Chief Technology Officer

Eden Prescott; San Francisco (CA); On-site; USD 250,000 - 350,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Equity upside

Competitive cash compensation

Hybrid SF Bay Area

Job summary

Eden Prescott in the San Francisco Bay Area is seeking a founding CTO to join at the earliest stage, building an AI-enabled platform for real-world simulation and decision making. You will define engineering vision, recruit and mentor an elite team, and write code while shaping long-term architecture across AI systems, backend infrastructure, and cloud services.

This is a founder-level opportunity with significant equity, direct collaboration with the founders, and a chance to define how AI is

Qualifications

• Experience building products from 0→1 at an early-stage startup.
• Proven success leading engineering teams through periods of rapid growth.
• Exceptional software engineering and systems design fundamentals.
• Deep expertise in distributed systems and cloud infrastructure.
• Experience building highly scalable backend platforms.
• Familiarity with AI/ML infrastructure and deploying production AI systems.

Responsibilities

• Define the long‑term technical strategy.
• Design the architecture powering AI‑driven simulation and decision‑making systems.
• Build scalable distributed backend systems for large datasets.
• Lead product architecture across backend, AI, tooling, and cloud infrastructure.
• Work with customers to translate real‑world challenges into product features.
• Establish engineering processes that accelerate delivery.
• Recruit, mentor, and retain an elite engineering team.
• Foster a culture of high ownership, speed, and technical excellence.

Skills

Distributed systems

Cloud infrastructure

AI/ML engineering

Leadership

Recruiting

System design

Product instinct

Ambiguity tolerance

Job description

CTO

San Francisco Bay Area (Hybrid)

Competitive Cash + Meaningful Equity

One of Eden Prescott’s AI clients is hiring a founding CTO to help build a category-defining company at the intersection of AI, simulation, and real-world decision making

This is an opportunity to join at the earliest stage, work directly with the founders, and build both the technology and engineering organization from the ground up.

About the Company

Our client is building an AI platform that helps organizations model, simulate, and optimize complex real-world systems before decisions are made.

Their technology combines large-scale simulation, AI, and modern software infrastructure to solve problems where mistakes are expensive and the physical world is difficult to predict. Initial customers operate in industries with highly complex operations, but the long‑term vision extends far beyond a single market.

The Opportunity

This is not a traditional executive role. You’ll be the technical co‑pilot to the founders, responsible for defining the engineering vision, building the platform, recruiting an elite engineering team, and helping shape every major technical decision. You’ll spend your time writing code, designing systems, speaking with customers, recruiting exceptional talent, and solving some of the hardest technical problems the business faces.

What You’ll Do

• Define and execute the company’s long‑term technical strategy.
• Design the architecture powering AI‑driven simulation and decision‑making systems.
• Build scalable distributed systems capable of handling large, complex datasets.
• Lead product architecture across backend infrastructure, AI systems, developer tooling, and cloud infrastructure.
• Work directly with customers to understand real‑world operational challenges and rapidly translate them into product.
• Build engineering processes without slowing down execution.
• Recruit, mentor, and retain an elite engineering team from the ground up.
• Foster a culture of high ownership, speed, and technical excellence.
• Remain deeply hands‑on, contributing code and technical leadership every day.

What We’re Looking For

• Experience building products from 0→1 at an early‑stage startup.
• Proven success leading engineering teams through periods of rapid growth.
• Exceptional software engineering and systems design fundamentals.
• Deep expertise in distributed systems and cloud infrastructure.
• Experience building highly scalable backend platforms.
• Familiarity with AI/ML infrastructure and deploying production AI systems.
• Strong product instincts with the ability to balance speed and long‑term architecture.
• Comfortable operating with ambiguity and making high‑conviction decisions.
• Natural recruiter capable of attracting exceptional engineering talent.
• Builder mentality with a desire to create something enduring.

Bonus Points

• Simulation, robotics, autonomy, or physical AI experience.
• Experience building platforms that combine AI with real‑world operational data.
• Experience working in industrial, logistics, manufacturing, infrastructure, or similarly complex environments. Previous founder or founding engineering experience.

You’ll Thrive Here If You

• You want to build one of the defining AI companies of the next decade.
• You love solving technically difficult problems with real‑world impact.
• You prefer ownership over process.
• You enjoy building elite teams as much as building software.
• You’re comfortable making decisions with imperfect information.
• You want your fingerprints on every part of the company.

Why This Role?

• Founding executive position with significant equity upside.
• Partner directly with experienced founders from day one.
• Build the engineering organization exactly the way you believe it should be built.
• Solve problems that combine AI, distributed systems, and complex real‑world environments.
• Help define the future of how AI is applied outside the confines of traditional software.