Founding Chief Technology Officer

FanLink Systems, Inc.; United States; Hybrid; USD 180,000 - 280,000; Part time

Benefits offered by this job

Equity stake

Job summary

FanLink Systems, Inc. is seeking a hands-on Founding CTO to take long-term ownership of the company’s technical direction and help move from prototype to scalable consumer product. The role may begin part-time or fractional while pre-revenue, with equity negotiated alongside compensation.

The candidate will work directly with the founder to assess the current prototype, outline the architecture, and guide engineering, security, and deployment plans for beta readiness and future growth.

Qualifications

• Demonstrated ability to design, build, or lead complex technical products in an early-stage context.
• Strong architectural judgment and trade-off decisions under ambiguity.
• Hands-on coder who can define long-term technical strategy with a non-technical founder.

Responsibilities

• Evaluate prototype and define the path from prototype to product.
• Own system architecture across embedded Linux, video ingestion, and synchronization.
• Lead engineering roadmap balancing speed, risk, scalability, and cost.
• Establish security, reliability, testing, deployment, and observability standards.
• Support technical recruiting and future leadership of the engineering function.

Skills

Embedded Linux

GStreamer/FFmpeg

WebRTC

Networking

Cloud infra

Tools

Docker

Job description

Help take FanLink from a working synchronization prototype to a scalable consumer platform as the company's long-term technical co-founder and founding technical executive.

Remote — United States

Initially part-time or fractional schedule possible

Long-term co-founder commitment required

Compensation

Compensation: Compensation and equity will be structured with company counsel and discussed with finalists.

Search Status

Founding CTO Search — Applications Currently Under Review

FanLink Systems is currently evaluating candidates for our Founding CTO position. We are not accepting additional applications at this time.

Thank you to everyone who expressed interest in building FanLink with us. We appreciate the time, interest, and experience each candidate brought to the process.

FanLink Systems is a patent-pending, prototype-stage sports and media technology company building infrastructure for synchronized live experiences.

The company has developed a working prototype that synchronizes live video across separate households, devices, internet providers, and viewing sources, allowing people in different locations to experience the same live moment together.

Automatic visual synchronization has already been demonstrated across separate households and ISPs. FanLink is now moving from working prototype toward a scalable consumer product.

The initial product direction centers on live sports and shared viewing, with longer-term opportunities across synchronized fan engagement, second-screen experiences, live polls, trivia, fantasy moments, licensed sports-betting and prediction-market integrations, coordinated dining, merchandise, and premium digital experiences.

The Opportunity

FanLink is seeking a hands-on Technical Co-Founder / Founding CTO who wants to take long-term ownership of the company's technical direction and help move FanLink from working prototype to scalable consumer product.

Because FanLink is currently pre-revenue, the selected candidate may begin on a part-time or fractional schedule. "Fractional" describes the initial time commitment only. Compensation: Compensation and equity will be structured with company counsel and discussed with finalists. The objective is to identify a committed technical co-founder who will grow with FanLink and ultimately lead its technical organization.

The Technical Co-Founder / Founding CTO will work directly with the founder to evaluate the current prototype, define the product architecture, guide engineering execution, strengthen the synchronization platform, prepare for real-world beta deployment, and help build the future engineering team.

What This Commitment Means

• Serve as FanLink's founding technical executive
• Take meaningful ownership of technical strategy and execution
• Contribute consistently, even if initially on a part-time schedule
• Work directly with the founder through prototype validation, beta readiness, and early commercialization
• Earn negotiated ownership over time through an agreed vesting structure
• Help recruit and eventually lead FanLink's engineering organization
• Intend to remain with the company as it grows

FanLink is looking for a technical co-founder who may start part-time—not a consultant or advisor serving the company from the outside.

What This Role Will Own

• Evaluate the current prototype and define the technical path from prototype to product
• Own or advise system architecture across embedded Linux, video ingestion, synchronization logic, networking, cloud infrastructure, and consumer-facing workflows
• Design a practical engineering roadmap balancing speed, risk, validation, scalability, and cost
• Evaluate build-versus-buy decisions across hardware, software, cloud, streaming, and synchronization components
• Lead development of a low-latency synchronization engine for distributed shared viewing
• Partner with the founder on product direction, customer discovery, partnerships, industry conversations, and technical storytelling
• Establish standards for security, reliability, testing, deployment, observability, and maintainability
• Support technical recruiting, candidate evaluation, and future leadership of the engineering function

What You'll Help Build

FanLink + LiveTalk

A synchronized shared-viewing and live-presence experience for remote households.

The underlying timing system that detects and corrects delay differences across devices, networks, and viewing sources.

Consumer Hardware and Software

A reliable product designed for real living rooms, simple onboarding, and everyday use.

Founders' Beta

A real-world validation program using actual households to test performance, setup, onboarding, audio, reliability, and user experience.

Partner Concepts

Future synchronized experiences including SyncBet, SyncEats, CrowdShot, fan engagement, and other timing-aware partner integrations.

Who We're Looking For

• Seeking a genuine long-term co-founder role
• Able to make a meaningful and sustained commitment, even if initially part-time
• Compensation: Compensation and equity will be structured with company counsel and discussed with finalists.
• Compensation: Compensation and equity will be structured with company counsel and discussed with finalists.
• Prepared to take founder-level responsibility rather than provide occasional advice
• Prepared to sign appropriate confidentiality, intellectual-property assignment, equity, vesting, and corporate agreements
• Hands-on builder who can write code, evaluate architecture, and solve difficult technical problems
• Product-minded leader comfortable making decisions under ambiguity
• Strong judgment across hardware and software systems, distributed infrastructure, real-time media, networking, or related domains
• Comfortable working with limited resources and fast learning cycles
• Able to communicate clearly with a non-technical founder, industry leaders, partners, contractors, and future engineering hires
• Motivated by building something meaningful from the beginning rather than joining an already scaled organization

Helpful Technical Experience

• Embedded Linux or edge-device development
• GStreamer, FFmpeg, WebRTC, or live-media pipelines
• Networking, distributed systems, latency reduction, or time synchronization
• Cloud infrastructure, deployment pipelines, monitoring, and scalable backend services
• Consumer hardware, connected devices, smart-home systems, or streaming environments
• Real-time data, video processing, computer vision, edge AI, or event-driven systems

Exceptional candidates may be stronger in some areas than others. FanLink values judgment, adaptability, and founder-level ownership over a perfect checklist match.

Minimum Qualifications

• Demonstrated ability to design, build, or lead development of complex technical products or platforms
• Strong architectural judgment and practical tradeoff-making in an early-stage environment
• Ability to work hands-on while helping define long-term technical strategy
• Comfort collaborating directly with a non-technical founder
• Interest in live sports, streaming, media technology, fan engagement, or shared digital experiences

Founding Role Structure

Primary Role

Technical Co-Founder / Founding CTO

A long-term founding executive responsible for FanLink's technical strategy, architecture, engineering execution, product scalability, and future technical organization.

Initial Time Commitment

The selected candidate may begin on a part-time or fractional schedule while FanLink remains pre-revenue. The exact schedule will depend on availability, company needs, and mutual agreement.

Long-Term Intent

This opportunity is for someone who intends to become FanLink's long-term technical partner and co-founder—not a consultant or occasional advisor.

The final equity grant, vesting terms, responsibilities, time commitment, intellectual-property obligations, and corporate role will be documented through formal agreements after mutual diligence and negotiation.

Equity, Vesting, and Compensation

Compensation: Compensation and equity will be structured with company counsel and discussed with finalists.

What Success Could Look Like in the First 90 Days

• Complete a technical assessment of the current prototype, architecture, risks, and scalability path
• Define a practical product and engineering roadmap for beta readiness and future commercialization
• Clarify immediate technical priorities, including what should be built, validated, replaced, outsourced, or deferred
• Establish the technical story FanLink can use with potential partners, industry leaders, advisors, and early beta users
• Create a realistic plan for engineering hiring, contractor support, and technical execution beyond the current prototype