CTO / Co-founder

Late Co-Founder & Chief Technology Officer

Company: Abracadabra+ Inc.

Website: https://abracadabra.plus

Location: Remote, with a preference for Europe or the United States

Commitment: Flexible with the aim to transition to full-time

Compensation: Meaningful founder equity, potential investment opportunity and salary following financing

Reports to: Founder and CEO

About Abracadabra+

Abracadabra+ is building a global LGBTQ+ social and experiences platform designed to help people explore, connect and experience more of the world around them.

The platform combines social discovery, community, activities, events, services, travel experiences and queer-friendly businesses in one ecosystem. Users can discover people, places, experiences and opportunities through location-based and interest-based features.

Abracadabra+ is already live with:

• More than 7,000 registered users
• Users across more than 50 countries
• Live iOS and Android applications
• Early subscription and commercial revenue
• Active marketplace and affiliate integrations
• A growing network of strategic partners
• Initial organic international traction

The company is incorporated as a Delaware C-Corporation and is preparing for its next stage of product development, technical maturity, international growth and fundraising.

Learn more at https://abracadabra.plus.

The Opportunity

We are looking for an exceptional technical leader to join Abracadabra+ as a late co-founder and Chief Technology Officer.

This is not a conventional salaried CTO position and not an advisory role. The successful candidate will become the long-term technical owner of the company and work directly with the Founder and CEO to build Abracadabra+ into a scalable global platform.

You will join a company with a live product, more than 7,000 registered users, early revenue, active mobile applications, existing developers and multiple commercial integrations.

Your responsibility will be to assess, strengthen and evolve the technical foundation while building the engineering organization required for the next stage of growth.

This role is suited to someone who wants to join an ambitious company after initial product validation but before institutional scale.

Your Mission

Your mission will be to take full ownership of Abracadabra+’s technology, engineering execution and long-term technical strategy.

You will transform the current platform from a founder-led and contractor-supported product into a robust, scalable and professionally managed technology organization.

You will ensure that the platform can support rapid user growth, international expansion, new social and marketplace features, enterprise partnerships and investor due diligence.

Key Responsibilities

Technical Strategy and Architecture

• Own the company’s overall technology strategy and architecture.
• Conduct a complete review of the existing iOS and Android applications, backend, infrastructure, databases, APIs and integrations.
• Identify technical debt, security risks, scalability issues and critical dependencies.
• Create and maintain a technical roadmap aligned with the company’s product and growth strategy.
• Make pragmatic decisions about rebuilding, refactoring or retaining existing components.
• Establish reliable systems for performance, monitoring, resilience and scalability.
• Ensure the platform can support increasing user activity, messaging, discovery, transactions and partner integrations.

Mobile Product and Engineering Execution

• Take ownership of technical delivery across iOS, Android, web and backend systems.
• Translate the company vision and product roadmap into executable technical plans.
• Improve mobile-app performance, stability, responsiveness and release quality.
• Establish reliable development, testing, code-review, documentation and deployment processes.
• Improve the speed and predictability of releases.
• Ensure a consistent and high-quality experience across devices, operating systems and markets.
• Work closely with the Founder and CEO on product priorities and customer experience.
• Remain hands-on with development and technical problem-solving where required.

Engineering Leadership

• Lead and manage existing developers, agencies and technical contractors.
• Review the capabilities and performance of current technical contributors.
• Determine which capabilities should remain external and which should be brought in-house.
• Recruit and build a high-performing internal engineering team as funding permits.
• Establish clear technical ownership, accountability and engineering standards.
• Create a culture focused on speed, simplicity, quality and measurable outcomes.
• Mentor developers and support their professional development.

Data, AI and Personalization

• Develop the technical strategy for AI-powered discovery, recommendations and personalization.
• Improve user matching, content relevance and location-based discovery.
• Build strong foundations for analytics, experimentation and product intelligence.
• Support responsible use of behavioral and location-related data.
• Identify opportunities where AI and automation create genuine product or operational value.
• Avoid unnecessary technical complexity where simpler solutions are more effective.

Platform, Marketplace and Integrations

• Own the technical development of the company’s activities, services and marketplace ecosystem.
• Manage integrations with travel, ticketing, commerce, payments, subscriptions and affiliate platforms.
• Improve the reliability and scalability of external APIs and content feeds.
• Build systems that support enterprise partners, businesses, activity hosts and creators.
• Support the expansion of payments, subscriptions, bookings and transaction-based revenue.
• Develop the technical capabilities required for future B2B and enterprise partnerships.

Trust, Safety and Security

• Build privacy, trust and safety into the platform architecture.
• Strengthen authentication, access control, data protection and fraud-prevention systems.
• Improve moderation, reporting and user-safety functionality.
• Ensure appropriate technical safeguards for a global LGBTQ+ platform operating across different markets.
• Support compliance with relevant privacy and data-protection requirements.
• Establish appropriate security monitoring, incident-response and recovery processes.

The Ideal Candidate

You are an experienced technical founder, CTO, engineering leader or senior product engineer who wants to build a company rather than simply manage a development team.

You combine strong technical depth with product judgment, commercial awareness and founder-level ownership.

You are comfortable joining an existing product, reviewing decisions made before your arrival and improving the platform without rebuilding everything unnecessarily.

You can move quickly with limited resources while protecting the long-term integrity of the technology.

Essential Experience

• Significant experience building and launching consumer-facing mobile applications.
• The ability to showcase mobile applications that you have personally built, technically led or played a substantial role in delivering.
• A portfolio, GitHub profile, App Store or Google Play links, case studies or other credible examples of past mobile work.
• Strong understanding of iOS and Android development, whether native or through a suitable cross-platform framework.
• Strong knowledge of backend architecture, APIs, databases and cloud infrastructure.
• Experience reviewing and improving an existing codebase.
• Experience managing developers, contractors, agencies or engineering teams.
• Experience working within an early-stage or high-growth technology company.
• Strong understanding of security, privacy and technical risk.
• Ability to explain complex technical matters clearly to founders, commercial stakeholders and investors.
• Strong product instincts and genuine interest in user behavior and customer experience.
• Willingness to remain hands-on where necessary.

Candidates who cannot demonstrate relevant past work in mobile products are unlikely to be suitable for this role.

Particularly Relevant Experience

Experience in one or more of the following would be highly valuable:

• Social networks or community platforms
• LGBTQ+ consumer products
• Location-based discovery or mapping
• Messaging, chat or real-time communication
• Video calling or user-generated content
• Consumer marketplaces
• Activities, bookings or ticketing platforms
• Recommendation systems and personalization
• AI-powered consumer applications
• Subscription products and mobile payments
• Travel, events, hospitality or local discovery
• Trust and safety for consumer platforms
• Rapidly scaling mobile applications

Equity and Buy-In

This role includes meaningful founder-level equity, subject to vesting, Board approval and definitive legal documentation.

The expected structure may include:

• Founder-level service equity subject to four-year vesting
• A one-year cliff followed by monthly vesting
• Company repurchase rights over unvested shares
• Full intellectual-property and invention assignment
• A separate opportunity to invest directly in Abracadabra+

A personal investment or buy-in is welcomed, but it is not a substitute for the technical leadership and operational contribution expected from the CTO.

Any investment would be completed separately from the service-equity grant and documented through the company’s applicable financing instrument.

Salary

The initial package may be primarily equity-based, depending on the company’s funding position and the candidate’s availability.

A market-aligned salary is intended following a successful financing round and will be agreed separately.

Equal Opportunity

Abracadabra+ is committed to building a diverse and inclusive company.

We welcome candidates of all backgrounds, identities and experiences. A personal understanding of LGBTQ+ communities is valuable, but lived experience within the community is not a requirement.

What matters most is alignment with the mission, respect for the users we serve and the ability to build an exceptional global technology company.