Chief Technology Officer – Remote AI & Platform Scale

Protingent; Washington; Hybrid; USD 200,000 - 350,000; Full time

Job summary

Protingent Staffing is offering a fully remote direct‑hire Chief Technology Officer position with a leading client. The role requires a visionary leader to design and scale the engineering organization and its technical direction from the ground up.

The CTO will define long‑term AI system architectures, guide high‑impact engineering teams, and align product, research, and leadership to move critical workstreams forward across locations.

Qualifications

• Strong foundation in system architecture and large-scale distributed systems.
• Ability to reason clearly about complex architectures and pragmatic decisions.
• Experience building or leading high-performing engineering teams.
• Strong judgment on technical trade-offs and priorities.
• Comfortable operating in early-stage environments with ambiguity.
• Clear communication and ability to align teams.

Responsibilities

• Define the long‑term architecture for the client’s AI systems, infrastructure, and developer platform.
• Evaluate trade‑offs between speed of iteration and long‑term system design, ensuring scalability, reliability, and future evolution.
• Guide key decisions across model integration, data pipelines, distributed systems, and product architecture.
• Translate product direction into clear technical execution in collaboration with engineers.
• Structure engineering workstreams and keep teams aligned on priorities.
• Maintain high engineering standards while focusing on shipping.
• Establish engineering culture, development practices, and technical standards across the company.
• Build and scale a world‑class engineering team across key talent hubs, including China and the US.
• Identify strong technical leaders and help build a high‑quality engineering organization.
• Define hiring standards and interview processes to maintain a high engineering bar.
• Work closely with product, research, and leadership teams to ensure technical workstreams move forward smoothly across teams and locations.
• Help resolve cross‑team technical and execution challenges.

Skills

System architecture

Distributed architecture

Large-scale systems

Team leadership

Technical decision making

Communication

Job description

Protingent Staffing is offering a fully remote direct‑hire Chief Technology Officer position with a leading client. The role requires a visionary leader to design and scale the engineering organization and its technical direction from the ground up.

The CTO will define long‑term AI system architectures, guide high‑impact engineering teams, and align product, research, and leadership to move critical workstreams forward across locations.