Hacksaw Studios is looking for a highly experienced CTO / Lead Developer to join and lead our platform team.
The platform team is responsible for building, maintaining, and continuously improving the core remote gaming server platform used across the group. This is a high-volume, transactional system operating in the online gaming industry, where scalability, security, reliability, and code quality are critical.
This is a senior, hands-on technical leadership role. You will take ownership of the ongoing development and maintenance of the remote gaming server platform, as well as other platform-related services including API gateway solutions, back-office systems, integrations, and future unannounced projects.
The role
As CTO / Lead Developer for the platform team, you will be expected to combine strong technical leadership with hands-on development. You will work closely with the engineering team, senior management, and other departments to ensure that our platform continues to scale, perform, and meet the high standards required in a regulated industry.
You will be responsible for driving technical decisions, improving architecture, reviewing and writing code, mentoring developers, and ensuring that the platform remains stable, secure, and maintainable as the business grows.
A key part of the role will also be communication. You will need to clearly explain technical decisions, platform changes, risks, priorities, and ongoing work to both technical and non-technical stakeholders. This includes regular reporting to senior management, as well as close collaboration with departments such as Frontend, DevOps, Sysadmin, and Support to ensure they understand the platform, upcoming changes, operational impact, and how best to support the systems in production.
Responsibilities
- Lead the technical direction and development of the remote gaming server platform
- Take ownership of platform architecture, scalability, performance, and security
- Write, review, and deliver high-quality C# code
- Maintain and improve core transactional systems handling high volumes of traffic
- Work with SQL databases and ensure strong data integrity, performance, and reliability
- Support and improve related platform services, including API gateways and back-office systems
- Report progress, priorities, risks, and technical decisions to senior management
- Communicate clearly with DevOps, sysadmin, support, and other departments about platform functionality, changes, incidents, and operational requirements
- Help educate relevant teams on how the platform works and how changes may affect their areas
- Promote strong engineering practices, including unit testing, code reviews, and maintainable architecture
- Help the team operate effectively in a highly regulated industry
- Mentor and support developers while remaining deeply involved in day-to-day implementation
- Contribute to future platform initiatives and new technical projects
Requirements
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Extensive professional experience with C# and .NET
- Strong experience building scalable, production-grade backend systems
- Very strong SQL skills, including performance optimization and data modelling
- Understanding of caching principles in Redis or similar
- Experience working with transaction-based systems, ideally in online gaming, fintech, payments, trading, or similar industries
- Experience designing and operating horizontally scaled systems
- Strong understanding of system architecture, API design, reliability, and security
- Experience working with high-volume systems where uptime and correctness are critical
- A strong focus on code quality, testing, and maintainability
- Comfortable being hands-on and spending a significant amount of time coding
- Strong communication skills, with the ability to explain complex technical topics clearly to both technical and non-technical audiences
- Experience working across departments such as DevOps, infrastructure, support, product, or operations
- Ability to make pragmatic technical decisions in a fast-moving environment
Nice to have
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Experience from the online gaming or gambling industry
- Experience working in regulated environments
- Experience with remote gaming server platforms, payment systems, or other mission-critical transactional platforms
- Experience designing analytics systems for handling very large data sets for reporting purposes
- Experience leading engineering teams or acting as a technical owner for a major platform
- Experience with back-office systems, API gateways and integrations into third-party systems
- Experience reporting to or working directly with senior management
What we are looking for
We are looking for someone who enjoys taking real technical ownership who is a strong, hands-on developer. You should be excited by complex backend systems, care deeply about quality, and be comfortable balancing long-term architecture with hands-on delivery.
You should be able to lead from the front, contribute directly to the codebase, and help the team make good technical decisions while keeping the platform secure, scalable, and reliable.
Just as importantly, you should be a strong communicator. The platform team works closely with DevOps, sysadmin, support, and senior management, and this role will be expected to create clarity across those teams. You should be comfortable explaining what the platform team is doing, why certain technical decisions are being made, what risks or priorities exist, and how other departments are affected.
About Hacksaw
Hacksaw is a fast-growing company in the online gaming industry, building products and platforms used by operators and players across multiple markets. We work in a highly regulated environment and place strong emphasis on quality, reliability, and responsible technical delivery.
If you are an experienced C# developer and technical leader who wants to take ownership of a critical high-volume gaming platform, we would like to hear from you.
