Head of Engineering

FOUNDING HEAD OF ENGINEERING — KATAPULT

(path to CTO / Technical Co-Founder)

THE OPPORTUNITY

Katapult is starting its next chapter, and we're hiring the leader who can connect product, market, channel, and model fit to a real business opportunity, then apply the minimum effective dosage of technology to turn it into value.

This is a founding seat. You get a real piece of the upside, and you help shape what Katapult becomes. It's also entrepreneurial and highly technical: your edge isn't being the deepest architect or ML specialist in the room. It's the creativity to walk into a fuzzy situation, see where technology actually moves the needle, and plus-one it into something that ships. (We'll hire the deep specialists. Part of your job is knowing exactly who they are.)

You start with the Founding Head of Engineering mantle. Deliver at the level we're betting on, and it opens into CTO / Technical Co-Founder: a true plus-one to the founder across product, technology, and the business.

WHAT YOU'LL OWN

• Product-to-value translation. You connect product, market, channel, and model fit to the business opportunity, then bring the minimum effective dosage of technology to generate value fast and start the flywheel. This is the heart of the role.
• Scaling teams and the org. You've gone from individual contributor to running a large engineering and product organization, and you can do it again here. You own culture, training, ramp-up, career progression, and how we stay horizontal as we grow. Real org-building, not middle management.
• Talent radar. You're as good as (or better than) our CEO at spotting what the org needs and finding the people to fill it, including specialists deeper than you in architecture, security, ML, and data. You name the gap, then you know how to find and attract the person who closes it.
• Hands-on building. When it moves things forward, you roll up your sleeves: prototype, build the first product, join the strike team to stabilize a new engagement, set the foundation. You're a builder, not just a manager.
• Guarding the -ilities through the team you build. Scalability, security, reliability, and the rest of the architecture -ilities still have to be guaranteed. Now that we're building software factories and doing real harness engineering, you guarantee them by setting the bar and hiring the depth, not by holding every detail yourself.

HOW WE WORK

We build horizontal, high-ownership teams with the right culture, processes, and delivery discipline. We ship the minimum effective dosage of technology to create value fast, then compound it. We build software factories and use AI-assisted engineering and harness engineering as part of the default toolkit. We expect leaders to be builders and org-scalers, and we hand people real autonomy.

WHO YOU ARE

You're entrepreneurial and highly technical. You've likely been a founder, technical co-founder, or early builder who grew something real. You've felt the full arc, from writing the code yourself to scaling the org that writes it.

You read a market and a business model as fluently as a system diagram. You're creative about applying technology efficiently, and you'd rather ship the right small thing that creates value than over-engineer toward perfect.

You're looking for a long-term home, not your next gig. You want ownership of an outcome, and you're ready to plant a flag.

REQUIREMENTS

• Entrepreneurial track record: founder, technical co-founder, or early builder who turned an idea into shipped value.
• Demonstrated scaling of engineering (and ideally product) organizations, from IC to large team, with real ownership of culture, hiring, and career growth.
• A real track record of identifying, attracting, and placing strong technical talent, including people deeper than you.
• Strong product and business sense: you translate market, channel, and model fit into what to build.
• Hands-on builder with a feel for AI-assisted development and harness engineering (Claude Code, Codex CLI, agent harnesses, software-factory workflows).
• Enough breadth across cloud, architecture, and security to set direction, make calls, and judge the specialists you hire. You don't need to be the deepest expert in each.
• Experience working remotely with US-based startups and founders, with high autonomy and strong execution.
• Advanced English. Every collaboration happens in English.

NICE TO HAVE

• Deep personal chops in architecture, security, ML, or large-scale data pipelines (a bonus, not the core ask).
• Time in a nearshore, agency, or multi-client studio environment.
• Kubernetes and modern observability stacks (Prometheus, Grafana, ELK, Sentry).
• Exposure to high-availability or regulated domains (fintech, insurtech, proptech).

WORK-LIFE BALANCE

• Work from Anywhere in Latin America: Enjoy the freedom to work remotely from any country in Latin America.
• 23 Days of PTO per Year: Take time to recharge with paid time off, accrued monthly (1.25 days/month).
• USA Federal Holidays

FINANCIAL BENEFITS

• Monthly Payment in USD: Get paid in US dollars, no matter where you are.
• Contractor Agreement with No End Date: Enjoy the stability of a long-term contract.