Fractional CTO

As the Fractional CTO at Politicked, you will collaborate closely with the Founder to translate company vision and user growth into scalable, high-performance technical execution. You will oversee platform architecture, system reliability, infrastructure strategy, and technical vendor decisions-bridging high-level executive direction with practical architectural leadership., 1. Strategic Architecture & Technical Roadmap

• Partner directly with the Founder to prioritize engineering roadmaps, feature rollouts, and infrastructure milestones.
• Architect resilient systems capable of supporting rapid growth, high concurrency, and real-time interactive user experiences.
• Balance fast-paced product iteration with security, platform stability, and sustainable code standards.

1. Infrastructure & Performance * Guide cloud infrastructure, database scaling, caching strategies, and latency optimization across the application. * Oversee third-party vendor integrations and evaluate build-versus-buy trade-offs to optimize technical runway. * Establish monitoring, automated CI/CD deployment pipelines, alerting, and security protocols.

2. Engineering Governance & Team Scaling * Conduct high-level code and architecture reviews, setting engineering benchmarks and best practices. * Advise and mentor external engineering talent, contractors, or developers working across the stack. * Help define technical hiring profiles and participate in interviews as we build out a dedicated in-house engineering team over time.

• Executive Technical Leadership: Prior experience as a CTO, VP of Engineering, or Fractional CTO in high-growth, early-stage, or venture-backed consumer tech/social applications.
• Modern Full-Stack Fluency: Deep familiarity with modern web architectures, real-time data flows, and distributed systems (e.g., modern JavaScript/TypeScript ecosystems, relational and caching data stores, and cloud-native infrastructure).
• Real-Time Interactive Experience: Practical background or strong architectural intuition around low-latency, real-time communication protocols, and concurrent user interactions.
• Pragmatic Startup Mindset: Proven ability to balance speed-to-market with long-term architectural stability in a fast-moving startup environment.
• Clear Communication: Ability to articulate technical trade-offs, architecture decisions, and resource needs clearly to non-technical stakeholders and leadership.

Why Politicked?

• High Impact: Direct influence over foundational tech stack decisions and engineering strategy from an early stage.
• Autonomy & Flexibility: Asynchronous, self-directed fractional engagement designed to fit alongside your current portfolio.

Politicked is an early-stage consumer technology platform transforming how people interact, connect, and engage in structured online discourse. We are combining modern interactive mechanics, real-time engagement, and gamified community features to build a dynamic digital environment for live conversation.