Job description:
Location: San Francisco, CA (on-site)
Employment: Full-Time
About the Role
We are looking for a Founding CTO, someone who wants to be the company's technical co-pilot. You will start hands-on, ship fast, and own the core architecture. As the company scales, you will be in charge of building the engineering team in SF.
This is not a VP Engineering role. We do not want someone who manages from a distance. We want someone who codes every day, is obsessed with what is happening on the bleeding edge, and has the potential to coach and grow a team around them. You will own the technical vision, partner directly with the founder on product and company decisions, and build the foundation that scales from 0 to 10M+ users.
Our Philosophy
Small teams build the most important products. Talent density over team size.
Extreme ownership and intensity. Speed over process.
Taste matters.
Human interaction is one of the most complex systems in the world. AI finally makes it possible to structure and orchestrate it at scale this is one of the most important problems to solve.
Everyone on the team is here because they are obsessed with building.
Key Responsibilities
Own the technical vision and architecture end-to-end
Work across the full stack: backend, infra, data, and LLM-powered systems
Ship fast, iterate on feedback, and get product into users' hands quickly
Build the technical foundation that can scale from 0 to 10M+ users
Recruit, mentor, and eventually lead an exceptional engineering team in SF
Partner with the founder on company-defining product and technical decisions
Lead the gradual transition of the engineering center of gravity to SF
Qualifications:
Must-Have
5+ years of engineering experience with a strong backend and infrastructure background
Shipped ambitious products end-to-end with real battle scars from scaling
Ex-founder or first engineer at a YC startup or equivalent track record of ownership
Experience with AI/LLM systems, search, recommendations, or large-scale consumer apps
Product sense: designs with the user in mind, not just technical correctness
Comfortable with ambiguity, speed, and early-stage chaos
Wants to grow into a true CTO role, not just writing code but building the team, culture, and long-term architecture
Based in or willing to relocate to San Francisco, fully in-person in SoMa
Nice-to-Have
Experience with graph systems, identity resolution, or large-scale unstructured data
Familiarity with real-time data pipelines or agent coordination systems
Prior experience recruiting or mentoring junior engineers
Experience building consumer products at scale
Summary Requirements
Zero-to-one product building experience
AI and data infrastructure depth
Founder mentality and extreme ownership
Graph or large-scale data systems experience
Team building potential
Why is This a Great Opportunity:
Benefits & Perks
Health insurance
Gym stipend
Transportation to office
In-person SF team environment
Direct access to leading investors as active backers