About This Role
Fractional Chief Technology Officer (CTO) — Founding Team
Kolek \| Fractional \| 5–10 Hours per Week
About Kolek
Kolek is an early\-stage consumer tech company based in the Bay Area and currently preparing for launch.
By the time this position begins, Kolek will have a completed, market\-ready product. This role is not about starting from an idea or building an initial MVP from scratch.
Right now, Kolek is putting together a small group of experienced fractional leaders who can help take what has already been built, bring it successfully to market, and build the company the right way from the beginning.
We're looking for a Fractional Chief Technology Officer (CTO) to be one of those leaders.
The Role
We're looking for someone who has actually been through the process of launching and scaling a consumer technology product before.
The initial product will already be built and market\-ready when this person joins. The opportunity is to step in, understand the existing technology, make sure we're technically prepared for launch, and help create the foundation for everything that comes next.
We're looking for someone who can look at what has been built, identify potential issues early, improve where needed, and make smart decisions about how the technology should evolve as real users begin using the product.
This isn't a role where you'll be handed a large engineering team or an established technical organization. We're early, and part of the opportunity is helping create those things.
You'll work closely with the founder on technical strategy, product development, architecture, launch readiness, future development, and eventually building out the technology team.
This is also not an advisory\-only position. We're looking for someone who is comfortable getting involved when needed and can move between high\-level technical decisions and hands\-on problem solving.
Nobody is expected to know everything. We're much more interested in finding someone experienced, thoughtful, resourceful, and comfortable figuring things out.
What You'll Help With
- Getting familiar with and evaluating the existing product and codebase
- Making sure the technology is ready for a public launch
- Setting the overall technical direction for the company
- Identifying technical risks before they become expensive problems
- Making smart architecture and infrastructure decisions
- Establishing development standards and best practices
- Making decisions around scalability, security, performance, and reliability
- Helping prioritize what should be improved or built next
- Creating a technical roadmap based on actual product and user needs
- Working closely with product and design
- Evaluating developers, contractors, agencies, and technical partners
- Helping recruit and interview future engineering talent
- Eventually helping build out the engineering and technology organization
Who We're Hoping to Find
Ideally, you've already held a CTO, VP of Engineering, Head of Engineering, Technical Lead, or similar senior technology position.
More importantly, you've actually helped launch and scale real consumer products.
Titles aren't everything. We're much more interested in what you've built, the technical decisions you've made, and what happened when those products started getting real users.
Experience with consumer technology, mobile apps, social products, marketplaces, e\-commerce, or other high\-growth consumer platforms would be especially relevant.
Strong experience with modern mobile and web architecture, cloud infrastructure, APIs, databases, security, and scalable systems is important.
You should also be comfortable being both strategic and hands\-on.
At this stage, there will be times when we're discussing long\-term technical architecture and other times when everyone simply needs to roll up their sleeves and solve a problem.
Time Commitment
Approximately 5–10 hours per week to start.
We're intentionally trying to keep meetings limited and productive so most of your time can actually be spent working on the company.
The schedule can be flexible, and the position can be remote.
Kolek is based in the Bay Area, so being local is a plus, but definitely not a requirement.
Compensation \& Ownership
Compensation: TBD
Compensation will depend on experience, availability, and the scope of the role.
The intention is for compensation to scale as the company grows, rather than treating this as a short\-term consulting project.
There will also be an ownership/equity component for the right person.
We're looking for someone who sees the long\-term opportunity, wants to have a real seat at the table, and is interested in growing alongside the company.
Confidentiality
Because Kolek is still pre\-launch, we're intentionally keeping details about the product and technology private.
Additional information will be shared with selected candidates during the interview process, with more sensitive details discussed as appropriate.
Applying
No long cover letter is necessary.
Send your resume and references.
Ultimately, we're looking for someone who is genuinely excited about joining at the point where a product is ready to enter the market, brings meaningful technical experience to the table, and wants to help turn that product into a scalable technology company.
Pay: $75,000\.00 \- $100,000\.00 per year
Work Location: Remote