Founding CTO

Job description:Location: San Francisco, CA (on-site)Employment: Full-TimeAbout the RoleWe are looking for a Founding CTO, someone who wants to be the company's technical co-pilot. You will start hands-on, ship fast, and own the core architecture. As the company scales, you will be in charge of building the engineering team in SF.This is not a VP Engineering role. We do not want someone who manages from a distance. We want someone who codes every day, is obsessed with what is happening on the bleeding edge, and has the potential to coach and grow a team around them. You will own the technical vision, partner directly with the founder on product and company decisions, and build the foundation that scales from 0 to 10M+ users.Our PhilosophySmall teams build the most important products. Talent density over team size.Extreme ownership and intensity. Speed over process.Taste matters.Human interaction is one of the most complex systems in the world. AI finally makes it possible to structure and orchestrate it at scale this is one of the most important problems to solve.Everyone on the team is here because they are obsessed with building.Key ResponsibilitiesOwn the technical vision and architecture end-to-endWork across the full stack: backend, infra, data, and LLM-powered systemsShip fast, iterate on feedback, and get product into users' hands quicklyBuild the technical foundation that can scale from 0 to 10M+ usersRecruit, mentor, and eventually lead an exceptional engineering team in SFPartner with the founder on company-defining product and technical decisionsLead the gradual transition of the engineering center of gravity to SFQualifications:Must-Have5+ years of engineering experience with a strong backend and infrastructure backgroundShipped ambitious products end-to-end with real battle scars from scalingEx-founder or first engineer at a YC startup or equivalent track record of ownershipExperience with AI/LLM systems, search, recommendations, or large-scale consumer appsProduct sense: designs with the user in mind, not just technical correctnessComfortable with ambiguity, speed, and early-stage chaosWants to grow into a true CTO role, not just writing code but building the team, culture, and long-term architectureBased in or willing to relocate to San Francisco, fully in-person in SoMaNice-to-HaveExperience with graph systems, identity resolution, or large-scale unstructured dataFamiliarity with real-time data pipelines or agent coordination systemsPrior experience recruiting or mentoring junior engineersExperience building consumer products at scaleSummary RequirementsZero-to-one product building experienceAI and data infrastructure depthFounder mentality and extreme ownershipGraph or large-scale data systems experienceTeam building potentialWhy is This a Great Opportunity:Benefits & PerksHealth insuranceGym stipendTransportation to officeIn-person SF team environmentDirect access to leading investors as active backersNigel