Chas Simpson

Skills

Executive & Product Leadership Skills and Experience:
Product Leadership & Strategy
Product Roadmap Development
Technical Due diligence
Commercial & Go-to-Market Strategy
CTO / Executive Leadership (servant leader)
Agile & Scrum Delivery Management
Investor & Stakeholder Relations
Global Team Leadership (Remote)
Operational finance (Capex/Opex)

Technical & Platform Architecture Skills and Experience:
Software development (20+ languages)
SaaS Cloud-Native Architecture (Azure & AWS)
Data Analytics, AI and Machine Learning (including Retrieval-Augmented Generation, RAG)
Solution Architecture (Microservices, event, domain and API-driven Architecture)
IT Governance PCIDSS, SOC2 & ISO 27001

Scientific Skills and Experience:
Computational Chemistry (Molecular Dynamics, ab initio and DFT quantum mechanics)
Statistical Mechanics and Thermodynamics
Quantum Computing
Bayesian Statistics

About

My career represents a unique convergence of foundational scientific computing research, practical hands-on software development, and executive-level technology leadership. This background makes me distinctly qualified to bridge the gap between computational scientists and the commercial product development.

My academic and professional life began reading a PhD in Computational Chemistry, where I developed analytic tools and applied molecular dynamics simulations using quantum mechanical models. I have maintained a deep, active passion for this field, complementing my expertise developed in academia with recent, ongoing studies in quantum computing and postgraduate-level refreshers in statistical mechanics, quantum mechanics, calculus, and Bayesian statistics.

For the past 20 years, I have applied that same analytical rigour to a career in enterprise technology, one built from the ground up—from hands-on software developer and architect to delivery lead and ultimately serving as CTO and Managing Director. I have led the end-to-end delivery of complex, cloud-native SaaS platforms, including a multi-tenant Azure solution launched across nine countries. My experience is therefore not just in high-level leadership and technical architecture, but is fundamentally grounded in hands-on agile delivery—from managing sprints and backlogs to writing code—and in product strategy, translating complex domain requirements into commercially viable roadmaps.

My recent work as a Principal Consultant operates at the intersection of product development, investment, and technical strategy. This work is centred on conducting deep technical due diligence for investors; to scale this core service, I am personally building and iteratively re-architecting a commercial multimodal RAG product. This due diligence involves a holistic evaluation of a target's technology and product operations, assessing everything from its product roadmap and strategy to its team, technical architecture, scalability, and operating finances—presenting investors with a complete view of inherent risks and opportunities. This work provides me with a singular, current perspective on how to attract the right investors and successfully scale a modern digital product. Finally, I provide fractional CTO and product advisory, guiding clients, for example, through the strategic transformation of a legacy tool into a modern, productised cloud-SaaS offering.

My goal is to combine my executive, product, and deep technical experience with my primary passion for scientific computing. I am seeking a senior-level CTO, Product Leadership, or Solution Architect role where I can make a significant contribution to a sophisticated scientific software, bridging the gap between computational scientists, customer needs, and engineering delivery. I am confident I possess the servant leadership, technical depth, product acumen, and strategic vision to make a significant contribution to any organisation operating at this intersection of deep science and commercial technology.