Chief Technology Officer

Stealth Startup; New York (NY); On-site; USD 250,000 - 400,000; Full time

Job summary

Stealth Startup in New York City is seeking a hands-on Chief Technology Officer to lead our technology strategy, engineering organization, and product development. You will define the long-term technical roadmap and build a scalable platform.

In this role you will hire and mentor engineers, establish standards and practices, and translate company objectives into technical initiatives while remaining hands-on with architecture and code reviews. This is a full-time onsite position.

Qualifications

• 5–8 years of professional software engineering experience.
• Experience leading engineering teams or a technology organization.
• Strong fundamentals and hands-on development.
• Experience with distributed systems, architecture, databases, APIs, and cloud infrastructure.
• Experience designing and operating production systems at scale.
• Strong product mindset linking technical decisions to business outcomes.
• Ability to work onsite in New York City.

Responsibilities

• Define and own the company's technology vision, strategy, and long-term technical roadmap.
• Lead the architecture, development, deployment, and scaling of the technology platform.
• Build and lead a high-performing engineering organization.
• Establish engineering standards, development processes, and best practices.
• Make critical decisions around architecture, infrastructure, security, scalability, and technology investments.
• Hire, mentor, and retain exceptional engineering talent.
• Oversee cloud infrastructure, DevOps, security, observability, and production reliability.
• Remain hands-on with architecture and code reviews.

Skills

Engineering leadership

Distributed systems

Cloud platforms

Python

Go

Java

C++

Node.js

Tools

Kubernetes

Kafka

Redis

PostgreSQL

Microservices

Event-driven

Job description

We are looking for an exceptional, hands-on Chief Technology Officer (CTO) to lead our technology strategy, engineering organization, and product development.

This is an ideal opportunity for a technically strong leader who has experience building products, leading engineering teams, and making high-impact architectural decisions in a fast-moving startup or high-growth environment.

The ideal candidate is both a technical leader and a builder - someone who can define the vision, make critical engineering decisions, and still dive into the code and architecture when needed.

What You’ll Do

• Define and own the company's technology vision, strategy, and long-term technical roadmap.
• Lead the architecture, development, deployment, and scaling of the company's technology platform.
• Build and lead a high-performing engineering organization.
• Establish engineering standards, development processes, and technical best practices.
• Make critical decisions around architecture, infrastructure, security, scalability, and technology investments.
• Work closely with the CEO, founders, product, and business teams to translate company objectives into technical strategy.
• Lead the development of scalable, reliable, and secure production systems.
• Remain hands‑on with architecture, code reviews, technical design, and critical engineering problems.
• Hire, mentor, and retain exceptional engineering talent.
• Build a culture of ownership, speed, experimentation, and engineering excellence.
• Identify technical risks and establish strategies to address them proactively.
• Oversee cloud infrastructure, DevOps, security, observability, and production reliability.
• Evaluate new technologies, frameworks, and AI capabilities and determine where they can create meaningful business value.
• Establish metrics and processes for engineering productivity, system reliability, and product quality.
• Represent the company's technical vision to customers, partners, investors, and other external stakeholders when needed.

Required Qualifications

• 5–8 years of professional software engineering experience, with significant experience in backend, systems, or platform engineering.
• Previous experience leading engineering teams, technical projects, or a technology organization.
• Strong software engineering fundamentals and hands‑on development experience.
• Strong understanding of distributed systems, system architecture, databases, APIs, cloud infrastructure, and scalability.
• Experience designing and operating production systems at scale.
• Strong proficiency in at least one modern programming language such as Python, Go, Java, C++, or Node.js.
• Experience with cloud platforms such as AWS, GCP, or Azure.
• Experience with modern infrastructure, CI/CD, containers, monitoring, and observability.
• Strong product mindset and ability to connect technical decisions to business outcomes.
• Proven ability to operate in an ambiguous, fast-moving environment.
• Excellent leadership, communication, hiring, and mentoring skills.
• Ability to work onsite in New York City

Strongly Preferred

• Experience as a CTO, founding engineer, technical co‑founder, VP/Head of Engineering, or equivalent technical leadership role.
• Startup or early‑stage company experience.
• Experience taking a product from 0 1 and subsequently scaling it.
• Experience building and managing engineering teams.
• Experience with AI/ML, LLMs, generative AI, voice AI, or AI-powered products.
• Experience with Kubernetes, Kafka, Redis, PostgreSQL, microservices, event‑driven architectures, and distributed systems.
• Experience establishing engineering organizations and technical processes from the ground up.
• Experience working directly with founders, investors, customers, or enterprise partners.
• Strong technical portfolio, open‑source contributions, or demonstrated history of building successful products.

The CTO will be expected to balance technical depth with business leadership.

You should be comfortable moving between high-level strategy and low-level technical discussions - whether that means defining the company's architecture, reviewing a critical system design, interviewing an engineering candidate, or helping debug a production issue.

We are looking for someone who:

• Thinks like an owner.
• Moves quickly without compromising critical engineering standards.
• Can build and execute a technical roadmap.
• Attracts and develops exceptional engineers.
• Is highly hands‑on and technically credible.
• Understands both technology and product.
• Can turn ambitious ideas into scalable, production‑ready systems.

Why This Role

This is a rare opportunity for a technically exceptional leader to have significant ownership over the company's technology and product direction.

You will work directly with leadership, shape the engineering organization, make foundational architectural decisions, and have a direct impact on the company's growth.

This is a full-time, onsite CTO position based in New York City.