Founding CTO / UK Cybersecurity Startup (Equity Only, Pre-Funding)

NeedTech Labs; United Kingdom; Sur place; GBP 120 000 - 180 000; Plein temps

Avantages offerts par ce poste

Equity compensation

Founding impact on product direction

Opportunity to build something meaningful

Résumé du poste

A stealth cybersecurity startup is seeking a Founding CTO / Head of Engineering to lead the technical roadmap and build a secure, cloud-native platform. This hands-on role demands extensive software engineering experience with security-focused systems and exceptional leadership skills. The selected candidate will have a high bar for engineering quality and strong communication skills to bridge product, security, and engineering teams. This position offers an equity-only compensation until funding, tailored for real ownership.

Qualifications

• 8–12+ years of software engineering experience, including security-focused systems.
• Proven zero-to-one leadership experience in startups or internal products.
• Strong cloud experience with AWS/Azure/GCP.

Responsabilités

• Define the technical roadmap from MVP to pilot-ready product.
• Architect a secure, scalable cloud-native platform.
• Build core security capabilities including detection and response.

Connaissances

Software engineering experience

Security-focused systems

Cloud experience (AWS/Azure/GCP)

Zero-to-one leadership

Clear communication

Outils

Kubernetes

SIEM/SOAR

Description du poste

About the role

We’re a stealth cybersecurity startup building a high-impact platform focused on reducing real-world security risk for modern cloud-first organizations. We’re looking for a Founding CTO / Head of Engineering to own the end-to-end technical roadmap and lead the product from first principles through MVP and early pilots.

This is a hands-on, builder role for someone who wants to lead, ship, and own—with meaningful equity and full technical decision-making authority.

What you’ll do

• Define the 12–18 month technical roadmap from MVP to pilot-ready product
• Architect a secure, scalable cloud-native platform (multi-tenant SaaS)
• Build core security capabilities (detection/prevention, policy, identity, response automation—depending on final scope)
• Embed security and compliance practices early (SOC 2-ready controls, secure SDLC, threat modeling)
• Recruit and lead early engineers/contractors as needed
• Partner with the founder on product strategy, positioning, and customer discovery

What we’re looking for

• 8–12+ years of software engineering experience, including security-focused systems
• Proven zero-to-one leadership (startup, internal product, or skunkworks)
• Strong cloud experience (AWS/Azure/GCP), plus modern backend practices
• Security depth in at least two areas: IAM, cloud security, appsec, infra security, detection/response, data security, network security
• High bar for engineering quality: reliability, performance, documentation, and clean architecture
• Clear communicator who can translate between product, security, and engineering

Nice to have

• Prior security product experience (B2B SaaS) or experience selling into security buyers
• Experience with Kubernetes, service mesh, SIEM/SOAR, Zero Trust, or policy engines
• Contributions to patents, open-source, standards, or published security research
• Experience with SOC 2 / ISO 27001 preparation

Why this role

• True founding impact: own architecture, team building, and product direction
• Build something that matters: security outcomes, not “checkbox” features
• Equity-only until funding; designed for founders who want real ownership