Founding CTO (Web3)

Founding CTO (Web3)

United States

We are partnering with a venture-backed, early-stage technology company building a programmable loyalty and rewards operating system for global consumer brands. The platform enables brands to launch white-label fan engagement and monetization experiences—including predictions, quests, digital drops, auctions, and ticketing—without gambling mechanics.

At its core, the platform combines consumer-grade applications with a tokenized exchange and settlement layer, enabling branded tokens to be issued, traded, and distributed at scale. Initial verticals are in global sports and entertainment, with expansion planned into additional IP-driven markets.

The company is now seeking a Founding CTO to lead the architecture and build-out of its protocol, exchange infrastructure, and engineering organization from day one.

As Founding CTO, you will be responsible for designing, building, and scaling the full technical stack, with a particular focus on the exchange and protocol layer. You will oversee smart contract development, liquidity and market mechanics, wallet infrastructure, and the integration between on-chain systems and high-scale consumer products.

This is a hands-on leadership role suited to a senior Web3 technologist who has shipped production protocols and wants full ownership of technical strategy in a greenfield environment.

Responsibilities

• Exchange & protocol architecture
• Design and deploy a hybrid AMM / orderbook-based exchange for branded tokens
• Build liquidity pools, routing logic, and market-making infrastructure
• Define token economics, liquidity incentives, and trading mechanics
• Smart contracts
• Develop, test, and deploy core protocol contracts, including:
• Token standards
• Liquidity pools and staking
• Rewards distribution and governance
• Lead audit processes and ensure a strong on-chain security posture
• Wallet & settlement infrastructure
• Implement abstracted wallet solutions (e.g. smart accounts, MPC)
• Integrate fiat on/off-ramps and external custody providers where required
• Platform integration
• Oversee architecture connecting the protocol layer to:
• Engagement mechanics (predictions, quests, missions)
• Rewards and commerce systems (drops, auctions, ticketing, merchandise)
• Analytics and reporting dashboards
• Consumer products
• Guide development of mobile (iOS/Android) and web applications delivered under partner branding
• Leadership & strategy
• Hire, lead, and scale the engineering team across protocol, backend, and product
• Set engineering standards, development workflows, and technical roadmap
• Make strategic build-vs-buy decisions and select vendors and tooling

Qualifications

• 5+ years building blockchain or crypto infrastructure
• Proven experience shipping at least one protocol or exchange to mainnet
• Deep understanding of DeFi mechanics (AMMs, liquidity mining, tokenomics)
• Strong production smart contract experience with a clean audit track record
• Experience working with L2s, rollups, or app-chains
• Familiarity with consumer-facing systems and real-time platforms
• Comfortable operating in early-stage, resource-constrained environments
• Able to balance protocol purity with product and user experience needs
• Strong communicator across technical and non-technical stakeholders

Technical environment

• Smart contracts: Solidity (advanced), Foundry / Hardhat, formal verification fundamentals
• Languages: TypeScript/JavaScript, Rust or Go, Python
• Infrastructure: RPC operations, indexers/subgraphs, GCP, Docker/Kubernetes
• Security: Audit coordination, attack vector mitigation (reentrancy, flash loans, oracle risk), monitoring and incident response
• Product stack exposure: React Native or Flutter, PostgreSQL, Redis, event streaming (useful for protocol-to-product integration)