Mitgründerin

Role Summary We’re building a payment platform that lets businesses accept and settle funds while leveraging blockchain (Polygon/zkEVM) for backend traceability. As our Technical Co-Founder/CTO, you’ll own the architecture, lead development of our MVP, and shape our long-term tech strategy.
Demonstrating live GBP flows via Open Banking, with fees auto-split and logged on the Polygon testnet.
Building a production-ready codebase (Node.js/TypeScript backend, Next.js frontend, Solidity contracts) and DevOps pipelines.
Laying the technical groundwork for FCA EMI license applications and scalable operation.
In this founding role, you’ll report directly to the CEO/founder, set sprint cadences, hire and mentor engineers (onshore/offshore), and collaborate with compliance, product, and operations to ensure we hit aggressive milestones.

Technical Strategy & Architecture
Define and evolve the end-to-end system architecture: Open Banking integration, EMI sponsor APIs, fee-splitter microservice, on-chain audit contracts, and dashboards.
Choose frameworks, languages, and cloud services (AWS/GCP) that balance agility, security, and cost-efficiency.

o Open Banking payment initiation and webhook handlers.
o Sponsor EMI integration for virtual accounts and payouts.
o Smart contract development and deployment on Polygon zkEVM (Solidity + Hardhat).
o Frontend modules (Next.js) for merchant onboarding, customer checkout widget, and real-time dashboards.

Recruit, onboard, and mentor a small engineering team (remote/offshore), setting coding standards, CI/CD pipelines, and code-review processes.
Coordinate closely with product, design, and compliance, ensuring feature requirements, UI/UX designs, and regulatory checklists are implemented in sprint cycles.
DevOps & Security
Architect and maintain secure, scalable infrastructure: Dockerized services, Kubernetes or AWS Fargate/ECS, managed PostgreSQL, Redis, and S3.
Implement robust ESLint/Prettier (JS/TS) in CI, automated tests (Jest, Hardhat), and vulnerability scanning (Snyk or GitHub CodeQL).
Ensure all API keys and secrets live in AWS Secrets Manager or GCP Secret Manager, with least-privilege IAM roles.
Set up monitoring, logging, and alerts (CloudWatch, Sentry, Datadog) for payment failures, on-chain errors, and low-gas wallet balances.

Compliance & Regulatory Support
Work with the CEO and legal advisors to translate FCA licensing requirements into technical specifications: data encryption, audit trails, KYC/KYB integrations (Sumsub, ComplyAdvantage), and GDPR compliance.
Help draft and maintain documentation (architecture diagrams, runbooks, security policies) required for FCA sandbox applications and EMI license submissions.

Continuously refine the technical roadmap, balancing immediate MVP requirements with long-term scalability (batching on-chain logs, multi-chain support, loyalty tokenization).
Evaluate emerging Layer 2 solutions (zkSync Era, Arbitrum Nova) and modular SDKs for potential future cost or performance gains.

Blockchain/Web3 Expertise (Required):
2 years or more in writing, testing, and deploying Solidity contracts (0.8.x) on Ethereum or EVM-compatible Layer 2s (Polygon, zkEVM).
Experience with Hardhat (or Truffle) for contract development, testing (Waffle/Chai), and on-chain verification.
js (or Web3.js) for building on-chain services and reading/writing events.

Open Banking & Fintech Integration ( Strongly Preferred) :
Familiarity with sponsor EMI partners (Modulr, Railsr) and their REST API workflows: virtual account creation, payments, payouts, webhooks.

~ 3 years or more in building scalable backend APIs with Node.js + TypeScript (Express.js or NestJS) or FastAPI (Python).
~ Expertise in relational databases (PostgreSQL), caching/queues (Redis, BullMQ or Celery), and advanced SQL (joins, indexes, migrations).
~ Experience building microservices architectures, Docker, and CI/CD.

Frontend Development (Strongly Preferred):
js (v13+), React (Hooks), TypeScript, and TailwindCSS (or equivalent CSS framework).
Experience building dynamic dashboards with data-fetching libraries (SWR or React Query).

· Excellent verbal and written skills to articulate complex technical concepts to non-technical stakeholders (investors, compliance, product).
Proven track record of leading or mentoring remote/offshore teams; fosters a culture of code quality, documentation, and shared ownership.
Problem-Solving: You proactively identify gaps in architecture or security, propose solutions, and drive implementation.
Passion for fintech and Web3—able to stay on top of FCA regulations, PSD2 guidelines, and evolving Layer 2 ecosystems.

Education & Experience
Bachelor’s or Master’s in Computer Science, Engineering, or equivalent practical experience.
4 plus years of professional experience in software engineering, with at least 2 + years in blockchain/Web3.
Prior leadership roles or evidence of scaling engineering processes.

As CTO and co-founder, you’ll be the technical force multiplier for our company. Drive all engineering decisions, from MVP architecture to production maturity.
# Build the Core Team: Recruit, mentor, and inspire engineers who share our mission of frictionless, Web3-powered payments.

Align Tech & Business: Work hand-in-hand with the CEO/founder on fundraising, product iterations, and go-to-market strategy.
Your success directly impacts our ability to raise subsequent rounds (Series A) by demonstrating that we can handle regulated money flows, maintain compliance, and deliver a superior customer/merchant experience.

Compensation & Equity
You will receive a meaningful ownership stake commensurate with a founding CTO position.
Post-Raise Compensation:
A competitive CTO salary (market rate for UK fintech CTOs) will be initiated upon successful funding.
Salary progression and performance bonuses will be defined in your co-founder agreement.
Additional equity grants may be awarded based on performance and milestones.
Benefits (post-raise): Full medical coverage, pension contributions, and budget for training and conferences.

If you’re excited to co-found a fintech startup that marries Open Banking and blockchain, please send us an email to [email protected] brief note on why you’re passionate about payments and blockchain
We look forward to building the future of payments with you.