Startup CTO possible co-founder role, hands on Rust, startup experience a must have

About the role

OleOle is building a football-focused social network and super app combining: - Real-time social feeds and microblogging - Messaging and mobile communication - TikTok-style short-form video - Live scores and sports engagement - AI-powered translation and football history - Rewards, payments, and future crypto infrastructure This role may evolve into a co-founder-level position for the right person. You will define the long-term technical architecture of the company while also helping build and ship the platform alongside the engineering team. We are not looking for a CTO who has spent the last 20 years only managing meetings, vendors, and process. We are looking for someone who still codes, still understands systems deeply, and still enjoys building.

Responsibilities

• Define and lead the long-term technical architecture of the platform
• Lead backend architecture and infrastructure strategy using Rust-based systems
• Help build scalable systems supporting feeds, messaging, live updates, video, and data infrastructure
• Oversee engineering direction across backend, frontend, infrastructure, and product systems
• Partner closely with leadership on product and company strategy
• Establish engineering culture, hiring standards, and technical execution processes
• Work directly with engineers on architecture reviews, tradeoffs, and implementation decisions
• Help design future financial infrastructure including rewards, wallets, payments, and crypto-related systems
• Support AI-powered systems including translation, recommendation, search, and football history infrastructure
• Ensure scalability, reliability, performance, and security across all systems
• Technical Areas Involved
• Rust backend infrastructure
• Real-time systems and asynchronous architecture
• APIs, event-driven systems, and distributed services
• Messaging and feed infrastructure
• Video and media systems
• AI and data infrastructure
• Payment and wallet systems
• SSR and SEO-focused architecture
• High-scale consumer product engineering
• What Makes Someone Successful in This Role
• You have personally designed and operated production systems
• You still enjoy building and solving technical problems directly
• You can explain architectural tradeoffs clearly and pragmatically
• You understand how consumer platforms scale technically and operationally
• You focus on execution and shipping, not unnecessary complexity
• You are comfortable operating in ambiguous startup environments
• You know when simplicity is the correct engineering decision
• You can lead engineers without becoming disconnected from the technology
• We value real-world system ownership, technical depth, execution ability, and engineering judgment significantly more than keyword-heavy resumes.
• Compensation & Structure
• This role is currently structured as deferred compensation.
• All current team members - including leadership, engineers, designers, and product teams - are currently working under the same structure while the company secures funding.
• This is not unpaid work.
• Compensation is intended to convert into a normalized salary structure post-funding, in addition to:
• Significant equity ownership
• Long-term token participation
• Founding-level influence over the company and platform
• We want to be fully transparent:
• There is real startup risk
• Fundraising timelines are unpredictable
• Building at this stage requires resilience, ownership, and long-term thinking
• At the same time, this is an opportunity to help architect and build one of the most ambitious consumer platforms in global football from the earliest stages.
• OleOle - Where Fans Kick Off

Requirements

• A product-first, systems-oriented technical leader who understands:
• Real-time social feeds and recommendation systems
• Messaging and event-driven infrastructure
• High-performance backend architecture
• Frontend/backend integration for modern consumer products
• Payments, wallet infrastructure, or financial systems
• AI infrastructure and data-driven products
• Scalability, reliability, and operational discipline
• You do not need to be an expert in every area above.
• However, you should have strong experience across multiple domains and the ability to make pragmatic technical decisions across a highly ambitious product ecosystem.
• Your Background
• 7-15+

Benefits

Additional Information

Chief Technology Officer (CTO) Founding Technical Leadership Role - Rust - Real-Time Systems - Social - AI - Payments Please read the full job description before applying. We are not looking for a traditional corporate CTO. We are looking for a hands-on technical leader who still builds, ships, reviews architecture, and understands modern product engineering at scale. This role is for someone who combines strong engineering judgment with startup execution ability - someone comfortable moving between backend architecture, real-time systems, infrastructure, product strategy, and technical leadership.

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