Chief Technology Officer

USA Tech Recruit; San Diego (CA); On-site; USD 180,000 - 280,000; Full time

Job summary

Unknown is seeking a CTO to lead engineering and product, owning technical strategy, architecture, and hiring across product engineering, infrastructure, and applied AI. This hands-on leadership role blends technical direction with team growth and day-to-day code involvement.

The CTO will move between high-level decisions and code-level dives, collaborating with founders, customers, and researchers to shape a production-grade platform and scalable organization.

Qualifications

• Demonstrated track record leading real-world software systems.
• Experience across backend, cloud, data, and AI/ML.
• Experience running engineering teams in early-stage environments.
• Sound judgment on architecture, debt, hiring, and sequencing.
• Ability to bridge research ideas and production discipline.

Responsibilities

• Shape the platform architecture and turn prototypes into production-ready systems.
• Grow and lead the engineering function from core infrastructure to applied research integration.
• Set standards for quality, testing, security, and uptime.
• Decide what to build vs buy and translate customer/research input into a roadmap.
• Own data handling, security, and operational maturity for larger customers.
• Serve as the technical face of the company to customers, partners, and investors.

Skills

Proven track record

Backend engineering

Cloud infrastructure

Data systems

AI/ML

Engineering leadership

Ownership mindset

Job description

An early-stage software company building tools for technical teams working with AI and robotics systems, helping them manage complex data and workflows to build more reliable automated systems. Moving from early prototypes and customer proof points into a production-grade platform, they need a CTO to build the engineering organisation and product to get them there.

About the Role

A hands-on leadership role owning technical strategy, architecture, engineering execution, and hiring across product engineering, infrastructure, and applied AI.

This is a builder's role first and a manager's role second. You'll set the technical direction, shape the architecture, grow the engineering team, and stay hands-on enough to catch problems before they become expensive.

Expect to move between big-picture decisions and the occasional deep dive into the codebase, and to work closely with founders, customers, and the research side of the business. It's not a job for someone who wants to run engineering from a distance, you need to genuinely understand what's being built and why.

Core Responsibilities

• Shape the platform's architecture and turn early-stage prototypes into dependable, production-ready systems
• Grow and lead the engineering function, covering everything from core infrastructure to applied research integration
• Set the standards the team works to — quality, testing, security, uptime
• Decide what to build versus what to buy, and turn customer and research input into a coherent roadmap
• Take ownership of data handling, security, and the operational maturity needed to serve larger customers
• Act as the technical face of the company for customers, partners, and investors

What They Need

• A track record of building and scaling real-world software systems, not just prototypes
• Broad technical range — backend engineering, cloud infrastructure, data systems, and modern AI/ML
• Experience running engineering teams somewhere early-stage and fast-moving
• Sound judgement on tradeoffs — architecture, technical debt, hiring, sequencing
• The ability to bridge research thinking and production discipline without mixing the two up
• Someone with genuine ownership, minimal ego, and solid follow-through

Bonus Points

• Exposure to intelligent systems, automation, or data-heavy technical products
• Experience serving enterprise or highly regulated customers
• Background untangling messy, large-scale, or multimodal data pipelines
• Having actually taken something from first customer to repeatable, scalable delivery