Chief Technology Officer (Chicago)

Index Industries is a venture-backed startup, focused on building foundational infrastructure at the intersection of fintech and blockchain. We are currently in stealth mode, developing USHP- a next-generation product designed to address critical gaps in financial systems.

We are a small, deliberate team at an early stage. The people joining now will shape not just what we build, but how we build it, our culture, our standards, and our long-term trajectory. We are not looking for passengers; we are looking for builders who take ownership and thrive in environments where the path is still being defined.

Due to the nature of our work, specific product details are shared during the interview process under NDA.

USHP is building two related products: a proprietary daily predictive index of U.S. home prices, and an on-chain token whose value tracks that index. The token is collateralized by real U.S. residential properties and pays staking yield from the net income generated by the underlying portfolio. The protocol includes a full DeFi integration suite: Pendle yield tokenization, Aave/Morpho collateral, and Uniswap/Curve liquidity.

About the Role

We're looking for a founding CTO who can define and execute a technical vision for a next-generation fintech/blockchain product — someone who can code when needed, hire a great team, and make the right architectural bets before they become expensive mistakes. You'll be a co-builder, not just a manager.

Responsibilities

• Own the full technical architecture: infrastructure, backend, frontend, smart contracts, and security
• Hire, mentor, and retain a world-class engineering team from early-stage through scale
• Make build vs. buy decisions, set the tech stack, and establish engineering best practices
• Work directly with the CEO/founders to translate product vision into technical strategy
• Interface with investors on technical due diligence and product roadmap
• Oversee security, compliance infrastructure, and regulatory readiness (SOC 2, etc.)
• Define and own the protocol/smart contract strategy if applicable

Requirements

• 8+ years in software engineering, including 3+ years in a technical leadership role
• Deep expertise in at least one of: fintech infrastructure (payments, lending, banking-as-a-service), blockchain/smart contract development (Solidity, Rust/Anchor), or security-first distributed systems
• Experience taking a product from 0 to production in a startup environment
• Track record of hiring and retaining strong engineers
• Strong communication — you can explain architecture to investors and code to engineers
• Bonus: experience with on-chain protocol design, tokenomics, or DeFi infrastructure

Compensation

Competitive base + significant equity. Co-founder consideration available for the right candidate.