Founding Technical Lead (path to CTO)

Founding Technical Lead (path to CTO)Location: Mostly Remote, (New York meet-ups once a month)Salary: $250,000 to $300,000 plus meaningful equityIndustry: AI / FintechWho you'll join:A VC-backed AI fintech building the first truly AI-native platform for one of the largest and most underserved financial markets in the world. The company has enterprise customers, proven pricing AI, clean data infrastructure, and SOC 2 certification. The foundation is built. The next step is clear: turn it into an AI-first product before anyone else does.What you'll own:Get inside a mature, well-structured codebase and take ownership from day one. Build and ship an AI prototype fast, using APIs, data, and prompts that already exist. Work directly with the founder and customers to shape what gets built. Set technical direction and codify architecture so the platform stops depending on any one person. Work alongside a small, senior engineering team and point it at the right priorities. Translate deep domain knowledge into AI features that answer the questions customers actually ask. Hold the security and SOC 2 line as the product scales.Who you are:Deeply hands-on. You still write code every day and want to. Proven record shipping AI or Gen AI products in production. Comfortable inheriting and navigating large, complex codebases. At ease with quantitative thinking, statistics, and a bit of financial maths. Not scared of it. Product-minded and customer-facing. You talk to users and build from what you hear. Energised by ambiguity and early-stage problems. Security-conscious, ideally from regulated or enterprise-facing work. Bonus: exposure to fixed income, capital markets, or fintech infrastructure.This is a founding technical hire that can grow into the CTO seat over time. Day one is about building, not managing.Tech stack:Python, LLM APIs (OpenAI, Anthropic, Claude), REST APIs, SQL, cloud infrastructure (AWS or GCP), Git.Why you'll thrive:You inherit an existing product, paying customers, and clean data. Not a blank page.Meaningful equity on offer.The market gap is real and visible. No one has built this yet.The founder is the domain expert. Years of knowledge ready for you to use.Competitive base, with room to move fast if the prototype lands with customers.