Technical CTO

Description:

Blocknetica is an early-stage fintech startup developing a payment platform integrating Open Banking with blockchain (Polygon/zkEVM) to enable businesses to accept and settle funds with full on-chain traceability. As the Technical Co-Founder/CTO, you will own the full technical vision, lead architecture, and deliver a fully functional MVP within 4 months, showcasing live GBP flows and automated on-chain fee splitting.

This hands-on leadership role involves building the backend (Node.js/TypeScript), frontend (Next.js), smart contracts (Solidity), and DevOps infrastructure, while also recruiting and mentoring a remote/offshore engineering team. You will collaborate closely with the CEO and other functions to ensure regulatory compliance, technical scalability, and product-market fit, laying the foundation for FCA EMI licensing and future growth.

Key Responsibilities:

• Define end-to-end system architecture including Open Banking APIs, EMI sponsor integrations, and on-chain audit contracts

• Build and deliver MVP components including payment initiation, fee-splitting microservices, smart contracts, and dashboards

• Recruit and mentor engineers, establish CI/CD pipelines, and enforce code quality standards

• Implement secure, scalable cloud infrastructure and monitoring (AWS/GCP, Docker, Kubernetes, etc.)

• Ensure compliance with FCA requirements and regulatory documentation

• Develop a technical roadmap balancing MVP delivery and long-term scalability (multi-chain, Layer 2 evaluation)

Required Skills:

• Solidity smart contract development on Ethereum-compatible Layer 2s (Polygon, zkEVM)

• Node.js + TypeScript backend development with microservices architecture

• Open Banking API integration (TrueLayer, Yapily) and EMI API experience preferred

• Frontend development with Next.js, React, TypeScript, TailwindCSS

• Strong DevOps, security, and automated testing experience

• Leadership, communication, and entrepreneurial mindset

Education:
Bachelor’s or Master’s degree in Computer Science, Engineering, or equivalent practical experience.

Compensation & Equity:

• Equity-based co-founder role with meaningful ownership stake

• Deferred salary until funding closes, then competitive CTO salary with benefits

• Standard 4-year vesting with 1-year cliff and potential additional equity grants