SVP, Chief Technology Officer

The SVP, Chief Technology Officer is accountable for the end-to-end technology strategy and architectural integrity of Rackspace. This executive leader sets the technical vision across products, platforms, and infrastructure while ensuring alignment with market opportunities and business objectives. Reporting to the CEO, the CTO chairs critical architecture and investment reviews, sponsors platform modernization initiatives, and represents Rackspace technology to customers, partners, analysts, and the board.

Office of the CTO Leadership

• Own and articulate the technical vision for Rackspace across all products, platforms, and infrastructure
• Establish and maintain reference architecture and standards for cloud, data, security, networking, and developer experience
• Drive technology roadmaps, including build vs buy decisions and major platform investments
• Incubate new platform capabilities from concept through to first scaled customer deployment
• Govern technical quality, reliability, performance, and cost efficiency across the entire technology stack
• Build and lead the principal engineer community and define technical career progression paths

Strategic Technology Leadership

• Chair architecture and investment review boards with authority to approve or reject platform and reference designs
• Sponsor core platform modernization programs, reliability initiatives, and developer productivity improvements
• Partner closely with Sales, Product, and Delivery leadership to align technical strategy with market opportunities
• Ensure architectural integrity and consistency across all technology initiatives
• Represent Rackspace technology vision and capabilities in customer engagements, partner discussions, analyst briefings, and board presentations

Organizational Leadership

• Serve as direct manager for principal engineering leadership and advanced engineering teams
• Foster a culture of technical excellence, innovation, and continuous improvement
• Develop technical talent and create pathways for engineering career advancement
• Drive cross-functional collaboration between technology, product, sales, and operations teams

AI Collaboration & Governance

• Partner with the Chief AI Officer to ensure AI architecture fits within overall platform architecture
• Jointly approve any AI initiatives that change core platform choices or enterprise risk posture
• Participate in quarterly technology and AI strategy reviews with shared roadmaps and risk assessments
• Co-lead monthly architecture and model governance councils

Key Performance Indicators

• Platform reliability and uptime metrics
• Security posture and compliance adherence
• Cost per workload and infrastructure efficiency
• Developer productivity and velocity metrics
• Time to market for new platform capabilities
• Technical debt reduction progress
• Customer and partner satisfaction with technical solutions
• Engineering talent retention and growth

Technical Expertise

• Expert understanding of cloud platforms (AWS, Azure, Google Cloud), infrastructure, and platform engineering
• Strong grasp of security, networking, data architecture, and DevOps practices
• Knowledge of AI/ML infrastructure and emerging technology trends
• Ability to evaluate complex technical tradeoffs and make sound architectural decisions

Leadership Capabilities

• Exceptional strategic thinking and ability to translate business goals into technical strategy
• Strong executive presence and communication skills with both technical and non-technical audiences
• Proven ability to build, mentor, and retain high-performing technical teams
• Track record of fostering innovation while maintaining operational excellence
• Experience managing large budgets and driving cost optimization

Required Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Engineering, or related technical field required
• Master's degree or MBA preferred
• 15+ years of progressive technology leadership experience with at least 7 years in executive roles
• Proven track record leading large-scale platform engineering, cloud infrastructure, or enterprise technology organizations
• Deep experience with cloud technologies, distributed systems, and modern software architecture
• History of successfully driving technical transformation and platform modernization initiatives
• Experience presenting to boards, C-suite executives, and external stakeholders

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