Founding CTO (Web2)

We are supporting a venture-backed, early-stage technology company building a white-label consumer engagement and rewards platform for global brands. The platform enables large-scale fan and customer experiences (e.g. predictions, quests, digital rewards, ticketing and commerce) while incorporating tokenised settlement and rewards infrastructure. This role represents a true greenfield build . The Founding CTO will define the overall system architecture, technical standards, and engineering culture from day one, while delivering a production-grade platform designed to scale to millions of users. As Founding CTO, you will take end-to-end ownership of the technology organisation , from initial architecture and hands-on development through to team build-out and long-term technical strategy. You will work closely with founders and commercial stakeholders, translating product vision into scalable systems and ensuring the platform can support multiple partners, brands, and regions. Responsibilities Platform & architecture Define and build the core platform architecture supporting engagement mechanics, rewards, commerce, and analytics Establish system design principles covering scalability, security, and performance Make key build-vs-buy decisions and select vendors, tooling, and infrastructure partners Backend & infrastructure Architect and implement backend services supporting real-time event ingestion, points/wallet systems, identity, and compliance controls Design robust data pipelines, storage, and API layers Own production readiness, including monitoring, alerting, SLOs, and incident response processes Consumer products Oversee development of mobile (iOS/Android) and web applications delivered under partner branding Ensure high-quality user experience across consumer touchpoints Token & rewards infrastructure Lead design and integration of tokenised reward systems, including smart contracts and distribution logic Manage wallet integrations and fiat on/off-ramps in collaboration with external providers Integrations Build and maintain APIs connecting to external data feeds, ticketing systems, commerce platforms, and sponsor tools Leadership & team Hire, mentor, and scale a high-performing engineering team Establish engineering standards, documentation practices, and development workflows Act as a hands-on technical leader while progressively transitioning to strategic oversight Qualifications 8+ years of experience building consumer-facing technology products Proven experience delivering at least one 0-to-1 platform Track record of shipping and operating products at scale (100K+ users) Strong backend engineering background (distributed systems, real-time data, API design) Experience designing production-grade systems with high reliability requirements Comfortable working across frontend, backend, and infrastructure layers Strong written and verbal communication skills (architecture docs, technical strategy, roadmap planning) Strongly preferred Experience with loyalty, gaming, or marketplace-style mechanics (e.g. rewards, auctions, prediction-style systems) Familiarity with blockchain or tokenised systems (smart contracts, wallets, settlement flows) Background in security-sensitive or compliance-aware systems Experience building white-label or multi-tenant platforms Technical environment (current / planned) Languages: TypeScript/JavaScript, Node.js, Python; Go or Rust exposure is a plus Mobile: React Native or Flutter; native iOS (Swift) / Android (Kotlin) experience advantageous Infrastructure: Cloud-native (GCP), Docker/Kubernetes, CI/CD pipelines Data: PostgreSQL, Redis, event streaming (Kafka or equivalent) Web3 exposure: Solidity fundamentals, wallet integrations, token mechanics