Fractional CTO & Lead System Architect - Part-time - EMEA/APAC

About the Company

We are a Swedish AI-startup building a next-generation creation layer that converts natural-language intent into governed, portable systems — producing APIs, UIs, tests, and deployment artifacts automatically and extremely efficiently. We are entering Phase 2 of development (after our live demo verified our hypothesis) with a selected external agency and need a Fractional CTO 10-20 hrs/week to ensure the system is architected correctly from day one.

Role Overview

You will act as the technical lead directly reporting to founder/CEO of a complex platform built with an external agency. This is an oversight and architecture role — not full-time coding — focused on correctness, quality, and long-term scalability.
You will:

• Lead system and infrastructure architecture build via 15 day sprints with agency dev team.
• Review and approve backend, data, and API designs (full system overview)
• Ensure code quality, deterministic behavior, and maintainability
• Manage the vendor/agency: review deliverables, flag risks, enforce clean architecture iaw specifications
• Set technical direction and verify execution
• Guide AI/LLM integration and data flows
• Collaborate with two founders (Stockholm + London) in a remote-first setup

Initial engagement: 6–12 months, with potential extension.

What You Bring

Technical Requirements

• Strong experience in modern system architecture: backend services, APIs, microservices, event-driven design, scalability
• Deep familiarity with integrating AI/LLM models into production
• Hands-on knowledge of model routing, monitoring, data flows, and governance
• Cloud infrastructure expertise (AWS preferred) + Terraform
• Experience with TypeScript/Node environments
• Understanding of Postgres and streaming systems (Kafka/Kinesis)
• High technical judgment and ability to operate independently

Soft Skills

• Proactive, practical, execution-driven
• Clear communicator who can translate complexity to non-engineers
• Comfortable with flat, low-hierarchy, high-autonomy work cultures
• Able to manage complexity and maintain quality at speed
• Experience from working with agencies - this is crucial as the role is an extension of the Founders.

Bonus Experience

• Developer platforms, orchestration layers, or internal DSLs
• Work with LLM providers or AI infrastructure companies
• Leading external agencies or distributed engineering teams

Current Tech Stack (High-Level)

Subject to fast and agile changes as company and tech evolves

• Backend: Node.js + TypeScript (strict), Fastify/Express
• Frontend: React + Vite
• Infra: AWS (ECS Fargate, Lambda, S3, CloudFront, CloudWatch, KMS), Terraform
• Data: Postgres + Kafka/Kinesis
• AI Layer: External model integrations, routing, evaluation
• DevOps: CI/CD, observability, security, GDPR alignment

Why This Role Exists

We want to build the system on clean, correct foundations — with strong governance, predictable behavior, and long-term extensibility. This role ensures the architecture stays coherent, scalable, and maintainable as we grow.