Engineering
/Founding leadership
Chief Technology Officer
Technical Leadership
Compensation
INR 80 LPA - 1.5 Cr base + meaningful equity, refreshed annually on contribution.
Engagement
Full-Time
Permanent role. Full-time commitment. Remote-first, with periodic in-person off-sites.
Scope of role
Build the function from zero. Set the strategy. Own the outcome.
01 — The role
Why this role exists at EduRankAI
Most companies hire a CTO to manage what already exists. EduRankAI is hiring one to decide what should exist. You will own the technical arc across our research labs, our AI platform, the product surface, and the infrastructure underneath — and you will set the architectural decisions that determine what kind of company we become. We are a frontier AI lab with a public-good mandate. The technology you choose, the people you hire, and the architecture you defend will shape whether EduRankAI ships systems the field studies or systems the field forgets. You'll thrive here if: you've already been the senior-most technical person in a real company and want to build a second from cleaner ground. You can hold the research view and the production view in the same conversation. You write to think. You'll struggle here if: you need a roadmap handed to you. You measure progress by org-chart depth. You prefer slides to commits.
02 — The work
What you will own
- 01 Own a multi-year technical roadmap that spans research, AI platform, and the product surface — and defend it against quarterly drift.
- 02 Hire and grow the engineering and ML org from its current size to Director-level direct reports across product, platform, and AI.
- 03 Set the architecture review process. Make it the place real decisions happen — not a rubber stamp.
- 04 Own the build-vs-buy decision at every layer, from cloud to inference to data pipelines.
- 05 Translate research breakthroughs from our lab (and the broader field) into shippable production systems.
- 06 Represent EduRankAI publicly on technical matters — papers, talks, technical disclosures, regulator briefings.
- 07 Be the technical conscience of the company: push back on shortcuts that compromise our public-good claims.
03 — The expertise
What we look for
04 — The bar
Who thrives here
- → You have been the senior-most technical person in a company that built and shipped real AI infrastructure.
- → You have authored architecture documents that bound a multi-team effort for at least 18 months.
- → You have hired and retained at least one engineering Director or VP.
- → You can defend a technical decision in writing for 30 minutes against hostile cross-examination.
- → You can read a research paper, identify the load-bearing claim, and decide in one hour whether to bet on it.
05 — How we work
The EduRankAI environment
Remote-first, async-first
Work from anywhere. We optimise for deep work, not face time. Periodic in-person off-sites for the full-time team.
High autonomy, high standards
We hire adults and trust them. You will be expected to set your own goals, communicate clearly, and ship.
Builders, not bureaucrats
We optimise for clarity over process. Make the call, ship the work, write up what you learned.
Bharat-built, globally ambitious
We are an Indian frontier AI lab. We build for India first and the world second — in that order.
06 — Hiring process
What to expect after you apply
- 01
Application review
Every application is read personally within five business days. We respond either way.
- 02
Take-home or live exercise
Role-specific. Time-boxed. Real problems we are actually working on, not invented puzzles.
- 03
Conversations
Deep technical and values conversations with the team you would join. No trick questions. No panel ambushes.
- 04
Offer or honest no
If yes: digital offer letter, signed in-portal, transparent terms. If no: written feedback if you want it.
Before you start
What we will collect. What it costs. What we will not do with it.
Application fee
CHF 100
C-Level tier
We will collect
- Name, email, phone — Account + application updates. No marketing.
- Resume / portfolio link — Human review of your work.
- Date + place of birth — Identity verification only.
- Your written responses — Selection rubric. Read by humans.
- Government ID (later) — Anti-fraud at offer / interview stage. Not at signup.
We will never
- Sell your data
- Share with third-party recruiters
- Use for advertising
- Train models on it
- Send marketing email
Our situation
EduRankAI is a small, independent organization building long-term capabilities in educational intelligence, advanced AI systems, and research infrastructure. We take no advertiser money, no donations with strings attached, and no investor pressure on hiring decisions. The small per-application fee covers the real cost of processing your application — human review, identity verification, infrastructure, reviewer time. It buys us the right to be honest. Genuine financial hardship? Request a fee waiver inside the application — reviewed individually within 5 business days, with no record in your file and no second-class treatment of waiver-granted applications.
Ready to apply?
We read every application personally. If you are the right person for this role — regardless of pedigree, background, or where you are based — you will hear back from us within five business days.
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