Chief Technology Officer - India

BestEx Research is an award-winning, high-growth, profitable algorithmic trading technology fintech company that executes over a trillion dollars in notional volume algorithmically for institutional clients. With 75 employees across offices in the US, London, Singapore, and India, we build the systems that power best-execution trading at global scale. We are expanding rapidly and looking for a technology leader to drive our next phase of growth.

We are looking for a CTO based in India to lead all software engineering and DevOps operations across our Indian offices. This is a senior leadership role reporting directly to the CEO, with full ownership of the technology organization in India and a seat at the table on company-wide technical strategy.

You will lead multiple engineering teams spanning market data systems, trading engines, strategy containers, simulation infrastructure, front-end/AMS platforms, and DevOps — ensuring that BestEx’s technology is scalable, reliable, and positioned at the cutting edge.

This is not a figurehead role. We need someone who combines deep technical credibility with the ability to build and lead high-performing teams, set culture, and deliver.

• Own the overall technical architecture and technology roadmap across all trading systems and infrastructure
• Provide hands-on architectural guidance to engineering teams - market data, trading systems, strategy/simulation, front-end (AMS), and DevOps
• Ensure systems are scalable, maintainable, well-documented, and built to institutional-grade reliability standards
• Evaluate and introduce new technologies (e.g., AI/ML, modern data infrastructure) where they create real competitive advantage
• Establish and enforce engineering best practices — code quality, testing, CI/CD, monitoring, incident response, and documentation
• Collaborate closely with the quantitative research team to translate strategies into production-grade systems

• Manage and grow engineering teams in Bengaluru (trading software) and Kerala (DevOps)
• Recruit, retain, and develop top engineering talent in a competitive market
• Set the engineering culture — high standards, ownership, transparency, and mutual respect
• Be the kind of leader that strong engineers want to work for
• Manage project timelines, priorities, and delivery commitments across multiple workstreams

• Report directly to the CEO and serve as the senior technology voice in company leadership
• Coordinate with global teams across US, London, and Singapore offices
• Balance operational excellence (keeping the wheels running) with forward-looking investment in new capabilities

• 15+ years of software engineering experience, with significant time in leadership/management roles overseeing multiple teams
• Deep expertise in C++ - this is non-negotiable. Our core trading infrastructure is built in C++, and you must be able to architect, evaluate, and guide low-latency system design at a high level. You don’t need to write code daily, but you need to think in C++ fluently enough to make the right architectural decisions
• Proven track record of building, scaling, and leading engineering organizations (not just individual teams)
• Strong architectural instincts - you can design systems that are performant, resilient, and maintainable at scale
• Experience with low-latency, high-throughput, or mission-critical systems (financial trading systems strongly preferred)
• Excellent people leadership - you set high standards, earn respect, and create an environment where talented engineers do their best work
• Hands-on enough to evaluate technical decisions and mentor senior engineers, strategic enough to set direction
• Experience managing geographically distributed teams
• Strong communication skills and comfort working directly with C-level leadership

• Direct experience with electronic/algorithmic trading systems - market data, order management, execution, FIX protocol, exchange connectivity
• Familiarity with quantitative trading workflows and collaboration with research teams
• Experience with modern DevOps practices, cloud infrastructure, and containerization at scale
• Exposure to AI/ML technologies and a practical perspective on where they add value

• Leads from the front - not a delegator who disappears behind process
• Combines technical depth with organizational maturity
• Is decisive but collaborative
• Cares about building something real, not just managing headcount
• Thrives in a lean, high-impact environment (we are 75 people, not 7,500)