Experienced Startup CTO possible co-founder role - Hands on Rust, Startup experience a must have

Job Description

Chief Technology Officer (CTO)

Founding Technical Leadership Role • Rust • Real-Time Systems • Social • AI • Payments

Please read the full job description before applying.

We are not looking for a traditional corporate CTO.

We are looking for a hands-on technical leader who still builds, ships, reviews architecture, and understands modern product engineering at scale.

This role is for someone who combines strong engineering judgment with startup execution ability — someone comfortable moving between backend architecture, real-time systems, infrastructure, product strategy, and technical leadership.

About the Role

OleOle is building a football-focused social network and super app combining:

• Real-time social feeds and microblogging

• Messaging and mobile communication

• TikTok-style short-form video

• Live scores and sports engagement

• AI-powered translation and football history

• Rewards, payments, and future crypto infrastructure

This role may evolve into a co-founder-level position for the right person.

You will define the long-term technical architecture of the company while also helping build and ship the platform alongside the engineering team.

We are not looking for a CTO who has spent the last 20 years only managing meetings, vendors, and process.

We are looking for someone who still codes, still understands systems deeply, and still enjoys building.

What We’re Looking For

A product-first, systems-oriented technical leader who understands:

• Real-time social feeds and recommendation systems

• Messaging and event-driven infrastructure

• High-performance backend architecture

• Frontend/backend integration for modern consumer products

• Payments, wallet infrastructure, or financial systems

• AI infrastructure and data-driven products

• Scalability, reliability, and operational discipline

You do not need to be an expert in every area above.

However, you should have strong experience across multiple domains and the ability to make pragmatic technical decisions across a highly ambitious product ecosystem.

Key Responsibilities

• Define and lead the long-term technical architecture of the platform

• Lead backend architecture and infrastructure strategy using Rust-based systems

• Help build scalable systems supporting feeds, messaging, live updates, video, and data infrastructure

• Oversee engineering direction across backend, frontend, infrastructure, and product systems

• Partner closely with leadership on product and company strategy

• Establish engineering culture, hiring standards, and technical execution processes

• Work directly with engineers on architecture reviews, tradeoffs, and implementation decisions

• Help design future financial infrastructure including rewards, wallets, payments, and crypto-related systems

• Support AI-powered systems including translation, recommendation, search, and football history infrastructure

• Ensure scalability, reliability, performance, and security across all systems

Technical Areas Involved

• Rust backend infrastructure

• Real-time systems and asynchronous architecture

• APIs, event-driven systems, and distributed services

• Messaging and feed infrastructure

• Video and media systems

• AI and data infrastructure

• Payment and wallet systems

• SSR and SEO-focused architecture

• High-scale consumer product engineering

What Makes Someone Successful in This Role

• You have personally designed and operated production systems

• You still enjoy building and solving technical problems directly

• You can explain architectural tradeoffs clearly and pragmatically

• You understand how consumer platforms scale technically and operationally

• You focus on execution and shipping, not unnecessary complexity

• You are comfortable operating in ambiguous startup environments

• You know when simplicity is the correct engineering decision

• You can lead engineers without becoming disconnected from the technology

We value real-world system ownership, technical depth, execution ability, and engineering judgment significantly more than keyword-heavy resumes.

Compensation & Structure

This role is currently structured as deferred compensation.

All current team members — including leadership, engineers, designers, and product teams — are currently working under the same structure while the company secures funding.

This is not unpaid work.

Compensation is intended to convert into a normalized salary structure post-funding, in addition to:

• Significant equity ownership

• Long-term token participation

• Founding-level influence over the company and platform

We want to be fully transparent:

• There is real startup risk

• Fundraising timelines are unpredictable

• Building at this stage requires resilience, ownership, and long-term thinking

At the same time, this is an opportunity to help architect and build one of the most ambitious consumer platforms in global football from the earliest stages.

OleOle – Where Fans Kick Off

Qualifications

Qualifications

Your Background

• 7–15+ years of software engineering and technical leadership experience, ideally within startups or high-growth consumer technology platforms

• Strong hands-on engineering background with active involvement in architecture, systems design, and production codebases

• Significant experience building and scaling modern consumer platforms involving real-time systems, high concurrency, and large-scale user engagement

• Strong production Rust experience building asynchronous backend systems and distributed infrastructure

• Deep understanding of backend architecture, APIs, event-driven systems, databases, caching, and scalable infrastructure design

• Experience building or operating one or more of the following:
• Social feeds and microblogging systems
• Messaging or real-time communication platforms
• TikTok-style video or media infrastructure
• Financial, wallet, fintech, or gambling infrastructure
• AI-powered consumer products
• Large-scale SEO or content infrastructure

• Ability to make pragmatic technical tradeoffs balancing scalability, performance, speed, maintainability, and operational simplicity

• Experience leading and mentoring engineering teams while remaining deeply technical and hands-on

• Comfortable operating in fast-moving startup environments with ambiguity, evolving priorities, and limited process

• Strong communication skills with the ability to explain architectural decisions clearly to both technical and non-technical stakeholders

• Strong entrepreneurial judgment, ownership mentality, and execution focus

What Makes Someone Successful in This Role

• You have personally designed and operated production systems at scale
• You still enjoy building and solving technical problems directly
• You focus on execution, shipping, and long-term maintainability
• You value simplicity and practical engineering over unnecessary complexity
• You are comfortable taking ownership without requiring constant direction
• You understand how modern consumer products scale technically and operationally
• You can lead engineers without becoming disconnected from the technology

Strong Plus

• Experience with Rust-based consumer platforms
• Experience with distributed systems and event-driven architectures
• Experience with feeds, messaging, streaming, or recommendation systems
• Experience with payments, crypto, wallet infrastructure, or gambling systems
• Experience with AI infrastructure, search, recommendation, or translation systems
• Startup leadership experience building products from zero to one
• Existing network within startup, venture capital, or fundraising ecosystems
• Passion for football, sports media, or global fan communities

We value real-world system ownership, technical depth, execution ability, and engineering judgment significantly more than keyword-heavy resumes.

OleOle – Where Fans Kick Off

Additional Information

Additional Information

Building a platform like OleOle is difficult by design.

We are not looking for people who avoid hard technical problems — we are looking for builders who are energized by solving them.

What We Value

• Creative problem solvers who are willing to challenge assumptions, propose new ideas, and help build better systems rather than simply repeating existing patterns

• Engineers who can adapt across a broad range of technologies, infrastructure challenges, and evolving product requirements

• People who are comfortable operating in fast-moving startup environments with ambiguity, shifting priorities, and limited process

• Strong entrepreneurial judgment with the ability to work independently and take ownership without requiring constant direction or micromanagement

• Builders who focus on practical execution, scalability, and product quality rather than unnecessary complexity

• Engineers who embrace difficult challenges and enjoy helping shape products from the ground floor

Location & Work Environment

OleOle is based in Austin, Texas, although the team currently operates remotely while the company completes its fundraising process.

We are a privately held company building a globally ambitious football platform with a distributed international team.

OleOle – Where Fans Kick Off