Vice President of Software Engineering / CTO

About the Company

Our client is a well-capitalized, founder-led health technology company built around one of the most respected bodies of clinical knowledge in sports medicine. The company was founded in partnership with a nationally recognized physician-leader whose decades of clinical practice, research, and education have shaped the field, and it is turning that expertise into an AI-powered platform serving athletes, parents, coaches, athletic trainers, and organizations across the sports and healthcare ecosystem. The company is based in Nashville, Tennessee, one of the country's leading healthcare and health technology hubs.

About the Role

The company is seeking a Chief Technology Officer to lead its technology strategy and execution. This is a foundational technical leadership role at an early-stage company building a genuinely proprietary AI platform, not a general-purpose tool layered on top of someone else's data.

Responsibilities

• Own the technology strategy, architecture, and technical roadmap for the company
• Lead the continued development of the company's proprietary AI intelligence layer and AI-driven products, including RAG, model orchestration, and applied LLM capabilities
• Oversee the company's AI, data, application, and cloud infrastructure
• Manage both internal engineering hires and outside development partners
• Build and lead the internal technology organization as the company grows
• Develop the company's data strategy, including how proprietary knowledge, clinical information, and user data are structured, protected, and used
• Establish strong standards around cybersecurity, privacy, access controls, and data governance, including HIPAA where relevant
• Protect the company's intellectual property and ensure it maintains ownership and control of its technology, codebase, and proprietary intelligence
• Support technology integrations and partnerships with health systems, sports organizations, and other enterprise partners
• Own technical budgets, KPIs, and resource planning, with clear visibility to the executive team on progress, opportunities, and risk

Qualifications

Candidates should have significant experience building and scaling technology products from an early or startup stage, ideally within AI, healthcare technology, data platforms, or SaaS. Deep, hands-on knowledge of modern AI systems, including large language models, retrieval-augmented generation, model orchestration, and data infrastructure, is essential, along with experience architecting scalable cloud-based software.

Required Skills

• Experience leading internal engineering teams and managing outside development partners
• Ability to take a product from early development through commercial scale
• Strong grounding in cybersecurity, data privacy, and technology risk management
• Ability to evaluate technical decisions through both an engineering and a business lens

Preferred Skills

• Experience in healthcare, sports medicine, digital health, or HIPAA-regulated environments
• Established in the Nashville healthcare technology ecosystem

This search is being conducted on a confidential, retained basis by ITAC Solutions. Interested candidates should reach out directly to Charles Baughman at ITAC Solutions (View email address on click.appcast.io) for a confidential conversation. Every conversation is confidential; Charles will not share your interest, your name, or your background with anyone without your permission. Client identity will not be disclosed until mutual interest is established.