Role : Chief Technology Officer (CTO)

Location : Bangalore, India Full-Time Leadership Band - startup experience- SAAS based.

Reports To : Founder & CEO

Location : Bangalore, India (with travel as required)

Function : Technology & Product

Level : C-Suite / Executive Leadership

Team Size : ~40 Engineers, Architects & Delivery Leads

Employment : Full-Time, Permanent

Company Stage : Series A | ~$2M ARR | 120 employees | 15+ countries

The CTO will be the chief architect of Companys vision - building world-class products, leading an AI-first engineering culture, and directly enabling revenue growth and global expansion.

Role Context & Strategic Mandate :

This is a defining hire. The CTO will own end-to-end technology leadership - from product architecture and platform engineering to delivery governance and AI innovation. You will be an equal partner to the CEO in shaping Companys roadmap through a $5M fundraise (targeted Q4 2026) and beyond.

The first 90 days will focus on three priorities :

- Stabilising and accelerating the Jago AI platform - MCP architecture, Zoho integrations, voice interface, and enterprise-grade security.

- Taking direct ownership of the AI-first internal transformation workstreams already in flight.

- Building a high-performance engineering organization : hiring, processes, OKRs, and delivery cadence.

Key Responsibilities :

Technology Strategy & Vision :

- Define and own Company's multi-year technology roadmap aligned to business growth, fundraising, and global expansion.

- Lead the evolution of Jago AI from an internal AI tool toward a scalable, multi-tenant SaaS product on MCP and Claude.

- Establish the company as a recognized technology innovator in the Zoho ecosystem and broader enterprise AI space.

- Advise the Board and CEO on technology trends, competitive positioning, and build-vs-buy decisions.

Product Engineering & Architecture :

- Architect and govern the Jago AI platform - voice interface, agentic workflows, MCP integration, Zoho CRM/Books/Projects connectors, and Claude API orchestration.

- Ensure platform scalability, reliability, and security to support enterprise clients across 15+ countries.

- Drive ISO 27001 certification maintenance and evolve the cybersecurity posture in partnership with Thiru Labs.

- Define and enforce engineering standards : code quality, CI/CD, test coverage, documentation, and DevSecOps.

AI-First Transformation Leadership :

- Own the technical execution of Companys internal AI automation mandate - 44+ Finance bots, 53 HR bots, and cross-department automation.

- Lead five AAE (AI Automation Engineering) Champion workstreams and ensure delivery against the Q2 2026 milestones.

- Build and maintain Companys AI Centre of Excellence - tooling, LLM evaluation frameworks, prompt engineering, and agent orchestration.

- Partner with the CEO to embed AI capabilities into Companys client delivery methodology.

Engineering Organization & Talent :

- Build, lead, and mentor a high-performing team of ~40 engineers, architects, and delivery leads.

- Establish career frameworks, performance OKRs, and a culture of accountability, innovation, and continuous learning.

- Scale the GEEP (Graduate Engineer Employability Program) as a talent pipeline for Companys engineering function.

- Partner with HR on technical hiring, onboarding, and retention strategy.

Client & Commercial Engagement :

- Act as the primary technical voice in enterprise sales, pre-sales, and strategic account management.

- Support the CXpC Oman franchise launch with replicable technology infrastructure and technical enablement.

- Represent the company in technical due diligence processes for the $5M fundraise and future M&A activity.

- Engage with Anthropic, Zoho, and other strategic technology partners at a senior technical level.

Delivery Governance & Quality :

- Own end-to-end delivery governance : sprint planning, milestone tracking, risk management, and stakeholder reporting.

- Establish an engineering operations function with clear metrics - velocity, defect rates, uptime SLAs, and customer satisfaction.

- Intervene and stabilise at-risk client implementations (e.g., post-go-live crises) with urgency and authority.

Qualifications & Experience :

Educational Background :

- B.Tech / B.E. / M.Tech from an IIT (Indian Institutes of Technology) - mandatory requirement.

- Postgraduate degree (MBA / MS / PhD) from a premier institution (IIM, IISc, Stanford, MIT, or equivalent) is a strong advantage.

- Deep academic grounding in Computer Science, Software Engineering, AI/ML, or a related discipline.

Experience - Essential :

- 15+ years in technology roles, with at least 5 years in a CTO, VP Engineering, or Head of Product & Engineering capacity.

- Proven track record of taking AI-native or SaaS products from 0-to-1 (MVP) through to enterprise-grade, multi-tenant production deployment.

- Experience leading engineering teams of 20+ in fast-growth, resource-constrained environments - ideally in a Series A / B technology company.

- Demonstrated ownership of technical due diligence, investor reporting, and technology representation in fundraising or M&A contexts.

- Prior P&L or engineering cost-centre ownership with accountability for budget, headcount, and delivery outcomes.

Product Development Experience :

- End-to-end product lifecycle ownership : ideation, architecture, sprint planning, QA, release management, and post-launch iteration.

- Experience building and shipping multi-tenant SaaS platforms with complex integration ecosystems (CRM, ERP, financial systems).

- Deep familiarity with voice-enabled or conversational AI products - NLP pipelines, ASR/TTS, dialogue management, and real-time analytics.

- Track record of building agentic AI systems : tool-use frameworks, autonomous workflows, multi-step reasoning chains, and LLM evaluation harnesses.

- Hands-on experience with MCP (Model Context Protocol) or equivalent context-management and tool-orchestration architectures.

- Experience integrating and product lising enterprise APIs at scale - Zoho CRM, Zoho Books, Zoho Projects, or comparable ERP/CRM platforms.

- Strong product sense - ability to translate business problems into technical solutions and technical constraints into product trade-offs.

Technical Stack - Required Proficiency :

AI / ML & LLM Orchestration :

- LLM APIs : Anthropic Claude (claude-opus-4, claude-sonnet-4), OpenAI GPT-4 / o-series, Google Gemini Pro

- Agentic frameworks : LangChain, LlamaIndex, AutoGen, CrewAI, or equivalent orchestration libraries

- MCP (Model Context Protocol) - server/client architecture, tool registration, and context streaming

- ML platforms : HuggingFace, AWS SageMaker, Azure ML, or Google Vertex AI

- Vector databases : Pinecone, Weaviate, Qdrant, or pgvector for RAG architectures

- Voice AI : Whisper (ASR), ElevenLabs / Azure Speech (TTS), real-time audio streaming pipelines

Backend Engineering & APIs :

- Languages : Python (primary), Node.js / TypeScript; Java or Go (secondary)

- API design : REST, GraphQL, gRPC, WebSockets; API gateway patterns and versioning strategy

- Frameworks : FastAPI, Django, Express.js, Spring Boot

- Message queues & event streaming : Kafka, RabbitMQ, AWS SQS/SNS

- Databases : PostgreSQL, MySQL, MongoDB, Redis; query optimisation at scale

Cloud, Infrastructure & DevSecOps :

- Cloud platforms : AWS (primary), Azure, or GCP - solutions architect-level proficiency

- Containerization : Docker, Kubernetes (EKS / AKS / GKE), Helm charts

- Infrastructure as Code : Terraform, AWS CDK, or Pulumi

- CI/CD pipelines : GitHub Actions, GitLab CI, Jenkins, ArgoCD

- Observability : Datadog, Grafana, Prometheus, ELK stack; SLI/SLO/SLA definition and monitoring

Security & Compliance :

- ISO 27001 ISMS governance - certification implementation or oversight experience

- DevSecOps : SAST/DAST tooling, secrets management (Vault, AWS Secrets Manager), OWASP practices

- Identity & access : OAuth 2.0, OIDC, SAML, Active Directory / LDAP integration

- Data privacy : GDPR, India DPDP Act, and multi-jurisdictional compliance across 15+ countries

Frontend & Visualisation :

- React / Next.js or Vue.js for enterprise web dashboards and portals

- Mobile-first design principles; React Native or Flutter awareness

- Data visualisation : Recharts, D3.js, or BI tool integration (Power BI, Zoho Analytics)

Enterprise Integrations :

- Zoho ecosystem : CRM, Books, Projects, Analytics, Flow, Creator APIs (zoho.com and zoho.in data centres)

- ERP/HRMS : SAP, Oracle, Microsoft Dynamics, Darwinbox, Workday, or ServiceNow

- Telephony & communication : Twilio, WhatsApp Business API, MS Teams / Slack integrations

Highly Desirable :

- Open-source contributions or published technical writing / patents in AI, distributed systems, or SaaS architecture.

- Prior startup founder or early-stage CTO experience - understanding of zero-to-one product development constraints.

- Exposure to franchise or multi-geography technology rollouts and replicable platform architectures.

- Track record of building AI automation COEs - bot development, RPA, or intelligent process automation at enterprise scale.

Leadership Attributes :

- Builder mindset - energised by creating structure from ambiguity and leading in a high-growth environment.

- Strategic and hands-on - equally comfortable in boardroom conversations and architecture review sessions.

- High accountability - sets clear expectations, owns outcomes, and drives delivery with urgency.

- Collaborative communicator - earns trust with engineers, clients, investors, and executive peers.

- Adaptable and resilient - thrives under the parallel demands of product innovation, client delivery, and organisational scaling.

Performance Metrics - Year 1 :

Metric :

- Target : Jago AI Platform - Enterprise-ready v1.0 launch Q3 2026

- AI-First Transformation : 70% productivity uplift Q4 2026

- Internal automation bots live (Finance + HR) 80+ bots by Q3 2026

- Engineering team NPS / retention 8.0 / < 15% attrition

- Platform uptime SLA (client deployments) 99.5%

- ISO 27001 - sustained & zero critical findings

- Continuous Technical due diligence - $5M fundraise Q4 2026 close

- CXpC Oman : technology infrastructure live Q3 2026

Compensation & Benefits :

Company offers a competitive executive compensation package commensurate with experience and calibre :

- Competitive fixed salary - benchmarked at CTO level for a Series A technology company in Bangalore.

- Performance bonus - linked to company ARR growth, Jago AI milestones, and fundraise outcomes.

- Employee Stock Options (ESOPs) - meaningful equity participation in Companys growth story.

- Health & wellness coverage - comprehensive medical insurance for self and family.

- Professional development - access to AI/ML conferences, certifications, and executive coaching.

- Flexible leadership culture - outcome-driven, with the autonomy to build the technology function your way.

Reporting Structure :

The CTO reports directly to the Founder & CEO and is a full member of the Companys Executive Leadership Team, which currently comprises :

- CEO

- COO - Operations & Client Delivery

- CTO (this role) - Technology & Product

- VP Sales & Partnerships

- VP Finance & Strategy

- Direct reports to the CTO will include :

- Head of Engineering (Zoho Practice)

- Head of Product - Jago AI

- Lead Architect / Principal Engineer

- AI COE Lead

- DevSecOps & Infrastructure Lead

How to Apply :

Company is seeking an exceptional leader ready to step into one of the most exciting technology roles in India's enterprise AI space. We move quickly and value substance over credentials.

To apply, please send :

- Your CV / LinkedIn profile.

- A brief note (300 words or less) on how you would approach the first 90 days as Companys CTO.

- Any relevant case studies, GitHub profiles, or product examples you are proud of.