Chief Technology Officer (CTO) – Web3 / Crypto / AI-First to $12000

We’re looking for a hands-on Chief Technology Officer (CTO) to own the technical direction of our Web3 project. This isn’t a “management-only” role — you will design architecture, write production code, manage engineers, and drive execution at startup speed.

The ideal candidate is an AI-first builder: someone who codes daily, but also recruits, structures, and scales a high-performing engineering team. You’ll set the pace for a culture of daily feature delivery, ruthless prioritization, and relentless innovation at the intersection of AI and Web3.

What You’ll Do

•⁠  ⁠Lead technology vision & execution: Own the architecture, stack, and technical roadmap.

•⁠  ⁠Be hands-on: Write production-grade code, review PRs, and set engineering best practices by example.

•⁠  ⁠Build & manage the team: Recruit, mentor, and structure a lean but world-class engineering team.

•⁠  ⁠Process & velocity: Establish and enforce a culture of daily releases, continuous delivery, and constant iteration.

•⁠  ⁠AI-first development: Drive adoption of AI tools across coding, testing, architecture, and planning to maximize speed.

•⁠  ⁠Product partnership: Work directly with product leadership to scope the fastest, simplest solutions that deliver impact.

•⁠  ⁠Strategic decisions: Own technical partnerships, vendor selection, infrastructure costs, and scalability planning.

•⁠  ⁠Culture & leadership: Set the tone for a no-excuses, high-output engineering culture where speed and execution come first.

Tech Stack & Responsibilities

•⁠  ⁠Backend Services: Node.js on Cloudflare Workers.

•⁠  ⁠Deployment & Routing: Wrangler CLI for edge deployment, routing, and observability.

•⁠  ⁠Data Layer: Drizzle ORM with CockroachDB or PostgreSQL.

•⁠  ⁠Async Processing: BullMQ (or equivalent) for distributed job queues.

•⁠  ⁠Caching & State: Redis / Upstash for caching, sessions, and orchestration.

•⁠  ⁠Blockchain Integration: Viem for connecting backend services with EVM-compatible chains.

•⁠  ⁠Smart Contracts: Read/write interactions, wallet flows, and on-chain data management.

•⁠  ⁠Frontend APIs: Build and maintain APIs consumed by React/Next.js apps.

•⁠  ⁠Delivery: Own CI/CD pipelines, production monitoring, and performance optimization.

Requirements

•⁠  ⁠Proven CTO / Head of Engineering experience in a high-growth startup, ideally in Web3 or fintech.

•⁠  ⁠Hands-on leadership: You still code daily, review PRs, and actively shape architecture.

•⁠  ⁠Track record of building and scaling distributed systems in production.

•⁠  ⁠AI-first mindset: Skilled at using AI tools (code generation, testing automation, documentation, architecture exploration) to radically accelerate engineering velocity.

•⁠  ⁠Web3 tech knowledge
 

•⁠  ⁠Proficiency with Drizzle ORM and SQL databases (CockroachDB/PostgreSQL).

•⁠  ⁠Familiarity with Redis/Upstash, distributed job queues (BullMQ, SQS, etc.).

•⁠  ⁠Experience building and managing high-performing engineering teams in remote/async-first environments.

•⁠  ⁠Proven ability to define daily release processes and enforce continuous delivery.

•⁠  ⁠Strong product sense: can balance tech depth with speed, cutting scope intelligently to deliver fast.

•⁠  ⁠Relentless execution mentality — thrive in environments with no work-life balance and constant shipping.