Senior Fractional CTO (Principal Geospatial & Data Architect) - PT - EMEA/APAC

About the company

Client is an early-stage geospatial intelligence company developing a commercial location intelligence platform, initially focused on the Philippines, with plans to expand across Southeast Asia.

Our proprietary analytical framework evaluates commercial locations using geographic demand, transportation networks, accessibility, surrounding commercial activity, competitive supply, and observed street-level conditions.

We have developed a working analytical prototype and are preparing to commission an engineering firm to build a secure, customer-facing SaaS platform.

Our initial products support location exploration, site analysis, location discovery, property evaluation, and portfolio review. Our longer-term ambition is to evolve into a broader commercial real estate intelligence platform incorporating property and building histories, tenant and occupancy information, market intelligence, and commercial property listings.

We want to establish the right architectural foundations today without prematurely developing those future products.

Role Overview

We are seeking a senior technical architect to translate our existing prototype and business requirements into a robust, scalable, secure technical architecture and implementation specifications. The successful candidate will design and specify the system, not serve as its primary developer. They will also help us evaluate and select an independent engineering firm to implement the platform. This role requires expertise spanning geospatial databases, data engineering, commercial SaaS architecture, cloud infrastructure, security, and technical vendor evaluation.

Key Responsibilities

1. Platform architecture

• Review the existing prototype, workflows, data sources, and requirements.
• Design an end-to-end architecture (ingestion, storage, processing, analytical models, APIs, customer app) with modular interfaces so components can evolve independently.
• Recommend a simple, cost-effective stack for the first commercial release, and separate decisions needed now from those that can wait.

2. Geospatial and temporal data model

• Design the core data model for roads, buildings, commercial units, businesses, POIs, boundaries, and street-level observations, using PostgreSQL/PostGIS, spatial indexing, and network topology.
• Define canonical IDs, entity relationships, provenance, quality indicators, and temporal records.
• Support multiple providers, periodic refreshes, geographic expansion, and future datasets (property history, tenancy, listings).

3. Data pipelines

• Specify ingestion, validation, reconciliation, deduplication, and refresh workflows.
• Design integration points for proprietary street-level imagery and AI-generated attributes.
• Set standards for lineage, licensing, QA, monitoring, reproducibility, and large-scale geospatial storage.

4. Security, IP, and privacy

• Define security for a multi-tenant SaaS: authentication, RBAC, tenant isolation, encryption, audit logging, secure deployment.
• Protect proprietary models, source data, and customer data, including access boundaries for vendors and contractors.
• Address Philippine data privacy requirements (with legal review as needed) and lay groundwork for cross-border operations.
• Ensure the company owns and controls all repos, cloud accounts, credentials, infrastructure, and documentation.

5. Engineering vendor selection

• Turn the architecture into an implementation scope, requirements, and acceptance criteria.
• Prepare and evaluate RFPs; assess stacks, staffing, timelines, estimates, and security practices.
• Lead technical interviews, define milestones and quality gates, and flag red flags such as over-engineering, lock-in, unrealistic timelines, or weak documentation.

Expected Deliverables

The initial engagement should produce:

• Architecture assessment and recommended technology stack.
• System architecture diagrams and component/interface specifications.
• Foundational geospatial and temporal data model.
• Data pipeline and refresh architecture.
• Security, customer data isolation, and IP protection requirements.
• Technical implementation specifications and phased development scope.
• Engineering firm evaluation criteria and assistance selecting a vendor.
• Architecture decision records identifying tradeoffs, risks, and future extension points.
• Deliverables must be sufficiently detailed for an independent engineering firm to estimate and implement the platform without relying on the architect for daily development.

Required Qualifications

• 10+ years of relevant software, data platform, or systems architecture experience, preferably including senior technical leadership.
• Demonstrated experience designing production geospatial applications or data platforms.
• Strong PostgreSQL/PostGIS, SQL, Python, spatial data modeling, and geospatial processing expertise.
• Strong understanding of data engineering, ETL/ELT, data quality, lineage, and historical data modeling.
• Experience architecting commercial web applications, backend APIs, and cloud infrastructure.
• Working knowledge of SaaS authentication, authorization, multi-tenant architecture, security, and data privacy controls.
• Experience writing technical specifications and evaluating or supervising external development teams.
• Ability to communicate architectural tradeoffs clearly to a nontechnical founder.
• Demonstrated judgment in designing lean initial systems that can evolve without unnecessary complexity.

Highly Desirable

• Experience in commercial real estate technology, location intelligence, mobility analytics, mapping platforms, or property data systems.
• Experience designing building, parcel, unit, business, tenancy, or occupancy data models.
• Familiarity with OpenStreetMap, Overture Maps, Foursquare OS, H3, and road network analysis.
• Experience integrating computer vision or AI-derived observations into structured data pipelines.
• Experience supporting multi-country data platforms, particularly in emerging markets.
• Prior fractional CTO, principal architect, or independent technical advisory engagements.

Ideal Candidate

The ideal candidate combines the technical depth of a geospatial/data architect with the practical judgment of an experienced CTO.

They can distinguish foundational architecture from premature engineering, challenge assumptions constructively, explain tradeoffs clearly, and produce specifications that enable an independent development firm to deliver a maintainable product.

The immediate objective is not to build a large enterprise platform. It is to design a commercially viable first release with a sound foundation for future expansion.