Sébastien Rigaux

CTO · Tech Lead

Software architecture · Engineering leadership · Web and mobile products

With 14 years of experience in web and mobile, I connect technical vision, architecture and hands-on delivery. As a CTO and Tech Lead, I help teams take products from idea to launch.

Today, I drive the transition to AI, support engineering teams and help clients make technology decisions through CTO as a Service engagements.

At Microsoft in Vancouver, I led the Voicemail team for Teams and Skype for Business on a platform handling millions of messages a day. Self-taught and close to the code, I also keep up with React, frontend development, C# and Kubernetes.

Outside work, I spend time with my family, travel, go out with friends, and enjoy field hockey, kitesurfing and padel.

Professional experience

  1. – present

    Chief Technology Officer

    djm digital S.A.· Liège, Belgium

    • Lead the technology strategy of a company with around 40 employees and support its development teams from idea to launch.
    • Set technical direction for a portfolio of dozens of web and mobile apps, thousands of websites, dozens of online stores and complete digital solutions.
    • Drive the transition to AI: explore use cases, select tools, train teams and automate internal workflows.
    • Bring AI into products and build client solutions, including AI-powered telephone agents.
    • Advise clients on architecture through CTO as a Service engagements, conduct audits and risk assessments, and support their teams.
    • Prototype new ideas, contribute to product development and oversee server infrastructure.
  2. –

    Software Engineer II · Voicemail

    Microsoft· Vancouver, BC, Canada

    • Led the Voicemail team for Microsoft Teams and Skype for Business, with services processing millions of voicemails each day.
    • Helped scale voicemail services as Teams usage surged during the COVID-19 pandemic.
    • Contributed to modernizing and containerizing existing services as the platform evolved.
    • Integrated neural-voice text-to-speech (TTS), speech-to-text (STT), IVR flows and AI-powered automatic translation.
  3. –

    Chief Technology Officer · Mobile

    djm digital S.A.· Liège, Belgium

    • Led a team of around ten and organized the mobile and .NET API/backend groups.
    • Set the architecture and selected technologies for several iOS and Android business applications, including Xamarin-based apps, and their .NET APIs.
    • Scoped client needs, turned requirements into specifications and guided delivery from concept to launch.
    • Built end-to-end consumer-facing solutions for major Belgian public and sports organizations, spanning multiple applications and serving thousands of people each month.
    • One of these projects also included real-time IoT capabilities.
  4. –

    iOS & Web Developer

    djm digital S.A.· Liège, Belgium

    • Worked across the full iOS project lifecycle: research, planning, development, launch and client support.
    • Built native mobile applications tailored to each client’s needs.
    • Tracked project milestones and reported progress to leadership every week.
  5. –

    iOS Developer Intern

    djm digital S.A.· Liège, Belgium

    • Developed an iPhone app and APIs.
    • Also built web applications using ASP.NET MVC.

Education

  1. –

    University of Liège – ULiège(BELGIUM)

    Bachelor of Science in Computer Science

    First two years of bachelor's degree in computer science at the University of Liège (ULiège)

Skills

Languages

  • French — Native
  • English — Good working level
  • Dutch — Basic

Technical expertise

  • Technical leadership & CTO as a Service

    Architecture, audits, risk assessment, technical advice and team support.

  • Web & mobile engineering

    Frontend, backend, APIs and native iOS applications.

  • AI transition & automation

    Use-case discovery, tool selection, training, product integration and AI-powered telephone agents.

  • Communication at scale

    Microsoft Teams and Skype for Business voicemail services processing millions of messages a day.

  • Speech technology & applied AI

    Neural-voice TTS, STT, IVR and automatic translation.

Topics I follow