🚀 Fractional CTO / Head of AI Engineering → AI Recruitment Startup | Pre-Seed

Fractional CTO / Head of AI Engineering → AI Recruitment Startup | Pre-Seed

Job Title: Head of AI Engineering → CTO

Company: Stealth AI Startup (Pre-Seed, Investor-Backed)

Location: Remote (United Kingdom)

Seniority Level: Mid-Senior / Director

About the Role

We’re looking for a Head of AI Engineering who wants to become a CTO . You’re leading AI initiatives or building production AI systems. You understand LLMs, embeddings, RAG architectures. You’ve shipped AI products users depend on. But you’ve never owned the entire AI technical vision for a company from day one. This is that chance.

The Journey

Start fractional. End as founding CTO.

Months 1-6: Build AI MVP (Fractional)

• Work 2-3 days/week (keep your job)
• Design and build core AI matching engine
• Ship to real customers
• Make all AI architecture decisions
• Earn equity from day one

Months 6-12: Transition to CTO

• We close seed round
• You go full-time as founding CTO

Year 1+: Lead as CTO

• Build world-class AI team
• Own complete technical strategy
• Create category-defining AI systems

What You’ll Build

An AI-native matching system that understands executive leadership at unprecedented depth.

• LLM-powered semantic understanding of executive profiles and roles
• 95%+ matching accuracy with proprietary models
• Real-time inference at scale (<100ms latency, millions of profiles)
• RAG pipelines for leadership experience understanding
• Predictive models for executive success and cultural fit
• Continuous learning systems
• LLMs: GPT-4, Claude 3.5, or fine-tuned models
• Cloud: AWS (SageMaker) or GCP (Vertex AI)

Required Qualifications

• 5+ years engineering with 3+ years production AI/ML
• Deep LLM expertise: Prompt engineering, fine-tuning, RAG, agent frameworks
• Hands‑on: OpenAI/Anthropic APIs or open‑source models
• Vector database experience (Pinecone, Weaviate, ChromaDB)
• Shipped AI products (not just prototypes)
• Available 2-3 days/week for 3-6 months
• UK or EU timezone

Preferred

• Currently Head of AI, AI Engineering Manager, or Tech Lead AI
• Experience with recommendation/matching/search systems
• ML Ops: monitoring, A/B testing
• AI startup experience or 0→1 initiatives

What We Offer

Fractional Phase (Months 1-6)

• Competitive fractional day rate
• Meaningful early‑stage equity (vesting starts immediately)
• Complete AI technical autonomy
• Budget for AI tools and experimentation

Full‑Time CTO (Post‑Seed)

• Competitive CTO‑level salary for early‑stage startup
• Significant additional equity as founding CTO
• Hire and lead your AI team
• GPU/compute budget
• Conference budget (NeurIPS, AI Engineer Summit, etc.)
• Standard UK benefits package

Long‑Term

• Co‑founder level equity with life‑changing upside potential
• Founding CTO credentials
• Technical leadership growth
• Access to AI investor network and founder community
• Opportunity to publish research/open‑source

Why Now

The AI is ready: LLMs enable intelligent matching impossible 2 years ago.

The market is ready: £847B executive recruitment market running on 40‑year‑old processes. 12‑18 month searches → 6‑8 weeks. 60% success → 95% accuracy.

You’re ready: You’ve built enough AI systems to know what works. Perfect point to become CTO.

The Challenge

Build AI infrastructure that:

• Understands millions of executive profiles semantically
• Multi‑dimensional matching beyond keywords
• Learns continuously from every placement
• Scales globally with <100ms latency
• Explainable AI for recruiters

This is genuinely hard AI engineering. That’s what makes it interesting.

Success Metrics

6 months: MVP live with 5 customers, 80%+ accuracy, 10K+ profiles processed

12 months: CTO of funded startup, 3‑5 AI engineers hired, 95%+ accuracy, 1M+ profiles

5 years: Most sophisticated AI‑native recruitment platform globally, recognized thought leader in applied AI

About Us

Pre‑seed AI startup building first AI‑native infrastructure for executive recruitment.

We Have

• Angel backing from experienced AI/SaaS investors
• Clear path to seed funding (Q2 2026)
• Validated need through 30+ customer interviews

In stealth but happy to share full details with serious candidates.

Our Philosophy

• AI‑first ≠ AI‑enhanced. Rebuilding from scratch.
• Production > research. Ship, monitor, iterate.
• The best CTOs are made. This role designs that path.

How to Apply

Send via LinkedIn or email:

• One AI system you shipped to production (brief)
• How you’d tackle executive matching (3‑4 sentences)
• Why Head of AI → CTO excites you now

Subject: "Head of AI → CTO - (Your Name)"

Response within 24‑48 hours for qualified candidates.

Interview Process

Fast & respectful of your time:

• Initial chat (30 min) – Mutual fit
• Building workshop (3‑4 hours) – Paid, regardless of outcome
• Final discussion (45 min) – Terms, compensation, equity, alignment

Timeline: 2 weeks from contact to offer

FAQ

"Is this right for me as Head of AI?" Yes. Designed for Heads of AI/AI Engineering Managers ready for CTO step.

"Can I do this fractionally while employed?" Yes. That’s the structure. Check your contract; many allow side work.

"What if I haven’t managed large teams?" You’ll start hands‑on, then hire 2‑3 engineers. Grow into larger teams.

"Do I need fine‑tuning experience?" Helpful but not required initially. Understanding when/why to fine‑tune is sufficient.

"What about compensation?" Competitive market rates for fractional work transitioning to founding CTO package. Full details shared with qualified candidates.

One Last Thing

The jump from Head of AI to CTO is one of tech’s hardest transitions.

Most Heads of AI never make it.

This role is designed to get you there.

You’ll learn to:

• Own complete technical strategy (not just AI)
• Make business tradeoffs with technical decisions
• Build and scale engineering organizations
• Work with customers and close enterprise deals
• Raise funding and pitch technical vision

If becoming a CTO is your next move, this is your path.

Click "Apply" or reach us on LinkedIn

"The best CTOs aren't found. They're made."

Application Deadline: Rolling

Start Date: Flexible (ideally 4‑6 weeks)

Travel: Quarterly London meetings (expenses covered)