CTO – Digital health

As the founding CTO, you will take full ownership of technology and product at a fast-growing European healthtech scale-up. You'll inherit a partially assembled team, define the architecture, own compliance, and build the engineering organisation that will carry the company into its next phase of growth.

Think you can walk in, take charge, and build something that matters? Read on.

About the Company

This profitable, bootstrapped healthtech scale-up operates an online pharmacy and telehealth platform across the Netherlands and Belgium, with active expansion into Germany and France. The platform serves thousands of patients and runs on a subscription-plus-delivery model — think logistics-grade operational complexity, with medical and regulatory requirements on top.

The company is around 100 people, the founding team is entrepreneurial and fast-moving, and the tech team is in the early stages of being built out. The previous CTO has stepped aside. The mandate is clear: take the platform in-house, build the team, and scale.

Role Overview

This is a founding CTO position — combined technical and product leadership. You join as the most senior person in engineering, reporting directly to the founders. A squad structure is already being assembled (App, Web, Backend, Subscription & Payment, Patient Experience), so you're not starting from zero, but you are the one who shapes how it all comes together.

The founders want someone who walks in with a point of view. Not someone who asks what the org chart should look like — someone who tells them.

What you'll do

• Own the technical roadmap and architecture decisions for a Python/FastAPI + React/TypeScript stack on GCP
• Lead and grow a cross-functional engineering team across multiple squads
• Take full ownership of GDPR, ISO 27001, security posture, and regulatory compliance
• Drive the transition from agency-built code to an in-house, documented, scalable platform
• Work closely with the founders on product strategy and prioritisation
• Hire and develop the engineers who will build the platform's next chapter
• Stay hands-on — prototype, review, guide, and stay close enough to the code to make real calls

Requirements

• Proven track record as a CTO, VP Engineering, or Head of Engineering at a scale-up or high-growth environment
• Hands-on builder DNA — you've coded in production and you're still comfortable opening a repo
• Experience designing and shipping scalable backend architecture
• Strong track record hiring and leading engineering teams
• Compliance and security mindset — GDPR, ISO 27001, or regulated environments are familiar territory
• AI-native working style — you use AI tooling actively and know how to embed it in engineering teams
• Comfortable with ambiguity, fast pace, and making decisions without complete information

• Nice to have

• Experience with Python/FastAPI, React/TypeScript, GCP
• Background in e-commerce, logistics, fintech, or digital health
• Experience insourcing or replacing an agency-built codebase
• Dutch or strong English; Dutch market familiarity a plus

What’s offered

• base salary

• Equity participation
• Full ownership of technology and product — a genuine seat at the table
• A profitable, bootstrapped company with real European ambition
• Hybrid setup — Rotterdam office

Interested?

Send your CV or a short introduction to d.gontha@haystackpeople.nl and I’ll get back to you shortly.