Tech co-founder for an early stage DigitalHealth startup

Job Title : Chief Technology Officer (CTO) – Blockchain & Web3

Location : Bangalore & Gurgaon

Job Type : Full-Time, On-Site

Working Days : 6 Days

About the Role :

• We are seeking an experienced and visionary Chief Technology Officer (CTO) to lead our Blockchain & Web3 initiatives.
• The ideal candidate will have a strong technical background in Blockchain, Distributed Ledger Technology (DLT), Smart Contracts, DeFi, and Web3 applications.
• As a CTO, you will be responsible for defining and implementing the technology roadmap, leading a high-performing tech team, and driving innovation in the Blockchain and Web3 space.

Key Responsibilities :

• Define and execute the technical strategy and roadmap for Blockchain & Web3 products and services.
• Lead the architecture, design, and development of scalable, secure, and efficient blockchain-based applications.
• Oversee Smart Contract development, Layer-1 & Layer-2 solutions, DeFi, NFTs, and decentralized applications (dApps).
• Manage and mentor a team of engineers, developers, and blockchain specialists to ensure high-quality product delivery.
• Drive R&D initiatives to stay ahead of emerging trends and advancements in Blockchain & Web3 technologies.
• Collaborate with cross-functional teams including Product, Marketing, and Business Development to align technology with business goals.
• Ensure regulatory compliance, security, and scalability of Blockchain solutions.
• Build and maintain relationships with industry partners, investors, and technology vendors to drive innovation.

Required Qualifications & Experience :

• 10+ Years of overall experience in software development with at least 5+ Years in Blockchain & Web3 technologies.
• Deep understanding of Blockchain protocols (Ethereum, Solana, Polkadot, Hyperledger, etc.), consensus mechanisms, cryptographic principles, and tokenomics.
• Hands-on experience with Solidity, Rust, Go, Node.js, Python, or other blockchain programming languages.
• Proven track record of building and scaling decentralized applications (dApps), DeFi platforms, or NFT marketplaces.
• Experience with cloud infrastructure (AWS, Azure, GCP) and DevOps best practices.
• Strong leadership and management skills with experience in building and leading high-performing teams.
• Excellent problem-solving skills with the ability to work in a fast-paced, high-growth environment.
• Strong understanding of Web3, DAOs, Metaverse, and the evolving regulatory landscape.

Preferred Qualifications :

• Prior experience in a CTO, VP Engineering, or similar leadership role.
• Experience in fundraising, investor relations, and strategic partnerships.
• Knowledge of cross-chain interoperability and Layer-2 scaling solutions.
• Understanding of data privacy, security, and compliance regulations related to Blockchain & Web3.

Solution Architect

10+ years of experience in leading solution architecture & technical development. A bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Engineering, or a comparable field from an accredited institution.

Key Responsibilities

• Enable customer to realize their stated IT vision and strategy

• Lead development of solution architecture and design across a set of applications or an application/product family within an enterprise

• Provide guidance/consultancy for the execution and delivery of project from a solutioning and technology perspective

• Provide a strategic solutioning perspective to a project/engagement

• Demonstrate strong leadership skills and astuteness

• Design and Architect end to end solutions content that characterizes what products or services are being proposed and how these services will be delivered

• Estimate for Project or Program Management and or technical effort to drive scope and produce deliverables

Required Knowledge and Skills

• Deep understanding of the Software development, mobile development, application support, cloud, mobility and infra services.

• Should be proficient with the languages, tools, and frameworks core to software development, mobility iOS or Android development

• Demonstrate very strong skills in documenting architecture and preparing technical papers to explain architectural motivations/strategy or rationale

• Create technology focused roadmap for a set of projects within a program

• Must have an understanding of various Architectures and frameworks

• Produce estimates for the whole program using estimation methodologies and customizations appropriate to the program

• Work closely with project/program manager and advise on execution methodology/strategy, timelines, resources and project commercials

• Excellent interpersonal and communication skills

• Experience in agile methodologies and best practices

About First Principles

We are a Tech Holding Company and our portfolio companies generate millions in revenue. What is unique about FirstPrinciples is that most of our companies remain controlled and majority owned by First Principles and its team members rather than by external investors. We are proud that our product engineering team builds world class products from India. https://firstprinciples.io/">https://firstprinciples.io/

About this Role

As we scale and build our organisation, we would like to add an individual to our core Technical Leadership who can scale our key products and projects and help us build and foster relationships with Enterprise clients.

We are looking for an experienced Technology Leader to join our fast growing organisation to help us with driving Technical Strategy, Approach and oversee the Implementation for internal and external products. You should be someone who loves Engineering, have amazing debugging skills and slay problems with technology. 

In this role, you will undertake Technical / Solution Architecture and should also be able to help team with Engineering and coding wherever required. That includes, working along with the team, writing code, doing R&D or POCs, ensuring we follow modern industry standards and building beautiful high performing Software and Applications and thus delivering a better solution and product. You will also help FP build strong relationships with clients and technical leadership on the client side.

You would be required to have a minimum of 10+ years of experience with a mix of Engineering, DevOps, Infrastructure, Cyber - Network Security, Enterprise Application Maintenance, Database Management along with Project, Client and People Management skills which are necessary to lead the team and be their voice. You should be a leader and not just a manager who loves delegating things to the off-shore team, but rather someone who would not hesitate to take over Git-Pull and start writing code and show ‘here is how it’s done’ and amaze everyone with your expertise! :-) 

Because this is a Senior role, you would also be involved working with the Product/Project Manager and will be responsible for the delivery and output.

Tech Stack [High-Level]: We are JavaScript focused i.e. we work in ReactJS, NodeJS, AngularJS, TypeForm, TypeScript, Redis. On the server side, we work with AWS/GCP/DO. Database: MySQL, PostgreS and MongoDb. API: REST and GraphQL API. We also have a strong DevOps stack - including Kubernetes(K8), Dockers and CI/CD automation. 

Interview Process: 

• 60 min Discovery Call
• 15 mins introduction and what you bring to the table (We love people who say, “We build the damn table”) 
• 15 min understanding your experience and background
• 15 min on why you want to join our team and your expectations, future plans
• 15 min Q&A
  
  
• 60-90 min Technical Interview  (May be more than 1)
• Technical Call
  
  
• 45-60 min Final Call
• 15 min discussion on results 
• 15 min CTC expectations / negotiations 
• 15 min closure
• 15 min buffer

• Draw up enterprise-wide architecture blueprint and enforce its implementation across products and systems
• Build from ground up, a scalable Enterprise platform infrastructure with multiple client applications and enterprise connectors
• Design, develop and deploy features and APIs with high quality standards
• As an individual contributor, evaluate technology options, build PoCs and prototypes
• Manage the infrastructure hosted in the Cloud. Monitor system reliability, uptime and security.
• Contribute significantly in reviewing architecture, code, design & test-cases authored by peers.

• 8-10 years of design and development experience building scalable & distributed systems
• Hands-on experience on one or more of the following tech stacks:
  • Python-Django, PostgreSQL, MongoDB, nginx, RabbitMQ, Redis
  • Microservices, REST APIs, NodeJS, Celery, Elastic Search, Logstash, Kibana
• Good understanding of OOPS concepts, design patterns, SQL. Good at troubleshooting/debugging.
• Experience with managing server infrastructure in GCP, Azure and AWS cloud.
• Bachelor’s or Master’s degree in Engineering from reputed institutes
• Nice to have: Hands-on experience with analytics using Kibana and Elastic Search

• upGrad was awarded the Best Tech for Education by IAMAI for 2018-19,
• upGrad was also ranked as one of the LinkedIn Top Startups 2018: The 25 most sought-after startups in India.
• upGrad was earlier selected as one of the top ten most innovative companies in India by FastCompany.
• We were also covered by the Financial Times along with other disruptors in Ed-Tech.
• upGrad is the official education partner for Government of India - Startup India program.
• Our program with IIIT B has been ranked #1 program in the country in the domain of Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning.

• Work with Product Managers and Business to understand business/product requirements and vision.
• Provide a clear architectural vision in line with business and product vision.
• Lead a team of architects, developers, and data engineers to provide platform services to other engineering teams.
• Provide architectural oversight to engineering teams across the organization.
• Hands on design and development of platform services and features owned by self - this is a hands-on coding role.
• Define guidelines for best practices covering design, unit testing, secure coding etc.
• Ensure quality by reviewing design, code, test plans, load test plans etc. as appropriate.
• Work closely with the QA and Support teams to track quality and proactively identify improvement opportunities.
• Work closely with DevOps and IT to ensure highly secure and cost optimized operations in the cloud.
• Grow technical skills in the team - identify skill gaps with plans to address them, participate in hiring, mentor other architects and engineers.
• Support other engineers in resolving complex technical issues as a go-to person.

• 12+ years of experience in design and development of ecommerce scale systems and highly scalable SaaS or enterprise products.
• Extensive experience in developing extensible and scalable web applications with
  • Java, Spring Boot, Go
  • Web Services - REST, OAuth, OData
  • Database/Caching - MySQL, Cassandra, MongoDB, Memcached/Redis
  • Queue/Broker services - RabbitMQ/Kafka
  • Microservices architecture via Docker on AWS or Azure.
  • Experience with web front end technologies - HTML5, CSS3, JavaScript libraries and frameworks such as jQuery, AngularJS, React, Vue.js, Bootstrap etc.

• Extensive experience with cloud based architectures and how to optimize design for cost.
• Expert level understanding of secure application design practices and a working understanding of cloud infrastructure security.
• Experience with CI/CD processes and design for testability.
• Experience working with big data technologies such as Spark/Storm/Hadoop/Data Lake Architectures is a big plus.
• Action and result-oriented problem-solver who works well both independently and as part of a team; able to foster and develop others' ideas as well as his/her own.
• Ability to organize, prioritize and schedule a high workload and multiple parallel projects efficiently.
• Excellent verbal and written communication with stakeholders in a matrixed environment.
• Long term experience with at least one product from inception to completion and evolution of the product over multiple years.