Chief Technology Officer

This is a fully remote position, open to applicants in California.

📋 Description

• Oversee the engineering, infrastructure, and security divisions for a team of approximately 30 members.

• Develop engineering processes and enhance operational maturity in areas such as architecture, coding standards, CloudOps, GitOps, and security methodologies.

• Enhance monitoring, alerting, and observability capabilities.

• Take charge of and rejuvenate the security function, encompassing audits, compliance readiness, application hardening, and incident response.

• Create a credible vision for AI and engineering while pinpointing practical AI applications.

• Execute agentic security strategies.

• Lead and delegate tasks within a distributed, remote-first engineering team.

• Evaluate architecture, troubleshoot intricate issues, and establish technical standards.

• Connect technology choices to cost implications and business value.

• Engage with internal teams and external stakeholders during organizational changes and sensitive processes.

• Develop structure, delegation, and organizational strength to ensure operations can continue without the CTO acting as a bottleneck.

⛳️ Requirements

• Proven experience in guiding a company through a sell-side transaction, including active involvement in diligence preparation.

• Demonstrated capability in constructing observability, alerting, and security systems from the ground up.

• Direct experience leading a security function, including familiarity with audits and compliance processes.

• Practical hands-on experience with agentic AI development.

• Background in distributed cloud backends, database scaling, and API architecture.

• Recent hands-on technical or coding experience; a decade or more removed from technical work is not acceptable.

• Understanding of pragmatic, scalable architecture, favoring modular monoliths over premature microservices.

• Strong FinOps discipline regarding cloud expenditure.

• Experience with Stripe-style payment systems, including subscriptions, webhooks, and ledgering.

• Proven experience in designing secure third-party integrations.

• Commitment to rigorous Software Development Life Cycle (SDLC) practices.

• Ability to lead and delegate effectively within a distributed, remote-first team environment.

• Commercial and financial literacy.

• Capacity to communicate with transparency and discretion.

• Comfort in navigating ambiguity and changing business or product requirements.

• Ability to operate with approximately 30% hands-on involvement and 70% focused on structuring, delegating, and managing.

• A strong curiosity about the business, customers, and the challenges being addressed.

• A proactive mindset towards identifying and resolving process and structural deficiencies.

• Capability to work collaboratively across a distributed, international team.

🏝️ Benefits

• Participation in the company's equity and leadership bonus initiatives.

• Flexibility for remote-first work arrangements.

• Access to Pasadena office space for hybrid work, complete with snacks and beverages.

• Unlimited paid time off (PTO).

• Comprehensive healthcare coverage.

• 401k matching program.

• Reimbursement for cell phone plans.

• Monthly opportunities for recognition.

• Access to learning platforms and resources.

• Equity retention policy.

• Generous parental leave policy.