- Lead a technically excellent business through an ambitious growth phase
- Lead within a servant leadership culture where capability earns respect
- A values-led business that balances ambition with long-term thinking
The Opportunity
Stratos Technology Partners is one of New Zealand's most technically capable technology services businesses. Founded in 2011 and headquartered in Ōtautahi Christchurch, the business employs around 60 people and delivers bespoke software development, Microsoft 365 and SharePoint solutions, Power Platform services, and IT managed services to clients across health, manufacturing, agriculture, finance, law and local government.
Stratos is profitable, founder-led, and in an active growth and acquisition phase. The CEO and co-founder is stepping sideways to focus on creating value for shareholders and the community by focussing on product development. This creates the conditions for Stratos's first externally-appointed Chief Executive.
This is a rare opportunity to lead a technically excellent business through its next chapter of growth.
The Role
The incoming Chief Executive will have full operational and commercial responsibility for Stratos's services business: software development, MSP, and Microsoft 365/Power Platform. You will collaborate with the Board to set the strategic direction, support the growth of the business through the right commercial structure and lead an acquisition programme already under way.
In the first year, your priorities are growing the MSP and Microsoft 365 practices - identified as the highest-growth areas of the business - and establishing the foundations for sustained commercial growth. You will work alongside the founding team, who remain active in the business in complementary roles - a dynamic that, approached well, will be an asset.
The Person
You will need intellectual horsepower - enough to earn respect from a high-capability team that respects actions over words. You will need commercial instinct and the discipline to translate strategy into execution. And you will need the interpersonal intelligence to lead through credibility and authenticity rather than hierarchy.
Skills & Experience
We are looking for a leader who brings a combination of qualities that rarely sit together. Candidates will be able to demonstrate most, if not all, of the following:
- Technical literacy sufficient to engage credibly with a highly capable, intelligent team - you do not need to be a practitioner, but you must understand the work and speak the language with confidence
- A background in services businesses, with a clear understanding of how they operate, grow, and retain clients
- Proven experience scaling a business commercially - including building and executing growth strategies, not just inheriting them
- Leadership of high-performance specialist teams at a senior level, with a track record of earning respect rather than assuming it
- Experience in MSP and/or Microsoft 365/Power Platform environments, or the demonstrated ability to get up to speed quickly
- Familiarity with founder-led businesses and the commercial and relational dynamics that come with them
- Acquisition experience or the network and commercial instincts to source and evaluate targets
Benefits
For the right person, this role offers something hard to find: the substance of a significant leadership challenge inside a business that is small enough to move fast, smart enough to do things properly, and ambitious enough to make it matter.
You will have real authority from day one, inside a business that trusts you to lead it. You will work alongside founders who have built something credible and are invested in your success. You will lead a team of high-capability people and you will be part of a growth story, including acquisitions and new ventures, that you will help to shape.
Culture
Stratos has the kind of culture that cannot be manufactured. It is candid, intellectually serious and built on a servant leadership philosophy - the belief that a leader's job is to remove obstacles and create conditions for their people to do their best work.
The team includes a high proportion of neurodiverse individuals with exceptional analytical and technical capability. Respect is earned through understanding and engagement. If you lead with curiosity, speak plainly, and follow through, you will fit.
Stratos describes itself as a 100-year business. The people who will thrive here are those who think in the same time horizon.