Chief Technology Officer (CTO)

We’re Not Looking for a Manager. We’re Looking for a Builder.

CryptaCount is a crypto accounting and tax compliance SaaS platform serving businesses, accounting firms, and individual tax filers. We already have a first working product, paying customers and a technical architecture that processes blockchain transactions. What we don’t have is a technical co-pilot.

We’re looking for someone who started their career writing Java, who shipped real products, who understands what it takes to go from a working codebase to a scalable platform — and who’s ready to own that journey. Not someone who “oversaw” engineers from a distance. Someone who can open IntelliJ on Monday morning and push production code by Friday, while also thinking about what the architecture needs to look like in 18 months.

If you’ve been a senior developer or tech lead and you’ve been eyeing the CTO chair — this is your shot. If you’ve done it before at a small startup and want to do it again with stronger foundations — even better.

What You’re Walking Into (This Isn’t a Blank Canvas)

This isn’t a “build from scratch” role. The platform is live, the architecture is documented, and the codebase is substantial. You’ll be inheriting a real system and taking it to the next level.

Current Stack

• Backend: Java 23 on Spring Boot 4.x with PostgreSQL
• Frontend: React / TypeScript with a custom theme system
• Infrastructure: GCP Cloud Run, Cloud SQL, GitHub Actions CI/CD
• Two separate frontends — B2B (mostly done) and B2C (under development) — sharing a single Spring Boot API
• Multi-region data architecture
• Blockchain integration layer

What’s Already Built

• Full RBAC system with platform roles, company roles, and workspace roles
• Different accounting methods
• Double-entry journal system with hash chain tamper evidence
• OAuth 2.0 + JWT with refresh token rotation, email OTP passwordless auth
• Stripe billing with multi-entity support
• CEX integrations pipeline
• Specification documents, Architecture Decision Records, DevOps runbook

What You’ll Own

Near Term: Ship & Stabilize

• Take the platform from “working product” to “production-hardened SaaS” — error handling, monitoring, observability
• Complete priority CEX integrations
• Build the transaction classification engine and DeFi protocol tracking
• Deliver tax report generation
• Integrate with accounting systems
• Ship crypto tax reporting for EU regulatory compliance (effective 2027)

Medium Term: Scale & Harden

• Migrate from Cloud Run to Kubernetes (GKE) or similar as transaction volume and team grow
• Implement horizontal scaling, auto-scaling policies, blue-green deployments
• Build AI-powered features (transaction classification, smart categorization, support)
• Architect and ship the mobile application
• Establish a proper engineering hiring pipeline and build the team

Long Term: Lead & Architect

• Define the technical strategy as CTO — make build-vs-buy decisions, choose partners, set standards
• Represent the technology to investors, partners, and enterprise clients
• Scale the engineering organization from solo founder to a structured team with code review culture, sprint cadence, and technical mentorship
• Own security posture, SOC 2 readiness, and compliance infrastructure

And more…

Who You Are

The Non-Negotiables

• You grew up as a developer. Java is your first language (or close to it). You’ve written Spring Boot services that run in production.
• You’ve shipped SaaS products. You understand CI/CD pipelines, database migrations, cloud deployments, and the difference between “it works on my machine” and “it’s running in prod.”
• You have 8+ years of progressive software development experience with at least some of that in a lead or senior architect role.
• You can context-switch between writing a Flyway migration, reviewing a React PR, debugging a GCP IAM issue, and presenting to an investor — all in the same day.
• You understand blockchain at a technical level — RPCs, transaction parsing, chain-specific quirks, token standards.
• You’re based in Dubai or Luxembourg (or willing to relocate, initially - remotely).

The Strong Preferences

• Experience with PostgreSQL at scale, GCP services, and containerized deployments.
• Familiarity with fintech, accounting principles, or regulatory compliance (crypto tax, MiCA, DAC8).
• Modern AI tools (Claude, Github copilot …)
• You’ve been a first-time CTO or tech lead at an early-stage startup before — or you’ve been the senior dev who was the de facto CTO without the title.
• Comfortable with TypeScript/React on the frontend (you don’t need to be a frontend expert, but you shouldn’t be afraid of it) and comfortable picking up other frameworks as needed.

The Personality Fit

• Startup-wired: you’re energized by ambiguity, not paralyzed by it.
• Pragmatic over dogmatic: you pick the right tool for the job, not the trendy one.
• You can manage your own time and priorities without someone assigning tickets to you.
• You can get things done, test and deliver a working product.
• High EQ and intercultural fluency — the team and the market are global.
• You’re hungry. Whether it’s your first CTO role or your third, you want to build something real.

Compensation & Engagement Model

Let’s be upfront: this is a pre-funding startup. There is no salary budget today. We’re offering two paths, and you choose what works for you:

Option A: Full Commitment, Full Ownership

• Join as CTO with meaningful equity (standard 4-year vesting, 1-year cliff)
• Full-time commitment from day one — you’re building this with us
• No salary until funding is raised or revenue reaches a sustainable level
• When funding arrives, you gradually move to a competitive market-rate salary
• Best for: someone with financial runway, conviction, and the appetite to co-found

Option B: Advisory CTO, Then Full-Time

• Join as CTO in a nominal/advisory capacity (~1-2 hours per week)
• Participate in investor conversations and technical due diligence
• Smaller equity (share options) allocation reflecting the lighter initial commitment
• Transition to full-time with competitive salary once funding closes
• Best for: someone with a current job who wants to test the waters before jumping in

Both paths lead to the same destination: you as the full-time CTO of a funded, growing company. The difference is timing and risk appetite.

What We Bring to the Table

• A live product with first real users and small revenue — not a pitch deck and a dream
• A documented codebase
• A CEO (Sergey Gorchakov, ACCA) who understands accounting, compliance, and the crypto market across dozens of jurisdictions
• A clear product roadmap with identified feature gaps prioritized into three tiers
• Luxembourg accelerator participant (Fit 4 Start) till June 2026, after which we plan to raise