Chief Technology Officer / Founding CTO

Chief Technology Officer / Founding CTO

Industry: Fintech / Banking

Location: [Sydney / Hybrid / Remote]

Employment Type: Full-Time

About the Company

We are an early-stage fintech startup building modern banking and financial services technology from the ground up. Our goal is to create secure, scalable, and user-focused financial products that can support real-world banking needs.

We are looking for a hands-on Chief Technology Officer / Founding CTO to lead our technology direction, build our engineering capability, and help shape the product from concept to launch.

About the Role

This is not a purely management role. As an early technology leader in a small team, you will be expected to work deeply in the details while also setting the long-term technical vision.

You will design the architecture, choose the technology stack, review code, shape product flows, build infrastructure, define engineering standards, and work closely with the founders to turn financial product ideas into secure and scalable technology solutions.

The ideal candidate is self-driven, fast-learning, dynamic, practical, and highly hands-on. You should be comfortable operating in ambiguity, learning financial products quickly, and taking ownership across technology, product, architecture, delivery, and team building.

Key Responsibilities

• Define and lead the company’s technology strategy, roadmap, architecture, and execution plan
• Build the technology platform and infrastructure from scratch, including cloud architecture, backend systems, databases, APIs, DevOps, monitoring, security, and data foundations
• Choose the appropriate technology stack, frameworks, tools, cloud services, and engineering practices
• Design scalable, secure, and reliable system architecture suitable for fintech and banking products
• Review code, guide implementation decisions, and maintain strong engineering quality
• Work hands-on with engineers to solve technical problems, improve system performance, and unblock delivery
• Help design product details, user journeys, operational workflows, backend processes, and financial service flows
• Translate business requirements and financial product concepts into practical technical solutions
• Quickly learn and understand banking products, financial services workflows, regulatory expectations, risk controls, compliance needs, and customer requirements
• Build, recruit, mentor, and lead a high-performing engineering and technology team over time
• Establish engineering standards, code review processes, testing practices, documentation, deployment pipelines, and release discipline
• Ensure systems are secure, compliant, scalable, reliable, and maintainable
• Work closely with founders, product, operations, compliance, risk, and business teams
• Evaluate and manage third-party vendors, banking partners, APIs, platforms, and technology providers
• Make practical build vs buy decisions based on business needs, cost, speed, risk, and scalability
• Create a culture of ownership, critical thinking, continuous learning, high standards, and strong execution

Required Experience and Skills

• Proven experience as a CTO, Head of Engineering, VP Engineering, Lead Engineer, Solution Architect, or similar senior technology role
• Strong hands-on software engineering background, with the ability to review code and guide technical implementation
• Experience designing architecture and building platforms, infrastructure, or products from an early stage
• Strong understanding of cloud infrastructure, backend systems, APIs, databases, cybersecurity, DevOps, and scalable system design
• Experience in fintech, banking, payments, lending, digital banking, financial platforms, or regulated financial services is highly preferred
• Ability to quickly learn complex financial products, financial service processes, and regulatory requirements
• Experience working in a startup, early-stage company, or fast-moving product environment
• Strong product thinking, with the ability to contribute to product flows, customer journeys, and operational processes
• Strong critical thinking, problem-solving, communication, and stakeholder management skills
• Ability to hire, mentor, and lead engineers while remaining hands-on during the early stage

Artificial Intelligence (AI)

AI will be a core capability of the company, embedded across engineering, product, and operations to drive speed, efficiency, and quality.

Key Expectations:

• Implement an AI-first approach across the software development lifecycle (design, coding, testing, deployment)
• Leverage AI tools to materially improve engineering productivity and delivery speed
• Establish structured workflows for AI-assisted coding, review, testing, and documentation
• Identify and deploy AI-driven capabilities such as fraud detection, support automation, and data insights
• Ensure appropriate governance, oversight, and compliance in a regulated environment
• Continuously evaluate and adopt AI technologies that improve performance and scalability

Ideal Candidate Traits

• Self-driven and able to take ownership without needing constant direction
• Fast learner with strong curiosity about financial products, technology, and market trends
• Hands-on, detail-oriented, and willing to work directly on technical and product problems
• Dynamic, adaptable, and comfortable working in a small team with changing priorities
• Critical thinker who can challenge assumptions and make sound decisions
• Hard-working, resilient, and comfortable with the pace and pressure of a startup
• Practical and execution-focused, with the ability to balance speed, quality, cost, risk, and scalability
• Strong sense of responsibility for both technical and business outcomes

Preferred Qualifications

• Previous experience building or launching fintech, banking, payments, lending, or financial services products
• Experience with cloud platforms such as AWS, Azure, or GCP
• Knowledge of open banking, payments, KYC, AML, fraud detection, transaction monitoring, credit systems, banking APIs, or financial data systems
• Experience with security frameworks, regulatory audits, risk controls, data protection, and vendor due diligence
• Background in computer science, software engineering, information systems, or another relevant technical field
• Experience building and scaling engineering teams from the ground up

What We Offer

• Opportunity to join an early-stage fintech startup in a founding technology leadership role
• Ability to build the technology platform, infrastructure, team, and engineering culture from scratch
• Significant influence over product, architecture, technology, and company direction
• Fast-paced and entrepreneurial working environment
• Competitive compensation package, with potential equity participation
• Opportunity to work on meaningful financial services products with real market impact