off to a permanent owner — versus retained personally.
• % of hand-offs that actually landed — with an accepted owner, scope, next checkpoint, and success criteria.

Qualifications

• A track record running the operating system of an engineering organization — as a TPM lead, head of engineering operations, or equivalent.
• Demonstrated ownership of ambiguous, multi-team initiatives you coordinated, drove, and landed through influence, without direct authority.
• Executive synthesis: you turn raw, complex information into brief, decisive material leaders can act on.
• Operating discipline: you build durable systems and follow-up loops, not just meetings.
• An engineering background you still draw on.
• Credibility with engineers, EMs, and directors, earned through reliability and follow-through.
• English proficiency C1 sufficient for written and verbal technical communication with external and internal audiences.

Nice to Have

• Prior Chief of Staff, Engineering Operations, or TPM-lead experience reporting into engineering leadership.
• Experience driving operational efficiency in engineering orgs of 100+ people, including use of automation and AI tooling to keep teams lean.
• Procurement, vendor-contracting, or budgeting experience.
• Nonprofit-tech or payments-domain familiarity.
• Familiarity with our environment is an advantage: Node.js/NestJS, React, MongoDB, ClickHouse, Kafka, Cloudflare; PCI DSS 4.0.1, SOC 2 Type II, ISO 27001.

You'll Thrive Here If You

• Find an ownerless problem and can't leave it alone until it has a name attached to it.
• Would rather build the loop that closes follow-ups than personally chase every one forever.
• Can say "this decision is stuck and here's who needs to make it" to a director — and stay welcome in the room.
• Hold your position with senior people when you believe you're right, and change it quickly when you're not.
• Measure yourself by what you successfully gave away, not by what accumulated on your plate.
• Write clearly and short, especially when the underlying situation is messy.
• Take the operating cadence seriously as a product: versioned, improved, and never left to run on habit.
• Are motivated by what the platform funds — the nonprofits on the other side of every donation.

Compensation

The compensation range for this role is: €5,900 - €6,600 gross per month. Final compensation will be determined based on relevant experience, skills, qualifications, and alignment with the role's requirements.

Benefits

• 31 days off
• 100% paid telemedicine plan
• Home Office Setup Assistance: the company offers assistance with purchasing furniture (office chair, office desk, monitor) and other items to create a comfortable workspace
• English learning courses
• Relevant professional education
• Gym or swimming pool
• Co-working
• Remote working

We are an equal opportunity employer. We celebrate diversity and are committed to creating an inclusive environment for all employees. We do not discriminate on the basis of race, color, religion, gender, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, age, national origin, disability, or any other characteristic protected by applicable law in the countries where we operate.