Principal AI Engineer (CTO track)

Vantrock; Mumbai; On-site; INR 6,000,000 - 12,000,000; Full time

Job summary

Vantrock Intelligence in Mumbai is seeking a Principal AI Engineer (CTO track) to own the technology end to end and grow into the CTO seat as we scale. You will set the technical direction, own architecture and security, lead and build the engineering team, and be the technical face of the company to investors and enterprise customers.

This is a rare ground-floor opportunity to shape a category-defining product and the team that builds it, within an AI-native operating system for real estate,

Qualifications

• Shipped production AI systems at real scale with ownership of the architecture decisions.
• Deep fundamentals in distributed systems, data modelling, performance and security.
• Owned security decisions on production systems, not only governance or policy.
• Built, led and grown engineering teams; still hands-on in the work.
• You use AI tools every day in your own engineering work and stay current with best practices.
• Can explain technology credibly and commercially to investors and enterprise buyers.

Responsibilities

• Own architecture, security posture and engineering standards end to end.
• Define the platform's defensible architecture and data architecture.
• Lead and grow the engineering team; maintain hands-on involvement.
• Tell the technology story to investors and enterprise customers.
• Ensure architecture can be offered to third-party customers without a rebuild.

Skills

Production AI systems

Distributed systems

Data modelling

Security engineering

Team leadership

Hands-on coding

AI tooling fluency

Tools

AI frameworks

Security tools

Job description

Principal AI Engineer (CTO track) | Vantrock Intelligence | Mumbai

Our most senior technical hire, with a clear path into the CTO seat. You will own the architecture, security and engineering team behind an AI-native operating system for real estate, built inside a live fund and headed for the wider market.

ABOUT VANTROCK INTELLIGENCE

Vantrock Intelligence is building an AI-native operating system for the real estate asset lifecycle, spanning capital raising, land acquisition, development and leasing. We are building it AI-first from the ground up, starting inside a live real estate development fund where we solve real problems, with the ambition of turning it into a product for real asset companies everywhere. We are a small, senior, fast-moving team, and we operate like the startup we are.

THE ROLE

You will own Vantrock Intelligence's technology end to end and grow into the CTO seat as we scale. You will set the technical direction, own the architecture and security, lead and build the engineering team, and be the technical face of the company to investors and enterprise customers. This is a rare ground-floor opportunity to shape a category-defining product and the team that builds it.

WHAT YOU WILL OWN

• The architecture, security posture and engineering standards, end to end. You see the risk and the non-obvious long-term consequence before anyone else, and you make the right call independently of any tool or vendor recommendation.
• The technical defensibility of the platform: our evaluation sets, codified judgment and data architecture, built as durable assets we own.
• The engineering team: how we hire, how we build, and how we hold quality.
• An architecture that can be offered to third-party customers without a rebuild.
• The technology story, told convincingly to investors during our raise and to enterprise customers as we go to market.

MUST-HAVE QUALIFICATIONS

• You have shipped production AI systems at real scale, with personal ownership of the architecture decisions.
• You have deep engineering fundamentals (distributed systems, data modelling, performance and security) and apply them yourself. AI tools speed up your work; they don't replace your understanding.
• You have owned security decisions on production systems, not only governance or policy.
• You have built, led and grown engineering teams, and you are still hands-on in the work.
• You use AI tools every day in your own engineering work, and you are fluent with current best practice.
• You can explain technology credibly and commercially to investors and enterprise buyers.

EXPERIENCE

Around 10 years or more of engineering experience is typical for this seat, including senior or staff-level architecture ownership. We weight shipped work and judgment over years.

NICE TO HAVE

• Prior CTO, founding-engineer or technical-cofounder experience.
• Taking a product from a single-tenant tool to multi-tenant SaaS.
• Proptech, fintech or enterprise-data domain background.

WHO YOU ARE

• Future-facing and AI-forward: a builder-leader who knows where AI is taking software and is pragmatic about shipping it.
• Entrepreneurial and high-ownership: you thrive with autonomy in an early-stage environment and take initiative without waiting for direction.
• Disciplined, driven and passionate: hands-on and in the work, not an ivory-tower architect.

WHY JOIN

Own technology from the ground up, with a clear path into the CTO seat, at a company building something genuinely new.