Chief Technology Officer (CTO)
Location: Atlanta, GA area
Work Model: Hybrid, in-office 3 days per week
Reports To: Chief Executive Officer (CEO)
Compensation: Equity + revenue share only, with no base salary at this stage
About HighlandTech
HighlandTech is an AI Transformation Partner focused on helping businesses eliminate repetitive work through AI-Audits, AI-driven workflows, and custom AI software. Electra, HighlandTech’s product platform, is positioned as an AI Agent Operating System built to design, deploy, manage, and evaluate AI agents with enterprise-grade isolation, real-time evaluations, transparent usage-based billing, and security-focused infrastructure.
Role Overview
HighlandTech is seeking a hands-on, executive-level Chief Technology Officer to lead the technical vision, architecture, engineering execution, and product delivery of both HighlandTech’s client solutions and Electra. This person will report directly to the CEO and serve as the company’s most senior technology leader.
This is a build-stage leadership role for someone who wants to help shape the future of an early-stage AI company from the ground up. The CTO must be current on the latest innovations in AI, automation, agentic systems, and software development, while also exercising sound judgment around what is practical, proven, scalable, and best for customer satisfaction. The right candidate understands that strong AI products are not built on hype alone. They are built through thoughtful architecture, disciplined execution, responsible deployment, clear standards, and consistent delivery.
The CTO will be responsible for setting technical direction, improving engineering rigor, guiding customer delivery, shaping the roadmap for Electra, and helping HighlandTech scale as both a services company and product company. In startups, the CTO role typically combines technology strategy, engineering leadership, product execution, and close alignment between business goals and technical decisions.
Key Responsibilities
Technology Strategy and Leadership
- Own the company’s overall technology strategy in alignment with HighlandTech’s business goals and the CEO’s vision
- Define and continuously refine the technical roadmap for Electra and HighlandTech’s broader service delivery capabilities
- Determine where custom development, AI models, low-code tools, automation platforms, and third-party infrastructure should be used or avoided
- Balance innovation with practical execution by identifying which new technologies are worth adopting versus which proven methods are best for real-world delivery
- Serve as the CEO’s senior technical counterpart, translating business priorities into clear technical direction and execution plans
Product Direction for Electra
- Lead the technical direction and delivery of Electra as an AI Agent Operating System
- Shape product architecture, platform capabilities, performance standards, security posture, scalability, evaluations, observability, and release readiness
- Ensure Electra supports reliable AI agent deployment across channels such as voice, email, chat, and workflow automation
- Partner with the CEO on product prioritization, roadmap decisions, feature tradeoffs, and customer-driven enhancements
- Establish technical standards for system reliability, latency, agent quality, handoff logic, fallback behavior, and end-user experience
Engineering Execution and Delivery
- Lead engineering execution across both internal product development and customer-facing implementations
- Translate company priorities, customer commitments, and strategic direction into actionable technical requirements, milestones, and sprint plans
- Improve engineering discipline across architecture reviews, code quality, QA, testing, documentation, deployment, and issue resolution
- Ensure development efforts are delivered on time, within scope, and with clear communication when timelines, risks, or requirements shift
- Build repeatable delivery processes that reduce technical debt and improve consistency across customer projects and product releases
AI Development Best Practices
- Set best practices for AI development including LLM application design, multi-step agent workflows, retrieval, tool use, evaluations, prompt management, memory strategy, and human-in-the-loop controls
- Guide decisions around model selection, latency, cost, reliability, safety, and customer experience
- Create practical frameworks for experimentation so new AI capabilities are tested thoughtfully before being implemented more broadly
- Stay current on emerging tools, frameworks, and AI innovations while filtering out noise and avoiding unnecessary complexity
- Ensure HighlandTech builds AI systems that are practical, maintainable, secure, and outcome-oriented
Delivery Oversight for Client Solutions
- Provide technical leadership for HighlandTech’s AI readiness audits, custom AI agents, workflow automations, and broader AI transformation engagements
- Support solution design and technical scoping for high-value customer opportunities
- Help ensure that what is promised during the sales process can be successfully delivered in production
- Develop standards for customer onboarding, integrations, delivery quality, handoff processes, and escalation management
- Act as a senior technical presence in customer conversations when strategic, architectural, or delivery-level input is required
Security, Reliability, and Responsible AI
- Establish standards around secure development, access controls, data protection, infrastructure hygiene, secrets management, observability, rollback readiness, and incident response
- Support HighlandTech’s continued maturity around security practices and trust-building measures, including SOC 2-aligned positioning where relevant
- Ensure AI systems are deployed responsibly with safeguards, monitoring, clear escalation paths, and structured release discipline
- Build a culture of quality, accountability, and resilience around production AI systems. Electra publicly emphasizes enterprise-grade isolation, encrypted data handling, real-time evaluations, and SOC 2 alignment, so this role must reinforce and operationalize those standards.
Team Leadership and Growth
- Lead, manage, and elevate developers, QA resources, technical contractors, and future engineering hires
- Set a high bar for ownership, urgency, communication, technical quality, and customer-minded execution
- Coach technical team members to think beyond code and toward product value, business outcomes, maintainability, and customer trust
- Help build the long-term technical organization HighlandTech needs to scale effectively
- Contribute to recruiting, technical interviewing, onboarding, and ongoing performance management of technical talent
Role Requirements
- Must be located in the Atlanta, Georgia area
- Must be willing to commute to the office at least 3 days per week
- Proven experience leading software engineering, architecture, and product delivery, ideally in a startup, growth-stage, or entrepreneurial environment
- Strong understanding of AI development best practices, agentic systems, LLM-enabled products, workflow automation, APIs, integrations, and cloud-based software delivery
- Ability to operate as both a strategic leader and hands-on builder where needed
- Strong product judgment, especially where technical decisions directly affect customer satisfaction and business outcomes
- Experience improving engineering process, QA rigor, delivery accountability, and technical communication
- Ability to make sound decisions under ambiguity, resource constraints, and early-stage operating conditions
- Strong verbal and written communication skills, especially with non-technical stakeholders, customers, and executive leadership
Preferred Qualifications
- Experience building or leading AI products, automation platforms, or agent-based systems in production
- Experience with voice agents, email automation, chat systems, CRM or ticketing integrations, and workflow orchestration
- Experience in B2B SaaS, AI consulting, AI transformation, or services-led software companies
- Familiarity with security-minded or compliance-minded software delivery
- Familiarity with industries where operational responsiveness, service quality, and coordination matter, including physical security, field service, trades, or similar environments
What Success Looks Like
Success in this role means Electra becomes a stronger and more reliable platform, customer deployments become more consistent and scalable, technical execution becomes more disciplined, and HighlandTech operates with greater confidence in its product direction, engineering standards, and delivery capability.
The CTO will help create a company where innovation is adopted thoughtfully, customer experience is protected, engineering standards are clear, and technical delivery becomes a competitive advantage.
Compensation Structure
This is an early-stage leadership opportunity and is not a salary-based position at this stage of the company. Compensation for this role consists of equity participation and revenue share.
The equity component will be structured in alignment with typical early-stage startup practices, where continued tenure, contribution, and performance are required over time in order to realize the full opportunity associated with the role. Early-stage startup equity is commonly subject to vesting over time, often using a four-year schedule with a one-year cliff, to align long-term value creation with long-term contribution.
Specific terms will be determined through the formal offer process and governed by the company’s applicable equity plan documents and performance expectations.
Why Join HighlandTech
The right candidate will help shape the technical future of HighlandTech and Electra, influence product strategy and engineering culture early, and share in the upside tied to long-term company growth. HighlandTech positions itself around helping teams eliminate busywork through AI automation, while Electra is built to deploy and manage AI agents with control, visibility, and security.
