CTO & Head of Engineering

Better Path AI; St. Louis, Northern (MO, KY); Hybrid; USD 180,000 - 260,000; Full time

Job summary

Better Path AI is seeking a hands-on CTO and Head of Engineering to lead technology vision, architecture, and execution for a high-growth AI SaaS platform.

You will partner with executive leadership to align tech investments with business goals, customer needs, and company growth while building and scaling a strong engineering organization.

Qualifications

• 10+ years of software engineering and technology leadership experience.
• Experience as CTO/VP Engineering/Head of Engineering in startup or high-growth SaaS.
• Experience building and scaling AI-powered products (LLMs, RAG, conversational AI).

Responsibilities

• Own the overall technology strategy, architecture, infrastructure, and platform roadmap.
• Lead engineering execution with clear priorities, timelines, accountability, and delivery expectations.
• Build, mentor, and scale a high-performing engineering organization.
• Partner with Product, Operations, and Leadership to translate business objectives into technical plans and product capabilities.
• Drive architecture decisions across AI, LLMs, RAG, TTS, animation, simulation, and cloud infrastructure.
• Evaluate technical approaches, vendor solutions, and build-versus-buy decisions, balancing speed, cost, quality, and scalability.
• Ensure platform reliability, security, performance, compliance, and operational excellence.
• Communicate technical risks, opportunities, timelines, and tradeoffs clearly to leadership and stakeholders.
• Stay ahead of emerging technologies and identify innovations that create competitive advantage and improve customer outcomes.
• Foster a culture of ownership, accountability, innovation, and continuous improvement.

Skills

Leadership

Strategy

AI product vision

Cloud architecture

Communication

Tools

LLMs

RAG

TTS

Avatar

Animation

Job description

Better Path AI is seeking a hands-on, startup-focused CTO & Head of Engineering to lead our technology vision, architecture, and execution. This leader will drive technical strategy while partnering closely with executive leadership to align technology investments with business goals, customer needs, and company growth. The ideal candidate has experience building and scaling AI-powered SaaS products and understands the technologies behind conversational AI, simulation, avatars, animation, speech technologies, and modern cloud platforms. They are equally comfortable discussing architecture with engineers and business tradeoffs with investors, customers, and the leadership team.

Responsibilities

• Own the overall technology strategy, architecture, infrastructure, and platform roadmap.
• Lead engineering execution with clear priorities, timelines, accountability, and delivery expectations.
• Build, mentor, and scale a high-performing engineering organization.
• Partner with Product, Operations, and Leadership to translate business objectives into technical plans and product capabilities.
• Drive architecture decisions across AI, LLMs, RAG, TTS, animation, simulation, and cloud infrastructure.
• Evaluate technical approaches, vendor solutions, and build-versus-buy decisions, balancing speed, cost, quality, and scalability.
• Ensure platform reliability, security, performance, compliance, and operational excellence.
• Communicate technical risks, opportunities, timelines, and tradeoffs clearly to leadership and stakeholders.
• Stay ahead of emerging technologies and identify innovations that create competitive advantage and improve customer outcomes.
• Foster a culture of ownership, accountability, innovation, and continuous improvement.

Preferred Experience

• 10+ years of software engineering and technology leadership experience.
• Prior experience as a CTO, VP Engineering, Head of Engineering, or senior technical leader in a startup or high-growth SaaS environment.
• Experience building and scaling AI-powered products leveraging LLMs, RAG, conversational AI, TTS, and related technologies.
• Familiarity with simulation, coaching, training, animation, avatar, gaming, or other interactive digital experiences.
• Strong understanding of cloud architecture, software development, data infrastructure, and security best practices.
• Demonstrated ability to evaluate technical, product, financial, and operational tradeoffs and communicate recommendations to executive leadership.
• Proven success leading engineering teams through periods of rapid growth and product evolution.
• Strong communication, leadership, and business acumen.

What Success Looks Like

• Engineering delivers predictably and efficiently.
• Technology decisions support business growth and customer value.
• The platform scales reliably as the company grows.
• Leadership has clear visibility into priorities, risks, timelines, and tradeoffs.
• Better Path AI continues to innovate and lead in AI-powered learning and simulation experiences.

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