Chief Technology Officer

Talantir; Seattle (WA); On-site; USD 200,000 - 350,000; Full time

Job summary

Talantir is seeking a hands-on Chief Technology Officer to shape technical vision and build an engineering organization from the ground up in Seattle. You will own architecture, drive product direction, and recruit engineers while delivering high‑impact AI-native infrastructure.

You will lead by example, write code, and partner with founders to rapidly scale product, customers, and engineering while maintaining high availability and performance.

Qualifications

• Deep technical founder/leadership experience
• Experience designing scalable AI-driven platforms
• Production infrastructure experience (cloud-native, Kubernetes, data pipelines)
• Ability to recruit and grow engineers across disciplines

Responsibilities

• Define technical vision with founding team and drive architectural direction
• Architect and scale distributed AI-enabled systems
• Build and shape engineering culture from day one
• Recruit, mentor, and retain top engineering talent

Skills

Technical leadership

Python programming

Distributed systems

Cloud-native infra

Kubernetes

AI/ML systems

Ownership mindset

Job description

Overview

We’re seeking startup engineers ready to step into a CTO role at an early‑stage company, as well as hands‑on technical leaders who are passionate about joining a startup and building from the ground up. This is a builder‑first opportunity for someone who wants real ownership over technical vision, architecture, and execution.

About the Company

We are partnering with an early‑stage, venture‑backed startup building AI‑native infrastructure to solve complex, real‑world operational challenges. The company is post‑seed, backed by strong investors, and entering a critical growth phase as they scale product, customers, and engineering. This is an opportunity to join at an inflection point — shaping architecture, building the engineering culture, and driving technical strategy from the ground up.

The Opportunity

We’re seeking a hands‑on Chief Technology Officer who thrives in early environments and wants to actively build — not just manage. This is not a “manager of managers” role. The ideal candidate is deeply technical, product‑minded, and excited to architect systems, write code, recruit engineers, and scale infrastructure. You’ll partner directly with the founding team to define technical vision, lead product architecture, and build a high‑performance engineering organization.

What We’re Looking For

• Proven experience as a technical founder, founding engineer, senior technical leader in an early‑stage startup, OR hands‑on technical leader.
• Strong hands‑on coding ability (Python strongly preferred; experience with AI/ML systems highly valued)
• Experience designing and scaling distributed systems or AI‑driven platforms
• Background building production infrastructure (cloud‑native, Kubernetes, scalable APIs, data pipelines)
• High agency, ownership mentality, and bias toward execution
• Ability to operate in ambiguity and move quickly
• Nice to HaveExperience with LLMs, voice AI, or agentic systems
• Background in real‑time systems or high‑availability infrastructure
• Experience scaling from Seed to Series A/B

Why This Role

• Founder‑level impact and influence
• Meaningful equity at an early stage
• Opportunity to define technical culture from day one
• Work on AI systems solving real operational problems