Interim CTO / Head of Engineering (Contract)
We're partnering with an exciting, fast growing business that is looking for an Interim CTO / Head of Engineering to provide immediate impact.
IR35: Outside
Day Rate: Up to £850 per day
Location: Hybrid-on site a couple of days per week (London-based HQ)
Start: ASAP
Duration: 3 months Duration then likely 3 month extension
Mission
Lead engineering to product-market fit and beyond. Build a beautiful, high-craft AI marketing platform that delivers authenticity, speed, and usability for small-business owners. Create the foundation to scale to tens of thousands of users and eventual IPO/acquisition.
Builds fast and excellent — ship meaningful work quickly while sweating the details where it matters.
Outcomes
1. Ship an end-to-end AI marketing platform that produces assets users want and use, validated in at least one ICP niche within 3.
2. Deliver rapid product iterations every 2–4 weeks with measurable adoption and engagement gains.
3. Establish engineering processes that allow a 5-person team to move with focus, speed, and quality.
4. Recruit, retain, and develop top engineering talent, building a high-talent-density team.
5. Make foundational technical decisions (AI integration, infrastructure, architecture) that enable scalability and defensible IP.
6. Personally solve hard technical problems in AI, creative tooling, integrations, and system performance.
Competencies
* Early-stage leadership (founder/Head of Eng/CTO background at scaling startup).
* Deep technical expertise in web platforms, AI/ML integration, and creative tools (video, image, content workflows).
* High judgment under uncertainty; balances speed with long-term architecture.
* Relentless execution, "all in" mindset.
* Talent magnet: attracts, hires, and mentors exceptional engineers.
* Obsession with product craft and user experience.
* Strong chemistry with founders and team; communicates vision and trade-offs clearly.
* Energised communicator,brings momentum, clarity, and ease to collaboration.
Cultural Fit
* Build fast and excellent meaningful work quickly while knowing where polish matters.
* Customer obsessed, learns directly from users and integrates insights into technical choices.
* Energised brings positivity and momentum, making Presence a magnet for talent.
* Team builder, shows up for colleagues, grows culture, and makes the team stronger.
* High impact sets ambitious goals, holds self accountable, and thrives in the pace of startups.
* Growth mindset, actively seeks and receives feedback, improves continuously.
Responsibilities
Leadership (≈30%)
* Act as the technical lead and set the engineering direction.
* Guide architecture and stack decisions.
* Ensure the engineering team is aligned with company goals.
* Support and coach engineers, balancing velocity with quality.
Hands‑On Development (≈50%)
* Contribute significant individual coding work, primarily in TypeScript (React/Node ecosystem) with some Python for AI integrations.
* Own and refine our bleeding‑edge AI stack, keeping the codebase production‑ready while experimenting with new capabilities.
* Maintain and improve developer workflows, pipelines, and infrastructure.
Product & Strategy (≈20%)
* Work closely with the founder on product brainstorming and iteration.
* Translate user and market insights into technical strategy.
* Prototype quickly and validate new AI‑powered features.
Key Skills & Stack
* TypeScript (React, Node, Nx, GraphQL, Prisma, Fastify)
* Python (ML/AI integrations)
* AWS CDK, Fargate, Datadog
* Strong product sense, ability to ship fast while maintaining quality
Fit-
This role suits a hands‑on technical leader who thrives in early‑stage environments, enjoys shaping both product and architecture, and can balance coding with leadership responsibilities.