Technical Advisor to CTO

About the Role & Team

The Office of the CTO includes a team of Technical Advisors, each covering a subset of our core initiatives. The Technical Advisor (TA) to the CTO functions in a role that extends the capacity of the CTO and the CTO’s broader team by generating research, synthesizing insights into specific technical domains, doing hands-on prototyping & technical exploration, driving initiatives that span across the organization, and helping multiple teams to move towards common goals across the interactive group.  

The role requires tight coordination and collaboration with leaders including Technical Fellows & Distinguished Engineers, engineering team leaders, TA to the CEO, and the Corporate Strategy group. They will help the CTO with technical prioritization decisions, understanding key industry technical and social trends, and other research priorities. 

You will work across these teams toward a common vision and then facilitate planning and execution for the space across the interactive group.

This leader must have a strong senior presence, communicate effectively with internal and external stakeholders, and foster a can-do culture that aligns resources, priorities, and processes for success. 

About the Work

• You will conduct research to synthesize key opportunities, issues, and progress to date. Generate briefs that synthesize shared and divergent points of view and positions. The scope may vary from small investigations to substantial areas.
• Drive projects that require collaboration from multiple teams across the interactive division while sharing a common strategic vision. Help teams evolve their understanding of a new Penn Interactive culture of engineering, in partnership with engineering leadership.
• Produce reading material for the CTO and senior engineering leaders with summations, highlighted focus areas for deep processing, and prioritized order of consuming these reading materials. The reading will include the synthesis of a broad range of materials (academic research, business media & consultancies reports, white papers of internal teams, etc.).
• Engage with CTO on iterative investigations and prototyping as needed. Drill down into technical areas based on the CTO’s request and personal sense of company priorities/market trends. Create and maintain iterative mini-brainstorms to ensure alignment with CTO thought leadership and just-in-time fluidity of investigation efforts.  
• Produce a range of recommendations to the CTO based on research. Those may range from vision to individual solutions, depending on the topic, scope, and complexity. 

About You

• You will have demonstrated expertise in research, engineering and product development. You will be acknowledged as a deep expert in technical domains with a reputation as a credible thought leader.
• 15+ years of Technical Program Management and/or Software Engineering experience is required.
• Experience building software for customers, using bleeding-edge technologies.
• Master’s or PhD in Computer Science or related Engineering fields is preferred.
• Experience as a manager of an engineering and/or Product Management team.
• Proven customer facing experience - Startup experience considered an asset.
• Proven ability to navigate large organizations and to influence/inspire peers in engineering and product development. Works through high levels of ambiguity and drives clarity to senior leadership.
• Thorough understanding of cloud computing, cloud data center design, and distributed solution needs in high scale scenarios.
• Demonstrated ability to work through biases and preconceived notions through systemic, disciplined research and investigations.
• Able to pursue breakthrough thinking by assessing established and emerging thought leadership.
• Able to build bridges and assist the CTO with developing relationships with external industry and academic thought leaders; develop and maintain own relationships.
• Strong communication style that conveys expertise, clarity, and confidence. Track record of speaking externally is considered an asset.

What We Offer

• Competitive compensation package.
• Fun, relaxed work environment.
• Education and conference reimbursements.
• Parental leave top-up.
• Opportunities for career progression and mentoring others.

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