Snapbau is an AI-powered SaaS procurement platform built for the construction industry. In under a year, we’ve achieved strong traction in the Swiss market and are now entering a rapid scale-up phase with international expansion ahead.
We are building software for real-world construction environments — fragmented systems, low-connectivity job sites, fast operational workflows, and high execution pressure. The next phase of the company requires a deeply technical leader who can architect scalable systems while shipping production code daily.
This is a hands-on builder role for someone who wants to own architecture, infrastructure, engineering execution, and technical product evolution from the ground up.
**The Role**
We are looking for an experienced CTO / senior technical leader who combines strong product engineering instincts with pragmatic startup execution. This is not a delegation-only executive position. You will:
* writing production code daily
* defining system architecture
* building scalable infrastructure
* leading engineering execution
* hiring and mentoring the first engineering team
* translating real construction workflows into technical systems
You will work directly with the CEO and customers to build software that functions reliably in real operational environments.
## Tasks
**Technical Architecture & Product Development**
* Own system architecture and technical direction
* Build scalable multi-tenant SaaS systems across backend, APIs, infrastructure, and frontend
* Drive pragmatic architecture decisions balancing speed, scalability, and maintainability
* Ensure platform reliability, performance, and extensibility
**Full-Stack Engineering (Hands-On)**
* Develop production systems primarily with PHP 8.3+ and Laravel 13+
* Build APIs, async jobs, queue systems, caching, and event-driven services
* Contribute across frontend technologies including Vue.js, React, and Alpine.js
* Own debugging, monitoring, security, performance, and production reliability
**Construction-Tech & Offline-First Systems**
* Design systems for low-connectivity, mobile-first construction environments
* Build offline-first workflows enabling real-time field-to-office collaboration
* Create reliable operational workflows for procurement, approvals, and tracking
**Integrations & Infrastructure**
* Build integrations with ERP and accounting systems, and auxiliary software providers i.e. Autodesk, etc
* Develop scalable APIs, interoperability layers, and construction data pipelines
* Own cloud infrastructure, CI/CD, databases, monitoring, and production environments across GCP/AWS
**Engineering Leadership**
* Hire and mentor the first engineering team
* Establish engineering standards, development practices, and code quality
* Drive fast, high-quality execution in a startup environment
**Product Collaboration & Execution**
* Work closely with the CEO to translate operational workflows into product systems
* Assess technical feasibility and execution trade-offs
* Prioritize effectively between rapid shipping and long-term scalability
## Requirements
**Experience**
* 10+ years of professional software engineering experience
* Proven experience as:
* CTO
* senior engineering leader
* or principal/full-stack engineer in a high-growth B2B SaaS company
* Strong track record building and scaling systems from early-stage through rapid growth
* Experience operating in startup environments with high ambiguity and rapid execution cycles
* Strong history of shipping complex systems into production
**Technical Depth**
* Strong backend and infrastructure expertise
* Deep experience with PHP and Laravel in production environments
* Strong API architecture and systems integration experience
* Experience building scalable SaaS products and distributed systems
* Strong understanding of:
* databases
* caching
* asynchronous processing
* performance optimization
* production debugging
* Comfortable operating across backend, frontend, infrastructure, and cloud systems
**Execution Mindset**
* Strong ownership mentality from architecture to production deployment
* Bias toward shipping fast and iterating from customer feedback
* Pragmatic approach to technical trade-offs
* Comfortable making decisions with incomplete information
* Strong product intuition grounded in real user constraints
**Languages**
* Professional English required
* Fluent French required
## Benefits
**Why Join Snapbau**
* Build at the intersection of AI, SaaS, and construction-tech
* Direct impact on a fast-growing product entering its next scale phase
* Shape technical architecture and engineering culture from the ground up
* Work closely with real users and see immediate operational impact
* Contribute directly to how AI will transform procurement and construction workflows
* Join a highly execution-oriented team with fast iteration cycles and visible outcome
* Significant growth opportunities into long-term technical leadership
**What This Role Is NOT**
* Not a pure executive or delegation-only CTO role
* Not an enterprise architecture role disconnected from product execution
* Not a theoretical systems design position without shipping responsibility
* Not an isolated engineering role detached from customers and field operations