Chief Technical Officer / Solutions Architect
Our client is a Personal Financial Management Platform for Women. They are currently iterating toward Seed Round. They are looking for someone to join their team, initially on a sweat equity basis for approx 10 hours a month initially.
On completion of the raise, the role will turn into a paid 2-3 days a week and increasing to full-time as they grow over time.
They are closing the confidence and wealth gap through an Open Banking-powered PFM platform - featuring behavioural nudges, goal setting, and future AI-driven financial insights designed specifically for the way women relate to money.
You would be joining at the most exciting inflection point: post-MVP, with beta users on platform, active investor conversations underway, and a brand ready to be brought to life at scale.
As Solutions Architect / CTO, you will be the most senior technical voice - accountable for the architecture, quality, and direction of the platform. You will work hands-on alongside the dev team to ship improvements continuously, while also thinking ahead to the infrastructure decisions that will support the next 18 months of growth.
Core Responsibilities
Technical Leadership & Platform Ownership
- Own the end-to-end technical architecture of the platform - from Open Banking data ingestion through to the user-facing insights layer.
- Define and enforce development standards, code quality practices, and architectural patterns across the team.
- Act as the primary technical decision-maker, balancing speed-to-market with long-term scalability.
- Report directly to the COO and participate in founder and investor discussions as the technical authority.
Continuous Build & MVP Iteration
- Lead sprint planning and continuous delivery of the beta product, translating user feedback and product priorities into actionable technical roadmap items.
- Collaborate daily with the development team to unblock issues, review code, and maintain build momentum.
- Define and implement the Statement of Work (SOW) for each development phase, ensuring clear scope, milestones, and accountability.
- Identify and address technical debt early, before it constrains the post-raise build.
Open Banking & Integrations
- Architect and oversee integrations with Australia's Consumer Data Right (CDR) / Open Banking framework with partners.
- Design real-time transaction ingestion, categorisation pipelines, and data enrichment services.
- Evaluate and manage third-party API providers across banking and financial data aggregation.
- Ensure data normalisation standards that support the AI/ML-driven nudge engine.
Cybersecurity & Compliance
- Work closely with the Cybersecurity Advisor to embed security-by-design across all architecture decisions.
- Ensure platform compliance with Australian privacy law, CDR security standards, and relevant global frameworks (PCI-DSS, SOC 2).
- Implement authentication and identity management best practices (OAuth2, OpenID Connect).
- Lead threat modelling and architecture security reviews ahead of investor and banking partner due diligence.
Fundraising & Investor Readiness
- Translate the technical architecture into clear, compelling narratives for investors and strategic partners.
- Prepare and maintain technical due diligence documentation in readiness for seed close.
- Help identify the right infrastructure, tooling, and team structure to scale post-raise.
- Contribute to the technical sections of pitch materials and data room documentation.
What We're Looking For
Experience
- 6+ years in software engineering or solutions architecture, with at least 2 years in a senior or lead role.
- Direct experience in fintech, digital banking, or financial services technology - Open Banking experience highly regarded.
- Proven ability to lead small dev teams through rapid iteration cycles in a startup or scale-up environment.
- Cloud-native architecture experience (GCP); containerisation and microservices patterns.
- Exposure to AI/ML pipelines for transaction categorisation or behavioural insight is a strong plus.
Technical Skills
- Microservices, API-first and event-driven architecture on Google Cloud Platform (GCP)
- RESTful APIs and GraphQL
- Containerisation and deployment: Google Cloud Run, GKE (Google Kubernetes Engine), or equivalent
- Relational and NoSQL databases; low-latency transaction processing
- Security frameworks: OAuth2, OpenID Connect, PCI-DSS, SOC 2
- Familiarity with Australian CDR/Open Banking standards; experience working across full stack including no-code/low-code front-end tools (e.g. Framer)
The Person
- You care about the mission - closing the gender wealth gap is something you find genuinely meaningful.
- You are comfortable with the ambiguity and pace of a seed-stage startup and energised rather than unsettled by it.
- You communicate clearly with non-technical stakeholders - the CEO, COO, investors, and future banking partners will lean on you.
- You lead with generosity: you bring the dev team along, not just deliver instructions.
- You think in systems but move with urgency.
You may currently be in a full time role, but have 10 hours per month to commit, with the view to this turning into a longer-term career option for you - whilst gaining sweat equity for the first part.
If you are energised by the pace and autonomy of a seed-stage startup and you want co-builder status, not just a job title - apply now.
Due to the volume of applications, we can only reply to candidates who are suitable for our current roles.