Interim CTO

Interim Chief Technology Officer (CTO) - Financial Services

London | Immediate start | On-Site Full-Time

We’re partnering with a highly regarded, technology-led business serving the asset management sector to appoint an Interim CTO during an important period of growth and evolution.

This is a senior leadership assignment with broad ownership across engineering, technology operations, team capability and future platform direction.

The business is small, fast-moving and technically sophisticated, with its own proprietary platform at the heart of its client proposition. You’ll lead an experienced technology team and work closely with the Managing Director to ensure the engineering function continues to scale effectively, maintain delivery momentum and strengthen its capability for the next phase of growth.

The environment

The core technology stack is centred around:

• Python and Django across the backend, React across the front end
• AWS as the primary cloud environment, Terraform supporting infrastructure automation

You will not be writing production code day to day, but you will need strong technical credibility and the ability to engage confidently with senior engineers on architecture, engineering quality and platform decisions.

The mandate

You’ll take responsibility for:

• Leading the engineering function day to day, setting priorities and ensuring strong delivery across the platform.
• Providing technical leadership across architecture, engineering standards and platform development.
• Strengthening engineering documentation and exploring how AI can improve knowledge management, productivity and ways of working.
• Leading the recruitment of additional engineering hires.
• Developing and supporting an experienced engineering team, with clearer progression and stronger capability across the function.
• Overseeing AWS platform reliability, infrastructure and incident management alongside the existing cloud engineering capability.
• Supporting information security responsibilities, including the organisation’s ISO 27001 environment.

What we’re looking for

We’re looking for an experienced interim technology leader who combines strong engineering depth with commercial and people leadership.

You’ll ideally bring:

• Experience leading and scaling engineering teams within smaller, product-led or entrepreneurial businesses (sub 100).
• Previous experience operating as an Interim CTO, VP Engineering or equivalent senior technology leader.
• A strong software engineering background, ideally with significant experience across Python/Django environments.
• Strong AWS experience and a good understanding of modern cloud engineering practices.
• A track record of hiring across software engineering
• Strong communication skills and the ability to work closely with both highly technical teams and senior non-technical stakeholders.
• A pragmatic understanding of engineering governance, information security and operational risk.
• Practical experience applying AI within engineering teams or technology environments.

Experience within financial services or asset management would be useful, but is not essential. The priority is strong technology leadership, product thinking and the ability to operate effectively in a smaller, high-accountability environment.

Assignment details

• Immediate start
• Initial 4–5 month assignment
• Full-time
• 4 days per week on-site in the City of London — this is a firm requirement