CTO / Field CTO — Early Technical Leader

CTO / Field CTO — Early Technical LeaderAustin preferred; remote consideredEquity-first, founder-stage roleClariva is an early-stage, patent-pending company building a privacy-first AI control layer for sensitive enterprise workflows. Company and product context: https://www.clarivaprivacy.comAs companies adopt AI, sensitive business text from support tickets, CRM notes, documents, intake forms, OCR outputs, and internal workflows is increasingly sent to cloud model providers. Clariva is being built as the control point before that data reaches a provider.Clariva checks AI-bound requests against policy, removes or transforms sensitive information, verifies whether a request is allowed, routes approved requests to permitted providers, and creates reviewable audit evidence. This is not a chatbot, wrapper app, or generic AI governance dashboard. It is enterprise request-control infrastructure for privacy, verification, provider-boundary enforcement, auditability, and fail-closed AI usage.A substantial TypeScript / Node / NestJS backend already exists. The current system includes policy evaluation, redaction and sanitization components, admissibility verification, provider-routing boundaries, audit and evidence generation, persistence components, deterministic control-flow patterns, regression coverage, and enterprise-readiness artifacts.The next technical leader would inherit real architecture and help harden it into a deployable enterprise platform.Structured Evaluation Path:Clariva is looking for a senior technical leader, but both sides should be able to evaluate fit before making a deeper commitment.A serious candidate will have the opportunity, at the appropriate stage and under confidentiality, to review the architecture, implementation patterns, evidence artifacts, technical debt profile, and product direction before deciding whether they would be comfortable taking technical ownership.The goal is to evaluate working style, technical judgment, architecture quality, founder/operator fit, and the practical path from current implementation to enterprise-ready product.Role Scope:Clariva is looking for someone who can operate across two overlapping modes:CTO / Operating CTO: help own backend architecture, security-sensitive engineering, deployment readiness, reliability, auth/RBAC, persistence, provider integrations, engineering standards, and future technical hiring.Field CTO: help explain the architecture to technical buyers, investors, advisors, and future customers; support diligence conversations; translate buyer requirements into product priorities; and help Clariva earn trust in enterprise security and AI infrastructure environments.The immediate need is someone who can evaluate the current system, identify the highest-leverage hardening work, preserve what is already strong, and help move Clariva from founder-built platform to enterprise-ready product.What You Would Work On:You would help own or guide work across:backend/API architecture;AI request control and policy enforcement;redaction, sanitization, and sensitive-data boundary design;fail-closed verification and provider-routing controls;audit logs, evidence artifacts, and reviewability;auth, RBAC, workspace/account models, and enterprise access control;deployment readiness, environment configuration, and operational reliability;security posture, privacy posture, and buyer diligence materials;technical customer discovery, demos, and early enterprise validation;future engineering hiring and technical operating standards.Ideal Background:Strong candidates will likely have experience in one or more of:senior backend, platform, infrastructure, security, privacy, or enterprise SaaS engineering;production API systems, control-plane systems, security-sensitive platforms, or data-boundary infrastructure;auth, RBAC, auditability, failure modes, deployment hardening, and operational reliability;enterprise customer-facing technical work, such as sales engineering, solutions architecture, field CTO, security architecture, or technical diligence;personally shipping high-quality code without relying on a large team.You do not need to have held the CTO title before, but you should have the judgment, architecture depth, and execution ability to help lead a serious enterprise infrastructure product.Compensation:This is an equity-first, founder-stage opportunity. No cash salary is available at this stage.Equity, vesting, confidentiality, IP assignment, authority, scope, and future salary conversion would be documented before substantive work begins.Until financing or recurring revenue supports a normal salary, Clariva is open to documenting milestone-based cash compensation tied to early customer revenue, successful customer implementation, or defined commercial milestones, subject to caps and written agreement.Future salary would depend on financing, revenue, or approved company budget.Location:Austin is preferred. Remote is considered for exceptional candidates with strong U.S. Central Time overlap.To Start a Conversation:Send a short note with: LinkedIn, resume, or relevant background; Why Clariva’s problem space interests you; and Whether you are open to an equity-first, founder-stage role.If there is mutual interest, the next step would be a deeper conversation around the product, architecture, working style, compensation structure, and technical evaluation path.Requirements:Authorized to work in the United StatesNo visa sponsorship required