onhires - Hands-on CTO — AI-First Engineering
Requirements
• 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. • 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. • 1. Introductory call with the recruitment partner. • 2. Interview with the founder. • 3. Paid practical assessment. • 4. Optional final discussion with both founders. • The process is designed to be focused and efficient.
Responsibilities
• 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. • Current technology stack • Mobile application • TypeScript and JavaScript • Native iOS and Android build pipelines • Firebase and analytics integrations • Automated test coverage currently exists but requires significant improvement. • The company also operates a web-based product that will be part of the CTO’s technical ownership. • Detailed information about the current web frontend stack will be shared during the hiring process. • RabbitMQ and message-based service communication • Bull and background job queues • Stripe integrations • Google Cloud Storage • External APIs • Infrastructure and DevOps • Google Cloud Platform • ArgoCD-style deployment flow • GitHub Actions • Container registry • Separate staging and production environments
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