Part-Time CTO / Technical Operations Lead — B2B SaaS Platform (AI-Augmented Dev Team)

ePanicButton is an 18-year-old B2B SaaS real-time alert platform (Windows desktop client, React Native mobile app, admin portal, REST API), mid-way through a major modernization: portal rebuild, production server migration, and a shift toward AI-assisted development. We're a small, bootstrapped business — no VC funding, no big budget, and no room for enterprise-scale overhead. We need a senior engineer with real entrepreneurial experience — someone who's built or run their own thing and knows how to bring enterprise-grade discipline to a lean operation without over-engineering it. This is primarily a hands-off oversight role: the founder handles day-to-day setup and coding using AI tools (Claude, Claude Code), and you review the work, verify the high-risk items yourself, and weigh in on major architecture decisions. When something gets stuck — a deployment issue, a security question, an architecture call that matters — you're able to step in directly and get hands-on to unblock it. You'd effectively be the technical boss: the founder builds day-to-day, and you set standards, review and verify the work, and own final say on the platform's operational integrity — all in a way that fits a small company's budget and pace. ## Priorities, In Order **1. Secure and stabilize the program.** Get infrastructure, credentials, certificates, source control, and deployment process under real, enterprise-grade management so the platform runs effectively and reliably — no more surprises. **2. Establish AI-driven development and program management.** Build the process, guardrails, and review discipline for a workflow where the founder handles the actual AI-assisted coding, and you own the architecture decisions, code review, and release management around it. **3. Bittensor integration.** Help guide and oversee the buildout of our REST API messaging layer to serve the Bittensor decentralized AI mining/subnet community as a new channel-partner market. ## Core Responsibilities - Review infrastructure architecture, server management, backup, and disaster recovery decisions; personally verify high-risk items (credentials, DNS, prod access) rather than just reviewing notes about them - Oversee consolidation and hardening of credentials/secrets management; confirm it's actually done right, not just described as done - Confirm certificate lifecycle management is properly set up and tracked (SSL/TLS, renewals) - Set standards for GitHub structure, access control, branch strategy, and release process; step in directly if something gets stuck - Review and approve AI-generated code and architecture before it hits production; weigh in directly on major architecture decisions - Be available to get hands-on and unblock things — a stuck deployment, a security question, an architecture call that matters — even though day-to-day execution isn't the default expectation - Mentor the founder as a working AI-assisted developer; coordinate outside contractors toward one architecture - Weigh in on strategy for the Bittensor/API-partner buildout once the foundation is secure ## What We're Looking For - Senior engineer (CTO, VP Eng, Head of Infrastructure, or equivalent) with real production ownership at scale - Entrepreneurial background — has run or built something of their own, not just managed inside someone else's org - Comfortable working with a small, bootstrapped company's budget and pace — pragmatic about scope, not looking to build enterprise overhead we can't afford - Primarily comfortable in a review/oversight capacity, but able and willing to get hands-on directly when something is stuck or a decision is high-stakes enough to warrant it - Comfortable with server/cloud infrastructure, DNS, certificates, and secrets management discipline - .NET/SQL Server background (our stack); ASP.NET Core, SignalR, Azure/Windows Server a plus - Real current experience working alongside AI coding tools — comfortable reviewing and directing AI-assisted dev, not just aware of it - Strong communicator who can explain technical risk clearly to a non-developer founder **Nice to have:** B2B SaaS / white-label / multi-tenant experience, real-time notification systems, familiarity with Bittensor or decentralized AI/Web3 ecosystems, prior fractional CTO experience with founder-led companies. ## How We Work This is a genuine partnership for our next stage of growth, not a one-off audit — we're securing the platform's foundation, then building out the AI-driven development process, then expanding into the Bittensor/API-partner market. Expect close communication, real decision-making authority, and someone who wants to grow into this alongside us.