Hands-on CTO — AI-First Engineering

📋 Description

• • Take end-to-end technical ownership of the mobile application, web platform, backend services, and infrastructure.
• • Review the existing architecture, codebase, engineering processes, and technical risks.
• • Design and implement an AI-first software development workflow.
• • Introduce effective practices for AI-assisted development, code review, automated testing, documentation, and quality control.
• • Ensure that AI-generated and AI-assisted code meets production standards for maintainability, security, reliability, and performance.
• • Manage the relationship with the current outsourced engineering agency.
• • Help the agency adapt to the new development model or recommend a different team structure where necessary.
• • Define the appropriate balance between AI agents, internal engineers, and external development partners.
• • Improve automated test coverage and release confidence.
• • Establish engineering standards, technical governance, and automated quality gates.
• • Ensure predictable deployments, production stability, monitoring, and incident prevention.
• • Contribute directly to architecture, technical problem-solving, code review, and implementation when required.
• • Strong experience as a hands-on CTO, Head of Engineering, Principal Engineer, Staff Engineer, Engineering Lead, or senior Technical Lead.
• • A strong software engineering background and the ability to review production code and architecture in depth.
• • Recent hands-on involvement in software development, architecture, or technical delivery.
• • Practical and systematic experience with AI-assisted software development and coding agents.
• • A clear understanding of where AI can increase engineering productivity and where human review and technical controls remain essential.
• • Experience building or operating web, mobile, or subscription-based products.
• • Familiarity with modern JavaScript or TypeScript ecosystems, ideally including React, React Native, Node.js, or comparable technologies.
• • Experience with cloud infrastructure, CI/CD, monitoring, and automated testing.
• • Experience working with outsourced, distributed, or external engineering teams.
• • Ability to assess an existing engineering setup and make pragmatic decisions about architecture, team structure, tooling, and delivery processes.
• • Professional English sufficient for regular communication with the founders and external partners.
• • A high level of ownership and comfort operating without a predefined engineering playbook.
• • This role may be a strong fit if
• • You have moved into engineering leadership but want to remain technically involved.
• • You enjoy architecture, code review, technical problem-solving, and building systems more than managing a large organisation.
• • You already use AI coding tools and agents as part of your regular engineering workflow.
• • You are interested in designing a lean engineering model where AI increases output without compromising quality.
• • You are comfortable entering an existing codebase, identifying weaknesses, and taking responsibility for improving it.
• • You prefer high ownership, fast decision-making, and direct access to the founders.
• • The hiring process involves an introductory call with the recruitment partner, interview with the founder, paid practical assessment, and optional final discussion with both founders.
• • The company operates primarily in the US market, is a profitable, self-funded B2C subscription SaaS company, and has a lean, high-performance structure.