The leading API-First Platform for Search and Discovery, Algolia has announced Sean Mullaney as the company’s new Chief Technology Officer (CTO). With experience in scaling best-in-class engineering organizations, developing AI-powered Search and Discovery technologies, and growing API-first solutions globally, Mullaney is well-suited to support Algolia’s rapid growth and pace of innovation.

“It’s exciting to be part of an R&D organization that is scaling state-of-the-art AI that helps improve trillions of customer searches every year. My experience in scaling engineering organizations and delivering API-first products for builders is a perfect fit for supporting Algolia as it continues to expand globally.”

Co-founder and former CTO, Julien Lemoine, who built Algolia into a US$2.25B industry leader in Search and Discovery that handles 1.5 trillion search queries per year, helped lead the search process for Mullaney and will remain very involved at Algolia serving as an Advisor. He will also remain on as a member of the Board of Directors.

“We had a long list for what we were looking for in a new CTO and Sean checked every box,” said Chief Executive Officer for Algolia, Bernadette Nixon. “His deep engineering experience, customer-centric mindset, strong values, and willingness to roll up his sleeves, made him a perfect fit for Algolia. We are thrilled to welcome him into our organization and can’t wait to see what we can accomplish together.”

Mullaney joins Algolia from Stripe, where he most recently acted as the Chief Information Officer in Europe and led a global engineering organization overseeing the development and operations of 40+ local payment methods across Europe, Asia, and the Americas that processed hundreds of billions of dollars.

Prior to his time at Stripe, Mullaney oversaw the development of AI-powered discovery experiences, including search, recommendations, personalization and browse as the VP of Engineering at Zalando, the largest eCommerce fashion retailer in Europe with nearly 50M active customers. Mullaney also spent more than seven years at Google heading various innovation teams, including three years at the Google research labs in Silicon Valley.

“Searching and discovering new products and information online is a fundamental part of the internet economy,” said Mullaney. “It’s exciting to be part of an R&D organization that is scaling state-of-the-art AI that helps improve trillions of customer searches every year. My experience in scaling engineering organizations and delivering API-first products for builders is a perfect fit for supporting Algolia as it continues to expand globally.”

In addition to serving as CTO of Algolia, Mullaney serves as a Board Member for Manna Drone Delivery, a Venture Advisory Board Member for Elkstone Ventures, is a member of the Market Advisory Group at the European Central Bank advising on the design of the Digital Euro and an active startup advisor and a Sequoia Scout angel investor. Mullaney earned a bachelor’s degree in computer science from the University of Cambridge.