Description :

Role Overview :

We are seeking a Founding CTO to join the company as a core member of the founding team, with long-term ownership and accountability for the technology vision and execution. This role is both strategic and deeply hands-on, especially in the early stages, and is critical to building, launching, and scaling a high-quality product from the ground up.

As Founding CTO, you will define the technical roadmap, architect the platform, write production code, build the engineering team, and partner closely with the CEO and founders to align technology with business strategy, customer needs, and investor expectations.

Key Responsibilities :

Foundational Ownership & Leadership :

- Act as a core founding team member, demonstrating long-term commitment and accountability.

- Define and own the companys technical vision, architecture, and product roadmap.

- Translate business goals and customer needs into scalable, high-impact technical solutions.

- Collaborate closely with the CEO and founders on product strategy, execution priorities, and company growth.

Product & Engineering Execution :

- Design, build, and launch the MVP and core product features from the ground up.

- Actively contribute hands-on code during the early stages of the company.

- Ensure high standards for performance, reliability, scalability, and maintainability.

- Make pragmatic architecture decisions balancing speed, cost, and long-term flexibility.

- Proactively manage technical debt while maintaining rapid delivery.

Architecture, Infrastructure & DevOps :

- Select, implement, and evolve the technology stack, frameworks, and development tools.

- Design and maintain scalable, secure, and cost-efficient cloud infrastructure.

- Establish CI/CD pipelines, deployment workflows, monitoring, and observability practices.

- Plan for future scalability and guide system transitions as the company grows.

Engineering Standards & Security :

- Establish engineering best practices, coding standards, documentation, and review processes.

- Implement baseline security, data protection, and compliance practices appropriate for the product stage.

- Protect the companys intellectual property through sound technical and process controls.

Team Building & Culture :

- Hire, onboard, and mentor the early engineering team.

- Build a strong engineering culture emphasizing ownership, quality, velocity, and accountability.

- Coach engineers to grow into future technical and leadership roles.

Investor & Stakeholder Engagement :

- Support fundraising efforts by clearly articulating the technical vision, roadmap, and scalability strategy.

- Communicate complex technical concepts effectively to non-technical stakeholders and investors.

- Represent technology as a strategic differentiator for the company.

Required Qualifications :

- 10 to 14 years of experience in software engineering, architecture, and technical leadership.

- Proven experience building and shipping products from scratch, ideally in early-stage startups.

- Strong hands-on background across backend, frontend, cloud infrastructure, and DevOps.

- Experience designing scalable systems and evolving architectures over multiple growth stages.

- Prior experience hiring, leading, and mentoring engineering teams.

- Strong product mindset with the ability to balance speed, quality, and long-term vision.

- Excellent communication and collaboration skills with both technical and business stakeholders.

Preferred Experience :

- Previous experience as a Founding Engineer, Founding CTO, or early technical leader.

- Exposure to fundraising, investor pitches, or due diligence processes.

- Experience building SaaS, AI, marketplace, or platform-based products.

- Familiarity with modern cloud ecosystems (AWS, GCP, Azure), CI/CD, and security best practices.

Commitment & Compensation :

- Long-term involvement aligned with equity vesting and company success.

- Competitive salary plus meaningful equity ownership.

- Opportunity to shape the technology, culture, and future of the company from day one.

What Success Looks Like :

- A stable, scalable MVP delivered quickly and evolving into a strong product platform.

- A motivated, high-performing engineering team with strong ownership.

- Technology that supports rapid growth while remaining secure and maintainable.

- Clear technical vision that instills confidence in customers, partners, and investors.