Job description
Chief Technology Officer / CTO
Company Overview
Build a better way to search: for users, for Europe, and for the planet. Ecosia is building a credible alternative to Big Tech search: a mission-driven product that supports climate action with every search. Ecosia is the search engine that plants trees with its ad revenue. Over 20 million users have helped plant over 150 million trees all over the world. Those trees help restore landscapes, nourish communities, protect wildlife and neutralize CO2. Join the world's biggest tree-planting movement! At Ecosia, we believe great products can drive real change. This role lets you prove it.
Job Summary
As our next Chief Technology Officer, you will help shape how millions of people experience search and browsing — at a moment when AI, assistants, and new interaction models are redefining user expectations. This is a backfill role in a product-led company with a clear mission, an established user base, and exciting technical and strategic challenges ahead. Your role: As CTO, you are a product-oriented technology leader: someone who thinks first in terms of user value and outcomes, and uses technology as the lever to deliver them.
Key Responsibilities
- Own Ecosia’s technology vision and execution, ensuring our platforms evolve quickly to changing needs.
- Co-own product direction with Product and Design, ensuring technology supports efficient iteration and high-quality user experiences
- Establish and enhance a capable engineering leadership team, guiding and supporting a group of engineering managers while promoting clarity, focus, and accountability
- Translate product strategy into technical priorities, balancing speed, quality, cost, and long-term maintainability
- Promote innovation in search and browsing, including AI-assisted experiences, GPT-based interfaces, and emerging paradigms
- Make pragmatic technology decisions that respect Ecosia’s mission, financial constraints, and environmental impact
- Advance European digital sovereignty, deepening our partnership with Qwant and contributing to a more independent search ecosystem with our joint-venture European Search Perspective (EUSP).
Requirements / Qualifications
- You gained experience as a CTO or senior technology leader in a product-led organization
- Your capability to lead through leaders, to drive transformation, and deliver outcomes in complex situations is evident
- You are tech curious and are comfortable challenging technical assumptions, asking the right questions, and staying close to key architectural decisions
- You successfully drove the adoption of AI-assisted development practices within your organizations
- You acknowledge diversity and understand the importance of creating an inclusive workplace
- You have a bias towards action and pragmatism, both in your own work and in your enablement of others.
Location
Berlin, Berlin, Germany (On-site). We are a remote-friendly company with one office in Berlin-Wedding. People come to the office or work from home per their wishes and/or circumstances. Some roles require presence in the office at least from time to time.
Employment Type
Full Time
Salary & Benefits
- Compensation Range: €127.5K - €160K
- Base salary €127,500/yr - €160,000/yr
- flexible working hours
- 30 vacation days per year (based on a five-day workweek)
- designated Focus Times
- remote work options (Note: Not applicable to freelance contracts; different labor laws may apply in other countries.)
- green benefits program - including subsidized public transport cards and bike inspection services - supports your sustainable living choices in Berlin. (Availability may vary by location; not applicable to freelance contracts.)
- professional growth through learning times, hack days, online and physical libraries, and continuous feedback. (Not applicable to freelance contracts.)
Application Process
Process: Talent Partner call (⏱️ 45') Leadership Interview (⏱️ 60') Technical conversation (⏱️ 1h15') Product call (⏱️ 60')
Equal Opportunity Statement
We are a diverse team, committed to equality, equity, and inclusion, with members from various backgrounds: sexual orientations, genders, ages, races, ethnicities, nationalities, physical and mental disabilities, family structures, and religions.
