Executive Search for a Chief Technology Officer at a Global SaaS Firm - Helium

OVERVIEW

A global SaaS company needed to find a technically exceptional leader to replace its founding CTO. With platform migrations underway and rapid scaling ahead, this was a hire that would define the next stage of the business.

Client Story

Strategy and Priorities:

Replace a founding CTO with a leader who could drive technical vision, build an engineering team, and balance product priorities through a period of rapid scaling.

Modernize the retail banking experience to retain younger demographics and increase daily app engagement.

Digital Priorities:

Modernise the technology stack to support rapid scaling, manage platform migrations, and bring strong stakeholder management to the executive table.

Shift from a purely transactional utility to a proactive financial advisory tool.

The Challenge:

A globally distributed team of 80+ across three international offices, experiencing growth that had outpaced its existing technology leadership capability.

Our Collaboration:

Omnia mapped the market, refined the brief mid-search as the role evolved, and delivered a high-calibre shortlist that resulted in a successful executive appointment.

We partnered with the bank’s digital and data science teams to design and validate an AI-driven homepage that anticipates user needs and provides tailored financial guidance.

CONTEXT

The Challenge

Providing booking and distribution solutions to the travel and leisure sector, the business had 80+ employees across three international offices and was growing fast — but its technology leadership hadn't kept pace. The founding CTO was transitioning out, and the incoming leader needed to drive technical vision, build an engineering team and modernise the stack for rapid scaling. The brief evolved mid-search: from Chief Product & Technology Officer to a technically strong leader with proven SaaS modernisation experience — and the commercial acumen to balance product priorities.

OUR EXPERTISE

Omnia identified technology leaders with direct experience of similar scaling challenges across SaaS businesses. Candidate assessment focused on team size and maturity, B2B/B2C SaaS experience, sector relevance across travel, hospitality, fintech, healthtech and edutech, and hands-on expertise in cloud migration and SaaS modernisation.

How we helped

The Solution

Broad candidate sourcing

Multi-source pipeline development

Engaged a targeted pool of senior technology leaders — CTOs, GMs, Heads of Technology — using their network, research team, referrals and sourcing tools for comprehensive market coverage.

Built robust data ingestion pipelines connecting cloud platforms, CRM databases and legacy batch systems — standardising ETL/ELT processes across the organisation.

Brief refinement

Cloud data warehouse

Collaborated with the client as the role evolved — sharpening focus on technical depth, leadership maturity, and the ability to balance commercial, product and technology strategy.

Designed and deployed a scalable AWS and Snowflake architecture capable of processing billions of annual transactions — with optimised storage and compute separation for cost efficiency.

High-calibre shortlist

Data model harmonisation

Presented a refined shortlist of highly qualified candidates assessed against the updated criteria — including cross-sector SaaS scaling experience.

Developed a high-fidelity mobile prototype featuring predictive ML spending insights, Gen-AI chat support, and dynamic UI modules.

Successful placement

Secure data sharing

Facilitated the interview process, resulting in a single exceptional candidate being selected and appointed to the final executive role.

Validated the AI-driven features through extensive qualitative user testing, ensuring the algorithms felt helpful rather than intrusive.

CASE STUDIES

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57 Technology Hires at 93% Close Rate — Multi-Year Talent Partnership for a Tech Services Firm

From executive search trial to multi-year talent partnership — 57 hires delivered at 93% close rate.

Technology Recruitment & Executive Search

Usability Testing

57 Technology Hires at 93% Close Rate — Multi-Year Talent Partnership for a Tech Services Firm

From executive search trial to multi-year talent partnership — 57 hires delivered at 93% close rate.

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100+ Specialist Technology Contractors Deployed Nationally for a Global Technology Leader

Five-year augmented capability partnership: 100+ specialist professionals deployed nationally to complement permanent teams.

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100+ Specialist Technology Contractors Deployed Nationally for a Global Technology Leader

Five-year augmented capability partnership: 100+ specialist professionals deployed nationally to complement permanent teams.

Digital Experience & CX

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Building a Design System for Scale for a Global Healthcare and Insurance Provider

A design system built for adoption, not just documentation — giving global healthcare delivery teams the governance, contribution model and embedded support to actually use it and scale it.

Digital Experience & CX

Usability Testing

Building a Design System for Scale for a Global Healthcare and Insurance Provider

A design system built for adoption, not just documentation — giving global healthcare delivery teams the governance, contribution model and embedded support to actually use it and scale it.

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