Founding AI Engineering Lead — CTO Path

Mona; San Francisco (CA); Hybrid; USD 180,000 - 240,000; Full time

Job summary

Mona is seeking a Founding Engineering Lead to own the technical foundation and shape architecture and product execution. You will work directly with the co-founders, guiding the engineering strategy while shipping core capabilities.

You will lead an engineering team, build AI-enabled features, and establish a high bar for technical judgment, fast execution, and clear ownership. Hybrid role, SF Bay Area or Atlanta preferred.

Qualifications

• 5+ years of software engineering with a track record of architecting and shipping complex 0→1 products and production systems.
• Deep full-stack and backend fundamentals across applications, infrastructure, data, and security.
• Experience building AI agents and AI/ML products in production, including orchestration and data systems.
• Founder's mindset with high ownership and resourcefulness; strong product intuition.

Responsibilities

• Ship Mona’s core products for capital matching, automation, and financial coaching.
• Own problems end-to-end from user need to architecture, implementation, deployment, and production iteration.
• Set technical direction across product architecture, AI systems, data infrastructure, and integrations.
• Build security and reliability foundations for a trusted financial platform.
• Recruit and mentor engineers, establishing AI-native development practices and high technical standards.
• Collaborate with founders to translate customer needs into simple, effective products.

Skills

5+ years software engineering

Full-stack development

AI/ML product experience

Product sense

Bias toward action

Leadership / mentoring

Founder mindset

Customer focus

Job description

Mona is seeking a Founding Engineering Lead to own the technical foundation and shape architecture and product execution. You will work directly with the co-founders, guiding the engineering strategy while shipping core capabilities.

You will lead an engineering team, build AI-enabled features, and establish a high bar for technical judgment, fast execution, and clear ownership. Hybrid role, SF Bay Area or Atlanta preferred.