Chief Technology Officer

Phoenix is the Autonomous Commerce Platform for DTC Founders . We unify storefronts, checkout, payments, and operations into one platform where AI agents handle the operational grind and merchants focus on growth. We set out to build the "Shopify of Direct Response" and along the way recognized something bigger. Direct response is roughly a third of all ecommerce transactions, a trillion-dollar market chronically overlooked by Silicon Valley. The merchants who run it are obsessive about tooling. They live and die by velocity, conversion, and margin. They have no brand moats. They only compete on operations, which is exactly what makes them ripe for agentic disruption and the earliest, fastest adopters of AI agents in commerce. That insight reframed Phoenix from "the Shopify of DR" to the AI Agent Platform for DTC Founders. This is a category-defining bet, and we are running at it from a position of strength. Where We Are Today 8-figure ARR growing 100%+ YoY Strong unit economics and efficient growth Rapid merchant adoption and expanding market presence Backed by experienced operators and investors with a history of building and scaling successful businesses Why Now This is a rare opportunity for a technical leader to step into a company with proven revenue, product-market fit, an established team, and a large market opportunity. Three things make this an inflection point: Product-market fit is established. Demand continues to grow, merchant adoption is accelerating, and Phoenix is outperforming expectations. There is an opportunity to define a category. While many companies are building AI tools for commerce, few are focused on helping sophisticated DTC operators automate revenue-generating decisions at scale. Our customers are AI-ready. They adopt technology quickly when it drives measurable business outcomes, creating an ideal environment for agentic products. The Role You will own all of technology and engineering at Phoenix. Strategy, architecture, execution, hiring, culture, AI roadmap, platform reliability, payments infrastructure, and merchant-facing product engineering all sit with you. You will inherit a strong engineering foundation, experienced technical leaders, and a talented team with deep domain expertise. This role is focused on scaling the organization, driving technical strategy, and leading Phoenix through its next phase of growth. What You'll Own Technical Vision and Strategy Define and execute the long-term technical roadmap for an AI-native commerce platform Architect for an agent-first future Drive platform scalability across checkout, subscriptions, payments, merchant tooling, and storefronts Represent Phoenix's technical vision to investors, partners, and the broader market Engineering Leadership Build and lead a high-performing engineering organization Set and maintain a high bar for engineering excellence, velocity, and accountability Mentor engineering leaders and senior ICs Attract and retain exceptional technical talent AI and Automation Own the company's AI strategy and roadmap Drive the development of AI agents that make production-grade decisions on real merchant outcomes Operationalize AI-assisted software development practices throughout the organization Product and Cross-Functional Partnership Drive AI adoption through the product Partner with leadership to identify opportunities for AI internally across the business Translate business priorities into technical execution Work closely with Product, Payments, Operations, and Customer Success Engineering Organization Health Own hiring, performance management, and culture within engineering Build and maintain a high-performance organization Create an environment where top engineers can do the best work of their careers Executive Leadership Serve on the executive leadership team Participate in strategic planning, budgeting, and organizational design Communicate technical vision to investors and partners Be a key decision-maker on company-wide initiatives What We're Looking For Required 8+ years of software engineering experience and 5+ years leading engineering organizations Experience as a CTO, VP Engineering, or senior technical leader in a high-growth environment Startup experience required Demonstrated success scaling teams, systems, and products Experience building platform products serving business customers Strong interest in AI and emerging technologies Deep architectural and systems design expertise Experience operating reliable, high-scale systems Preferred DTC commerce technology experience Payments or fintech infrastructure experience Hands-on AI/LLM product development B2B or B2B2C platform experience Leadership Traits We Value High ownership Decisiveness Strong recruiting and talent development capabilities Accountability Product judgment Calm under pressure Builder mentality Culture These are the values that guide how we operate: All In to Win — Operate with urgency, intensity, and a relentless bar for excellence. A Players Only — Only hire, develop, and keep A players. Protect talent density. Merchant First — Merchants are why we exist. Every decision measured by merchant impact. Entrepreneurial Spirit — Move like a Day One company. Fast, scrappy, hungry. Everyone owns. Execution Over Ego — Best ideas win regardless of source. Status and titles do not matter.