Remote CTO: Hands-On Tech, Security & Growth

Socket.dev; Pasadena (CA); On-site; USD 300,000 - 350,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Unlimited PTO

Healthcare

401k match

Cell plan reimbursement

Monthly recognition opportunities

Equity retention policy

Job summary

Scratch is seeking a hands-on Chief Technology Officer to lead engineering, infrastructure, and security for a ~30-person team. You will build maturity, set standards, and maintain motivation during change while staying technical enough to review architecture and unblock teams.

You will oversee security, audits, and compliance readiness, and bring a credible AI and engineering vision. This remote-first role leverages a distributed team with an office in Pasadena for optional use.

Qualifications

• Proven track record leading a company through diligence and sale
• Hands-on build of observability, alerting, and security systems from scratch
• Direct leadership of security with audits and compliance exposure
• Experience with agentic AI development and practical deployments
• Background in distributed cloud backends, database scaling, and API architecture
• Occasional return to hands-on technical work within a leadership role

Responsibilities

• Build and mature engineering processes and architectural standards
• Lead security function, audits, compliance readiness, and incident response
• Define and drive AI and engineering vision with hands-on credibility
• Lead a distributed, remote-first engineering team with delegation and critique
• Align technology decisions with cost and business value (FinOps)
• Communicate transparently with internal teams and external partners

Skills

Leadership

Observability

Security

AI Vision

Distributed Cloud

FinOps

Tools

Observability tools

Cloud platforms

Stripe-style payments

Job description

Scratch is seeking a hands-on Chief Technology Officer to lead engineering, infrastructure, and security for a ~30-person team. You will build maturity, set standards, and maintain motivation during change while staying technical enough to review architecture and unblock teams.

You will oversee security, audits, and compliance readiness, and bring a credible AI and engineering vision. This remote-first role leverages a distributed team with an office in Pasadena for optional use.