Chief Technical Officer - Encore

SOLANA FOUNDATION; United Kingdom; On-site; GBP 150,000 - 200,000; Full time

Job summary

A leading financial platform is seeking a Chief Technology Officer (CTO) in the United Kingdom to define the overall technical architecture and lead the engineering team from inception. The ideal candidate will have over 7 years of experience in fintech or crypto, demonstrating strong systems-level thinking and a high ownership mindset. This role offers competitive salary and equity tied to the company's success, providing a unique opportunity to shape the development of a cutting-edge financial platform.

Benefits

Competitive salary and benefits

Equity with long-term upside

Qualifications

• 7+ years of experience building production systems in fintech, crypto, or financial infrastructure.
• Experience making architectural decisions with long-term consequences.
• Ability to build hands-on as an early engineer while setting technical direction.

Responsibilities

• Define Encore’s end-to-end technical architecture.
• Evaluate and select appropriate execution environments.
• Design integrations with custodians, wallets, and trading venues.
• Build or oversee backend systems, APIs, and operational infrastructure.

Skills

Systems-level thinking

Smart contracts

Backend services

Operational reliability

Technical direction

Job description

About Ergonia

Ergonia Labs is a crypto-native venture studio and DeFi trading firm backed by DRW and Cumberland. We build, fund, and scale foundational blockchain ventures, taking ideas from zero to one. Our advantage lies in deep expertise in market infrastructure, hands-on product execution, and access to committed liquidity and leading ecosystem partners.

We’re seeking a CTO to co-lead one of these initiatives. This is a rare opportunity to build a venture-backed company from inception, with capital, network, and resources secured.

About Further Ventures

Further Ventures is an Abu Dhabi–based venture building and investment firm that partners with founders from idea stage through scale, co-creating companies that power next-generation financial markets across digital assets and fintech. Further Asset Management is an asset management platform integrating venture, fund-of-funds, and digital-asset strategies to provide institutional access to scalable digital-asset exposure with institutional-grade risk management.

About Encore

Encore is a new institutional Bitcoin financial platform incubated by Ergonia Labs and Further Ventures, and backed by DRW and Cumberland. The company is focused on building durable, regulated-grade infrastructure for BTC-native yield, credit, and asset management.

Encore is being built from first principles, with committed capital, deep market expertise, and access to institutional distribution from day one. The objective is not to experiment, but to create long-lived financial infrastructure that meets the standards of professional investors and counterparties.

We are seeking a Chief Technology Officer to lead all technical decisions from inception.

Role Overview

As CTO of Encore, you will be the company’s first engineering hire. You will be responsible for defining the technical vision, selecting the underlying technology stack and execution environment, hiring a team, and overseeing the build of the entire platform from zero to production.

This includes making foundational decisions about blockchain or ledger choice, smart contract architecture, custody and wallet integrations, backend systems, security posture, and operational infrastructure.

You will work closely with the CEO, Ergonia Labs, Further Ventures, trading partners, and legal and compliance stakeholders to translate institutional financial requirements into robust technical systems.

This is a role with real autonomy, real accountability, and meaningful long-term equity.

What You’ll Do

• Define Encore’s end-to-end technical architecture, starting from a blank sheet.
• Evaluate and select the appropriate execution environments, including blockchain, DLT, or hybrid architectures.
• Design and implement core protocol or platform logic, including smart contracts where applicable.
• Build or oversee backend systems, APIs, data pipelines, and operational infrastructure.
• Design integrations with custodians, wallets, trading venues, and off-chain services.
• Partner with leadership on product strategy, security design, and go‑to‑market execution.
• Establish development standards, deployment pipelines, and security best practices.
• Act as the technical authority in discussions with investors, partners, auditors, and counterparties.
• Hire, mentor, and scale the engineering team over time.

Required

• 7+ years of experience building production systems in fintech, crypto, or financial infrastructure.
• Strong systems‑level thinking across smart contracts, backend services, and operational reliability.
• Experience making early architectural decisions with long‑term consequences.
• Ability to build hands‑on as an early engineer while also setting technical direction.
• Comfort operating with ambiguity and incomplete information.
• High ownership mindset and willingness to be accountable for outcomes, not just code.

Strong Positives

• Familiarity with institutional finance, including BTC markets, credit, custody, or trading infrastructure.
• Experience working with regulated entities, compliance teams, or audited environments.
• Prior founder, CTO, or early technical leadership experience.

• Competitive salary and benefits.
• Equity with long‑term upside aligned to the success of the company.