T

Toptal

Marketplace connecting businesses to top freelancers

Chief Technology Officer

Full-Time
No salary listed
Expert
Bachelor's, Master's
Remote in USA
Remote

About the job

Requirements
  • A bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Engineering, or a related technical field is required.
  • 15+ years of progressive engineering leadership, including significant time as a Chief Technology Officer or Vice President of Engineering, or as a direct report to one at meaningful scale.
  • Deep, current, hands-on command of modern AI engineering, including foundation models, agentic architectures, harness design, retrieval, context engineering, fine-tuning, and evaluation, with production experience.
  • Experience deploying agentic systems at scale against real business processes with measured outcomes on cost, cycle time, quality, or revenue, including retiring unsuccessful systems.
  • Ability to rigorously evaluate model, prompt, and agent changes using measurable evidence.
  • Command of model routing, hosted versus self-hosted infrastructure, inference capacity, latency and cost budgets, and provider portability.
  • Proven ability to teach AI concepts and move an organization to adopt technology it was not initially requesting.
  • Ability to create strategy, support recommendations with evidence, and determine effective team structures in the age of AI.
  • Proven ownership of resourcing and workforce planning, with a quantifiable hiring track record and experience making decisions when employees do not meet the required standard.
  • Current hands-on coding ability, including the ability to analyze design documents and evaluation harnesses, with command of distributed systems, service architecture, data-intensive applications, and cloud infrastructure at scale.
  • Experience scaling and modernizing a large existing codebase while maintaining business operations, including replacing critical systems in production.
  • Experience leading a globally distributed remote team at a technology or hyper-growth company.
  • Outstanding written and verbal communication skills.
  • Ability to work with speed, ownership, quality, urgency, and independent judgment.
  • Must be a world-class individual contributor while leading the organization.
  • Regularly and reliably attend scheduled virtual team meetings on camera.
  • Work independently with minimal supervision.
  • Use all required digital collaboration tools.
  • Prioritize and self-manage workflows and deadlines.
Responsibilities
  • Drive execution for the product and engineering teams and put AI at the core of the company’s products.
  • Own Toptal’s full technical architecture and build it AI-first using agentic engineering best practices.
  • Create and own the AI architecture and best practices used across the company.
  • Build and fine-tune foundation models, engineer production-grade harnesses, and establish agentic engineering practices adopted by engineering teams.
  • Set technical direction and convert technical strategy into production-ready outcomes through regular operating cadences.
  • Participate directly in design reviews and code while ensuring engineering execution does not delay initiatives.
  • Act as the technical owner of all products and collaborate with Product to design infrastructure exposing core business logic through modular interfaces.
  • Own resourcing and workforce planning by scoping work, sizing teams, planning headcount, defining roles and standards, and hiring high-performing employees.
  • Lead the team, set standards, develop people against those standards, and assess performance against them.
  • Coach engineers on agentic best practices, demonstrate emerging AI tooling to executives, and promote AI adoption across Toptal.
  • Own Toptal’s AI technology strategy and architecture, including model selection and fine-tuning, harness design, orchestration, retrieval, context engineering, tool and MCP integration, guardrails, evaluation, and cost control.
  • Deploy agentic engineering across matching, vetting, onboarding, delivery, and internal operations, and own the resulting outcomes.
  • Own evaluation systems, regression suites, and review loops to measure AI quality.
  • Rebuild platform development and operations through AI-assisted development, review, testing, and operations.
  • Determine effective team structures as product, engineering, and design responsibilities increasingly overlap.
  • Scope the roadmap into buildable work, plan headcount and sequencing, write specifications, and meet time-sensitive hiring commitments.
  • Own the team quality bar, assess talent, develop people, and maintain standards as the organization grows.
  • Own end-to-end architecture across services, data flows, interfaces, and system boundaries.
  • Own throughput, reliability, and the platform layer, including AI-dependent paths affected by latency, drift, and provider outages.
  • Own build-versus-buy decisions, technical debt, secure-by-design architecture, responsible AI, and engineering and AI cost structures through inference and token spend.
  • Learn the existing model and platform architecture and meet leaders across Engineering, Product, Industries, and Services during the first week.
  • Establish a direct working rhythm with the Chief Executive Officer during the first week.
  • Assess the engineering function and AI maturity, including production systems, measurement, duplication, and initiatives that should be shut down during the first month.
  • Assess the team against the role’s standards and present an independent strategy to the executive team during the first month.
  • Execute an independent plan with review cadence and accountability at every level, and present the resourcing plan within the first three months.
  • Establish shared AI architecture and evaluations and deploy one agentic workflow to production with a baseline and measured result within the first three months.
  • Demonstrate business impact from agents in production across at least two core workflows within the first six months.
  • Build the required leadership team, raise organizational standards, and improve throughput and reliability within the first six months.
  • Run an advanced engineering organization with AI leverage embedded in its architecture and operating model within the first year.
Desired Qualifications
  • An advanced degree is strongly preferred.
  • Experience at a high-volume, two-sided marketplace or multi-tenant platform is a significant plus.

About the company

Toptal is a global freelance marketplace that connects businesses with vetted professionals in software engineering, design, finance, project management, and product management. It works by screening applicants and accepting a small fraction (about the top 3%), then matching clients with freelancers through flexible engagement models such as managed delivery, consulting, or full-team placements. Clients pay a premium on top of freelancers’ rates, and Toptal earns revenue from this markup. The company emphasizes remote, distributed talent sourcing, allowing it to fill client needs from anywhere in the world. Its goal is to provide reliable, high-quality on-demand expertise to startups and enterprises alike, enabling teams to scale quickly without geographic constraints.

Company Size

5,001-10,000

Company Stage

Seed

Total Funding

$1.4M

Headquarters

San Francisco, California

Founded

2010

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Simplify Jobs

Simplify's Take

What believers are saying

  • Toptal announced QO Collective on June 18, 2026, adding management consulting clients and consultants.
  • Toptal announced Adeva on May 26, 2026, deepening enterprise software-engineering supply.
  • Revelio Labs shows 857 active job postings in 2026, signaling continued operating demand.

What critics are saying

  • Toptal sued former COO Breanden Beneschott in September 2026, signaling internal dispute escalation.
  • The Andela trade-secret case and Bloomberg litigation keep distracting management and exposing methods.
  • Revelio Labs shows headcount fell to 3,541 in March 2026, while AI talent brokers commoditize hiring.

What makes Toptal unique

  • Toptal's 2026 acquisitions of Adeva, Graphite, NSI, and QO Collective broaden consulting depth.
  • Its screening-and-match model still sells vetted senior freelancers faster than open marketplaces.
  • The 2026 remote-first operating model supports global sourcing across time zones and specialties.

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Benefits

Remote Work Options

Flexible Work Hours

Professional Development Budget

Growth & Insights and Company News

Headcount

6 month growth

↑ 0%

1 year growth

↑ 0%

2 year growth

↓ -3%
Today in New York
Sep 18th, 2026
Developers marketplace Lemon.io starts offering end-to-end services.

Developers marketplace Lemon.io starts offering end-to-end services. Lemon.io expands beyond developer matching into fully managed software delivery, helping companies access senior tech talent and end-to-end project support. NEW YORK, NY, UNITED STATES, September 18, 2026 /EINPresswire.com/ - Lemon.io, a curated tech talent marketplace that has connected startups and SMB companies with vetted engineers since 2015, has expanded its offering beyond developer matching into one-stop tech project delivery. The extended offering now covers everything from individual developer hiring and staff augmentation to fully managed software, MVP, and AI development projects. Leading the launch are three flagship services for founders and product teams that need more end-to-end support: software development, building MVPs, and AI development. Rather than simply matching clients with individual developers, these services bring together a dedicated team tailored to each product, with a dedicated product manager serving as the main point of contact and coordinating the developers and additional specialists the project requires. Software Development: A PM-Led Team in 24-48 Hours Through its new software development service, Lemon.io pairs clients with a delivery lead/project manager and a team of vetted senior developers - sourced specifically for the project within 24 to 48 business hours. The model is built for teams at capacity, companies with frozen headcount, and founders without a CTO who need to keep critical work moving. The custom software development service also supports cross-functional initiatives - from payments to AI and mobile - without the fixed overhead of building an in-house team. Lemon.io reports a 30% improvement in delivery speed across recent engagements and currently holds a 4.8-star rating on G2 across 291 reviews. MVP Development: From Idea to Launch in Under Three Months For early-stage founders, Lemon.io's MVP software development service helps turn an idea into a testable product in around two to three months. Each project starts with a dedicated product manager who scopes the MVP, identifies the core user journey, and prioritizes the features needed to validate the idea. Where there are technical or product uncertainties, the team can prototype and test them before development begins, helping prevent unnecessary scope from slowing the launch. Lemon.io then assembles a senior team around the product's specific needs, bringing in developers and additional specialists as required. The typical scoping phase takes one to two weeks, with MVP development taking around two to three months from kickoff to release. Costs typically range from $16,000-$25,000 for a basic MVP, while more complex products in areas such as fintech, health tech, or AI can reach $40,000-$60,000+ depending on their technical and security requirements. AI Development: Senior AI Engineers Fully Managed End-to-End Lemon.io's AI development service gives companies access to its network of more than 1,500 senior AI engineers - specialists in machine learning, natural language processing, computer vision, generative AI, and AI agents - all coordinated by a single delivery manager with an AI engineering background. Clients share their goal and data, receive a scope and budget within roughly 24 hours, and are matched with a working proof of concept in two to six weeks, or a production-ready system in two to four months. Engineers on the AI team bill at $40 to $90 per hour, well below typical U.S. market rates of $150 to $250 per hour for comparable seniority, and every engagement includes documentation so clients can continue development in-house. "We've always focused on giving companies access to exceptional technical talent. But great developers are only one part of successfully building a product. With managed delivery, we're adding the product and leadership needed to bring that talent together around a clear goal, keep the project on track, and take it through to launch," said Aleksandr Volodarsky, CEO of Lemon.io. The move addresses a need Lemon.io has seen among its customers: companies without a CTO or technical co-founder often need more than access to talent - they need clear scope, accountability, and someone to lead delivery. Clients explain what they need, and the dedicated product manager from Lemon.io defines the scope, budget, and team required to deliver it. Once the scope is agreed, Lemon.io takes full ownership of delivery. The expansion comes as the developer marketplace category continues to consolidate. Arc.dev, which operates alongside Codementor, is now owned by Toptal, according to Arc's published privacy policy. Lemon.io is taking a different approach, expanding beyond talent matching to provide product and delivery leadership alongside its existing developer network. Denys Velykozhon Lemon.io [email protected] Legal Disclaimer: EIN Presswire provides this news content "as is" without warranty of any kind. Today in New York do not accept any responsibility or liability for the accuracy, content, images, videos, licenses, completeness, legality, or reliability of the information contained in this article. If you have any complaints or copyright issues related to this article, kindly contact the author above.

AppSumo
Jul 15th, 2026
Payoneer review: the ultimate guide to global payments and cross-border transfers.

Payoneer review: the ultimate guide to global payments and cross-border transfers. Struggling with high wire fees and slow international transfers? Discover how Payoneer simplifies cross-border payments, provides multi-currency accounts, and helps freelancers and businesses scale globally. The modern digital economy has completely erased geographical barriers. Today, a developer in Vietnam can write code for a startup in San Francisco, an e-commerce seller in London can source products from manufacturers in Shenzhen, and a freelancer in Buenos Aires can provide design assets to a marketing agency in Sydney. However, while talent and markets have gone global, traditional banking infrastructure has largely remained local and sluggish. For decades, international money transfers have been defined by extortionate currency exchange markups, hidden intermediary bank fees, and processing times that stretch across multiple business days. Payoneer was built to solve this exact structural failure. By establishing a localized global banking network in the cloud, Payoneer bridges the gap between international clients and local beneficiaries. In this review, AppsuMore examine how Payoneer's ecosystem operates, how it addresses the primary friction points of cross-border trade, and whether it is the right financial partner for your business or freelance career. The friction of traditional cross-border banking. If you have ever attempted to receive a wire transfer from a foreign client using a traditional brick-and-mortar bank, you are likely familiar with the frustration: * The Intermediary Fee Maze: A standard international wire often passes through two or three intermediary banks before reaching your account. Each bank takes a cut, meaning the amount that arrives is mysteriously lower than what your client sent. * Unfavorable Exchange Rates: Traditional banks routinely slap a 3% to 5% markup on mid-market exchange rates, quietly draining a significant percentage of your earnings. * Slow Settlement Times: International wire transfers can take anywhere from 3 to 7 business days to clear, creating cash flow bottlenecks for freelancers and growing businesses. How Payoneer streamlines global payments. Payoneer bypasses the traditional SWIFT wire network by operating its own closed-loop financial infrastructure. Instead of sending money across international borders every time a transaction occurs, Payoneer maintains local receiving accounts in major financial hubs (such as the US, EU, UK, Japan, Australia, and Singapore). 1. The Power of "Virtual Receiving Accounts" When you open a Payoneer account, you are issued local receiving accounts in major currencies (USD, EUR, GBP, AUD, CAD, JPY, etc.). * How it works for a freelancer: If you have a client in the United States, they can pay you via a local ACH transfer or US bank wire directly into your US Payoneer receiving account. To your client, it looks like paying a domestic contractor. To you, the funds land in your account quickly and without international wire fees. 2. Tailored Solutions for Freelancers and Marketplaces Payoneer has deep native integrations with the world's largest freelance marketplaces and remote work platforms, including Upwork, Fiverr, and Toptal. Instead of waiting days for platform payouts, you can route your earnings instantly into Payoneer, where you can then withdraw them to your local bank account in your local currency. 3. Business-to-Business (B2B) Billing Service For digital agencies, consultants, and productized service providers, Payoneer allows you to issue professional digital invoices directly to international clients. Clients can pay these invoices securely via credit card, local bank transfer, or direct debit, making the payment experience as frictionless for them as paying a local vendor. Security and compliance: can you trust Payoneer? When dealing with cross-border finance, security is paramount. Payoneer is a regulated financial services company that adheres to strict international compliance standards. * Regulatory Compliance: Payoneer is a Licensed Money Transmitter in the United States and is regulated under relevant electronic money regulations in the European Union and the UK. * Data Protection: The platform utilizes advanced encryption protocols, two-factor authentication (2FA), and rigorous fraud-monitoring algorithms to ensure that your funds and personal information remain secure against unauthorized access. Evaluating the cost structure. Transparency in pricing is one of Payoneer's primary selling points, though users must understand how the fees apply to their specific workflow: * Receiving Funds: Receiving funds from another Payoneer user is typically free. Receiving funds via local bank transfers (like US ACH) is often free or very low cost. * Withdrawing to Local Banks: When you transfer funds from your Payoneer balance to your local bank account, Payoneer applies a competitive currency conversion fee (which is generally much lower than traditional bank markups). * Card Fees: If you order and use the Payoneer physical or virtual Mastercard for business expenses, standard maintenance or ATM withdrawal fees may apply. Frequently asked questions (faqs). What is a Payoneer receiving account? A Payoneer receiving account is a virtual bank account issued in major global currencies (USD, EUR, GBP, etc.) in your name. It allows you to receive local payments from clients or marketplaces abroad as if you had a physical bank account in that country. How long do withdrawals take with Payoneer? Withdrawing funds from your Payoneer balance to your local bank account typically takes anywhere from a few hours to 2 business days, depending on your local banking infrastructure and the currency involved. Can I use Payoneer to pay my own international contractors or suppliers? Yes. Payoneer features a "Make a Payment" service that allows you to send funds directly from your Payoneer balance to another Payoneer user anywhere in the world for free, or to a global bank account for a low fee. Does Payoneer provide a debit card? Yes, eligible users can order a Payoneer Mastercard, which allows you to spend your multi-currency balance online, in stores, or at ATMs worldwide wherever Mastercard is accepted. Are there any sign-up bonuses available? Payoneer frequently runs referral and sign-up promotions for new users who hit specific receiving thresholds. Checking their official sign-up channels or partner links is the best way to see active promotional offers. Conclusion: take command of your cross-border finance. The global economy offers endless opportunities for remote workers, freelancers, and businesses, but those opportunities should not be choked out by antiquated, expensive banking systems. Payoneer replaces the friction of international wires with a streamlined, multi-currency ecosystem designed for the modern borderless professional. By minimizing conversion markups, accelerating transfer times, and providing secure local receiving accounts, Payoneer empowers you to treat the entire world as your local market. Ready to streamline your cross-border finances? Sign up for Payoneer today and take control of your global revenue.

AIM Group
Jun 26th, 2026
Toptal acquires management consulting network QO Collective

Toptal acquires management consulting network QO Collective June 26, 2026 by Bill Boorman

PR Newswire
Jun 18th, 2026
Toptal Announces the Acquisition of QO Collective

/PRNewswire/ -- Toptal, the world's largest fully remote workforce, recently announced the acquisition of QO Collective. QO Collective is a global management...

PR Newswire
May 26th, 2026
Toptal acquires Adeva to expand global IT talent network and consulting capabilities

Toptal, the world's largest fully remote workforce, has acquired Adeva, a global IT talent network connecting enterprises with vetted developers, architects and technology consultants. The acquisition strengthens Toptal's position in talent and consulting services whilst expanding its network through Adeva's community of IT professionals. Both companies apply rigorous vetting standards emphasising functional expertise and advanced software engineering capabilities. Adeva's clients, ranging from leading companies to startups, have responded positively to the acquisition, citing strong strategic fit between the organisations. Toptal CEO Taso Du Val said the acquisition deepens the expertise, scale and delivery capacity offered to clients globally. Adeva CEO Katerina Trajchevska highlighted Toptal's global infrastructure and enterprise reach as significant opportunities for existing clients. Founded in 2010, Toptal has served over 25,000 clients across 140 countries.