Explicitly calls out "vibe coding" and adoption of AI-assisted dev tools (Copilot, Claude Code, Cursor) for rapid prototyping and improved developer experience.
About the Role
Senior technology leader to serve as SVP/CTO for SymphonyAI’s Supply Chain Division in EMEA, responsible for driving a multi-year transformation from legacy on-premise systems to a cloud-native, AI-first composable SaaS platform. Lead platform architecture, large engineering teams (150–300+), generative AI integration, client-facing technology engagements, and technical M&A decisions.
Job Description
Role
SymphonyAI is hiring an SVP of Engineering / EMEA CTO for its Supply Chain Division to lead a transformation mandate: move a legacy, on-prem supply chain platform to a cloud-native, composable SaaS architecture and embed AI/ML and generative AI across the product suite. The role is based in EMEA (Paris headquarters) and includes global engineering leadership and client-facing responsibilities.
Key Responsibilities
Technology Vision & Platform Strategy
- Define and own the multi-year roadmap for Systems of Execution (WMS, TMS, OMS) and Systems of Intelligence (demand planning, supply optimization, decision analytics).
- Architect transformation from monolithic legacy systems to composable, API-first, cloud-native SaaS using microservices and event-driven design.
- Embed AI/ML as a foundational design principle and integrate generative AI/LLMs for copilots, natural language interfaces, autonomous workflows, and agentic capabilities.
- Own technical due diligence for M&A, partnerships, and build-vs-buy decisions.
Engineering Leadership & Operational Excellence
- Build and scale engineering organization across Paris and global centers (target 150–300+ engineers).
- Establish CI/CD, automated testing, IaC, feature flagging, canary deployments, and observability-first culture.
- Drive metrics for deployment frequency, lead time, MTTR, change failure rate; implement platform reliability standards (target 99.95%+ uptime, SOC 2 Type II, GDPR/data sovereignty).
- Champion developer experience and AI-assisted development tools (e.g., Copilot, Claude Code, Cursor) and rapid prototyping workflows.
AI & Innovation Agenda
- Lead applied AI strategy for forecasting, inventory optimization, routing, supplier risk, and digital twins.
- Deploy generative AI across product features (LLM assistants, automated reporting, anomaly explanation, conversational analytics).
- Build agentic AI frameworks for autonomous supply chain actions and integrate privacy-preserving and sandboxing patterns.
- Run an innovation lab for rapid POCs with clients and productize successful experiments within ~90-day cycles.
Client-Facing Technology Leadership
- Serve as senior technology executive in strategic engagements with large retailers and CPG enterprises; present to CIOs/CTOs/CDOs.
- Lead technical strategy in deal pursuits, RFPs, proof-of-value, and contract renewals; co-create roadmaps with strategic accounts.
- Represent the company at industry conferences and analyst briefings.
Legacy-to-Modern Transformation
- Lead data model modernization, API gateway design, tenant isolation, and migration strategies for enterprise clients (parallel runs, phased cutovers).
- Modernize data architecture to support real-time streaming and graph-based modeling (Kafka, Flink) and unified analytics for operations and ML training.
- Transition release management from quarterly waterfall to continuous deployment with feature flags while protecting enterprise stability.
Strategic & Organizational Leadership
- Partner with the CEO on division strategy, planning, budgeting, and investment priorities.
- Align technology investments with market demand and ARR growth; own technology budget and resource allocation.
- Build a diverse engineering culture and chair a Technical Advisory Board of external supply chain and AI experts.
Requirements
Experience & Background
- 15+ years in enterprise software engineering and technology leadership; at least 5 years at VP/SVP/CTO level in supply chain, retail, or CPG technology.
- Deep domain expertise across System of Execution and System of Intelligence components of supply chain.
- Proven track record leading platform transformation from on-prem to cloud-native SaaS at enterprise scale (100+ enterprise clients, $50M+ ARR platform).
- Direct experience delivering production-grade, customer-facing AI/ML capabilities at scale.
- Familiarity with competitive supply chain platforms and experience working with retailers/CPG clients.
Technical Depth
- Strong architectural fluency: microservices, API-first, event-driven architecture, multi-tenant isolation, Kubernetes/container orchestration, serverless patterns.
- Working knowledge of cloud data platforms (Snowflake, Databricks, BigQuery, Azure Synapse) and real-time streaming (Kafka, Flink, Spark Streaming).
- Practical MLOps experience: model training/serving, pipelines, feature stores, A/B testing, model monitoring.
- Familiarity with generative AI patterns (LLM fine-tuning, RAG, prompt engineering, function calling, agent frameworks) and graph/knowledge graph technologies.
- DevOps/SRE practices at scale: CI/CD, IaC (Terraform, Pulumi), observability (Datadog, Grafana), incident management.
Leadership Qualities
- Builder mentality with hands-on orientation; executive presence and strong communication skills; collaborative and bias for action; comfort with ambiguity.
Preferred Qualifications
- Experience at leading supply chain technology vendors or major retailers/CPG companies.
- Prior experience with data monetization, retail media intersection, outcome-based pricing, and multi-geography engineering organizations.
- Fluent in French and English; advanced quantitative degree (MS/PhD) a plus.