Hands-on CTO — AI-First Engineering

Who we’re looking for

• 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.
• Exact technology-stack alignment is not required. Technical depth, adaptability, and proven experience with AI-enabled engineering workflows are more important than matching every technology currently in use.

What you’ll do

• 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.

About the position

Our client is a profitable, self-funded B2C subscription SaaS company operating primarily in the US market. Founded in France, the company has evolved from a browser-based product into a high-scale mobile subscription business generating approximately $1M in monthly revenue. The company operates with a lean, high-performance structure. The team is highly execution-focused, actively adopts AI across its operations, and maintains a strong focus on monetization, product performance, and unit economics. The product ecosystem includes a mobile application and a web platform, supported by a shared backend and cloud infrastructure. The company is now looking for a hands-on CTO to take ownership of the engineering function and lead its transition towards an AI-first development model.

Benefits

• The 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.