CTO - Head of Product Engineering

About Deeter Analytics Deeter Analytics is a privately held investment research and trading firm managing ~$500M across public markets, alternatives, and private investments. We operate with a small, senior, high-performance team within a deeply entrepreneurial culture. We value autonomy, directness, clarity, and technical rigor. We hire very few people, expect a lot from them, and invest heavily in their long-term growth and performance. This environment suits sharp, self-directed thinkers who don’t need structure to perform and who work well with other outlier minds. Role Overview We are hiring a Head of Product Engineering & Systems Architecture (CTO Track) — a first-principles technical thinker who will own and simplify our internal technical ecosystem, translate trading and research needs into clean, high-leverage tools, and drive fast, disciplined product execution. This role is ideal for someone who has the mindset of a technical founder — someone who thinks cleanly, architects simply, and builds with purpose — but who does not want the operational burdens of running a company. Your focus here is pure technical leverage : designing simple, elegant systems shaping the engineering roadmap guiding a small team prototyping fast ensuring we build what matters maintaining architectural clarity as we scale with AI Key Responsibilities 1. Systems Architecture & Technical Clarity (Primary) Own the coherence and simplicity of all internal systems. Architect a clean, minimal, AI-augmentable technical environment. Reduce complexity and eliminate unnecessary abstractions. Define standards, interfaces, and guiding principles for the team. Hold the line on simplicity: clarity > cleverness . 2. Product Architecture & Engineering Leadership Translate needs from traders, researchers, and leadership into crisp technical decisions. Distill ambiguous requests into minimal viable specifications. Prioritize based on leverage and outcome, not noise. Shape and manage the engineering roadmap. Ensure the team builds the right thing in the right order. Provide clear frameworks for tradeoffs and decision-making. 3. High-Velocity Execution & Prototyping Create momentum and deliver high-impact internal tools quickly. Build lightweight prototypes to test hypotheses. Iterate based on real user feedback. Avoid over-engineering; ship simple, reliable tools. Drive continuous improvement and high execution speed. 4. Technical Team Guidance (Small, Senior Team) Lead through clarity, reasoning, and architectural direction — not hierarchy. Unblock engineers quickly; maintain alignment and focus. Keep communication simple, direct, and unambiguous. Foster a culture of low-ego craftsmanship and first-principles thinking. Elevate team output without management theater. 5. Founder & Leadership Partnership Work closely with the Founder and senior leaders on priorities. Reduce Founder involvement in technical decisions through clarity and rigor. Communicate risks, tradeoffs, and decisions with high signal. Engage in first-principles thinking on long-term systems and architecture. Who You Are A First-Principles Technologist You think like a physicist, mathematician, or systems engineer. You reduce problems to fundamentals. You choose simplicity over cleverness. A Technical Founder at Heart You love designing and building systems. You want autonomy and challenging problems.. You do not want operational burdens or a big corporate CTO remit. A Product-Minded Builder You understand 0→1 deeply. You translate user needs into clear specifications. You prioritize leverage, not volume. An Architect-Level Thinker You see the whole system. You care about long-term clarity. You build environments others can extend. A Low-Ego Partner Energized, motivated, and calm. Communicates clearly, directly, and without jargon. Comfortable in ambiguity and fast-changing priorities. Anti-Patterns (This Role Is Not a Fit If…) You over-engineer or build complexity for its own sake. You need hierarchy, structure, or a large team. You rely heavily on frameworks rather than fundamentals. You identify with your code and resist critique. You move slowly or optimize for polish over iteration. You want a big-title CTO role with managerial sprawl. You avoid ambiguity or require detailed instructions. Education Degree helpful but not required. We care far more about demonstrated architectural reasoning, first-principles problem-solving, and ability to ship simple, high-impact systems than formal credentials.