About GönderAL
GönderAL Elektronik Para ve Ödeme Hizmetleri A.Ş. is a licensed Turkish fintech company providing domestic and international money transfers. We are now building the next generation of the company: card services, payment accounts, open banking, digital wallet, PSP services and other payment products.
Our objective is to become an AI-first financial technology company. We are building an agentic AI-centric payments platform from the ground up, in which intelligent ai software sits at the center of the customer experience and this capability runs through our products, engineering and operations. We build on secure, resilient infrastructure and operate in a highly regulated environment, maintaining strict compliance with TCMB, KVKK and international standards.
We are looking for a Chief Technology & AI Officer to lead this build and take full ownership of the technology organization, software delivery, infrastructure and information security. This is a hands-on executive role, working directly with the CEO and the Board, staying close to architecture, product and delivery.
Responsibilities
- Own GönderAL's technology strategy and align it with commercial objectives and regulatory obligations.
- Lead the design and construction of a new agentic AI-centric payments platform covering electronic money, domestic and international transfers, cards, payment accounts, open banking and KYC.
- Convert business priorities into a focused, realistic and measurable technology roadmap.
- Embed intelligent and agentic capabilities into the core of customer journeys, onboarding, KYC, payments, fraud prevention, customer service and internal operations rather than isolating them in a separate function.
- Drive AI-assisted software development across coding, testing, documentation, quality assurance and release management.
- Establish a secure, scalable architecture appropriate for a regulated financial institution, without adding complexity that slows delivery.
- Take executive responsibility for cloud and on-premise infrastructure, DevOps, network architecture, system availability, business continuity and disaster recovery.
- Own information security across the platform, including application and infrastructure security, penetration testing, data protection and incident response.
- Manage regulatory obligations and external IT audits, including TCMB and KVKK compliance, coordinating cybersecurity assessments and audit programs with regulators and external parties.
- Modernize and refactor existing systems while protecting the continuity of current operations.
- Stay directly involved in architecture reviews, technical design, platform choices and the resolution of critical engineering problems.
- Build a lean, accountable engineering organization. Recruit strong engineers and technical leaders, assess the current team and make the changes the roadmap requires.
- Improve the speed, quality and predictability of delivery. Identify bottlenecks early and make clear trade-offs between speed, cost, scope and quality.
- Report to the CEO and the Board on progress, risks, resource needs and delivery commitments.
Requirements
- At least 10 years in software development and technology leadership, with a strong hands-on engineering foundation.
- Proven record designing, building and operating scalable, secure and highly available digital platforms.
- Deep understanding of infrastructure and information security: cloud and on-premise environments, network architecture, application and infrastructure security, penetration testing and data protection.
- Experience managing regulatory compliance and external IT audits in a regulated environment, ideally with TCMB, KVKK and others.
- Experience delivering complex products under demanding time, budget and resource constraints.
- Experience building, restructuring or scaling engineering teams and creating a culture of ownership.
- Technical depth to lead across our stack: .NET Core, Python, Node.js; Next.js, TypeScript and the JavaScript ecosystem; React Native; PostgreSQL, MongoDB and vector databases; Redis, RabbitMQ/Kafka; Kubernetes, Docker and microservices; GitLab CI/CD; cloud and on-premise infrastructure; and AI/LLM development tooling. Direct experience with every component is not required, but candidates must be able to lead teams working across it.
- Practical knowledge of large language models, agentic systems and AI-enabled products, and conviction that this technology will materially change how software and companies are built.
- Ability to distinguish commercially useful applications from technologies not yet ready for production.
- Strong business judgment connecting technical choices to customer value, revenue, cost and regulatory risk.
- Experience in fintech, banking, payments, electronic money or another regulated industry is strongly preferred.
- A direct, transparent and accountable leadership style, effective in an entrepreneurial environment with changing priorities.
- Fluency in English.