PalmPay is a leading Africa-focused fintech platform, offering digital financial services that empower users and businesses across the continent. With millions of users and a rapidly growing product suite—including mobile payments, digital wallets, lending, and card services—PalmPay is shaping the future of finance in Africa.
As we expand our footprint, we are seeking a visionary, hands-on, and execution-driven Chief Technology Officer (CTO) to lead our technology strategy, engineering organization, innovation roadmap, and product infrastructure.
Role Overview
The CTO will serve as a key member of the executive team, responsible for building scalable, secure, and innovative fintech platforms that support business growth, regulatory compliance, and user satisfaction across all markets where PalmPay operates. This role requires a strong blend of strategic vision, people leadership, and deep technical acumen.
Key Responsibilities
Technology Leadership & Strategy
- Define and execute PalmPay’s technology vision, aligned with business goals and regional growth strategies.
- Drive the architecture, infrastructure, and technical innovation across all products, including mobile apps, APIs, card systems, lending platforms, and agent networks.
- Identify and integrate new technologies that enhance platform scalability, speed, security, and reliability.
- Lead, mentor, and scale a high-performing cross-functional engineering team (backend, frontend, DevOps, security, QA).
- Foster a strong culture of agility, innovation, and accountability.
- Establish engineering best practices, code quality standards, and effective documentation across teams.
- Oversee system security, fraud prevention mechanisms, and data privacy controls.
- Ensure platforms comply with regulatory requirements across jurisdictions (e.g., CBN, NITDA, GDPR).
- Collaborate with internal audit, compliance, and legal teams to assess and mitigate technology risks.
- Lead decisions on cloud strategy, system design, CI/CD pipelines, and disaster recovery.
- Oversee platform uptime, reliability, scalability, and performance SLAs.
- Champion the adoption of modern microservices, containerization, and scalable API strategies.
- Partner with Product, Risk, Operations, and Business Units to support product innovation and delivery.
- Communicate technology plans, roadmaps, and risks to executive leadership and external stakeholders.
- Evaluate and manage third-party technology vendors, platforms, and external integrations.
- Bachelor's or Master’s degree in Computer Science, Engineering, or a related field.
- 10+ years of progressive leadership experience in technology roles, with at least 5 years in a senior engineering or CTO role.
- Proven experience leading technology for a fintech, payments, or digital banking company in emerging markets.
- Strong knowledge of:
- Cloud infrastructure (AWS, GCP)
- Mobile and web development frameworks
- APIs, microservices, and distributed systems
- Card/payment switching, settlement systems, or lending platforms
- Hands-on understanding of cybersecurity, DevOps, and modern data architecture.
- Demonstrated ability to lead and scale large, diverse engineering teams across geographies.
- Excellent communication, stakeholder management, and leadership skills.