Chief Technology Officer

About OrthoAIOrthoAI is building AI-driven decision intelligence for dentistry. Our initial focus is turning multimodal clinical information into structured, explainable support for high-friction authorization workflows. We are building from Abu Dhabi for the UAE and wider GCC, with clinical validity, traceability, and user safety designed into the product from the start.The roleOwn OrthoAI's platform architecture, engineering operating system, security posture, technical roadmap, and engineering talent bar. You will connect multimodal perception, structured clinical information, reasoning, human review, authorization workflows, and outcome feedback in a system that can be operated, audited, and improved.What success looks like•    Within 90 days, establish the target architecture, data-flow map, threat model, build-versus-buy register, clinical-risk controls, and sequenced technical roadmap.•    Within six months, ship the first controlled production slice with automated testing, data/model lineage, observability, rollback, and incident response.•    Within 12 months, harden the platform for external deployment with reproducible model promotion, secure isolation, decision traceability, monitored service objectives, and field feedback.•    Build the minimum critical engineering team and a weekly delivery and risk system that converts misses into system changes.Key responsibilities•    Define platform boundaries and contracts across data ingestion, models, reasoning, applications, and integrations.•    Set engineering standards for code review, testing, CI/CD, security, observability, releases, and incident learning.•    Own security and privacy architecture for sensitive healthcare data and external enterprise integration.•    Make documented architecture, infrastructure, vendor, and build-versus-buy decisions with clear trade-offs.•    Partner with clinical and scientific owners on intended use, failure modes, human oversight, and release evidence.•    Hire, develop, and hold a high bar for engineers while remaining close to systems and technical evidence.Required qualificationsEducation or equivalent evidenceBachelor's degree in computer science, software engineering, electrical engineering, or a related technical field, or equivalent evidence of deep technical mastery. An advanced degree is useful but not required.Experience expected•    Typically 12+ years in software engineering, platform engineering, or technical product development; equivalent depth will be considered.•    At least 5 years leading engineering teams, including hiring senior technical talent and designing ownership boundaries.•    Personally shipped and operated an ML-enabled or data-intensive product beyond prototype stage.•    Owned consequential architecture, security, vendor, reliability, or build-versus-buy decisions with visible business outcomes.Technical and functional capability•    Personally took a data-intensive or ML-enabled system from prototype to production and operated it under real demand.•    Deep judgment across APIs, data systems, cloud infrastructure, application security, reliability, and integration.•    Experience with model serving, reproducibility, evaluation gates, monitoring, drift, rollback, and feedback data.•    Built and led an engineering organization, including hiring, ownership design, coaching, and performance management.•    Can explain causal trade-offs clearly to clinicians, researchers, commercial teams, investors, and governance stakeholders.Preferred qualifications•    Medical AI, health-tech, imaging, insurance workflow, or another regulated/high-consequence domain.•    Structured clinical data, multimodal systems, rules-plus-learned reasoning, or explainable decision support.•    Founding or zero-to-one executive experience with visible product and team outcomes.Evidence that will stand out•    An architecture decision record showing alternatives, threats, reversibility, observability, and human oversight.•    A production incident or failed technical decision you owned, including the machine change and recurrence result.•    A team you built: hiring bar, ownership model, performance system, and measurable capability gained.How we work at OrthoAI•    Outcome ownership: one accountable owner, clear interfaces, and visible follow-through.•    Believability by domain: ideas are weighted by relevant demonstrated success and causal reasoning, not title.•    Written learning: important decisions, misses, root causes, and machine changes are recorded.•    Cross-disciplinary rigor: clinical, scientific, engineering, commercial, and operational evidence must connect.•    Human accountability: AI supports decisions; accountable people make and own them.Our values are a gateResults do not compensate for a values breach. We look for demonstrated behavior consistent with:•    Truth over comfort: surface inconvenient facts and change your view when evidence changes.•    Ownership without excuse: take outcomes end to end, including dependencies and recovery.•    Evidence over opinion: distinguish observation, inference, and hypothesis.•    Patient and user safety is inviolable: stop and escalate when a safety boundary is at risk.•    Speed with rigor: shorten feedback loops without removing the controls the risk requires.What we offer•    Founding-stage scope with direct ownership of a company-critical outcome.•    Close collaboration with the CEO and the clinical, scientific, engineering, and commercial founding team.•    Meaningful influence over systems, standards, hiring, and the roadmap within your domain.•    Technically and operationally serious work using real healthcare workflows and carefully governed data.•    A premium compensation package positioned above market, including a competitive base salary, meaningful Employee Stock Ownership Plan (ESOP) equity, and comprehensive benefits — confirmed in full for shortlisted candidates at offer stage.Selection process•    LinkedIn application and evidence screen against the role outcomes.•    Structured interviews focused on demonstrated decisions, results, and lessons.•    A paid, role-specific working session based on a realistic OrthoAI problem.•    Values-gate interview and candidate-authorized references.Location and eligibilityThis is a full-time, on-site role based in Abu Dhabi, UAE. Candidates must be able and willing to work in Abu Dhabi. Please state your current UAE work authorization or the support you would require; this information is assessed only where job-related and does not replace evaluation of role capability.Apply through LinkedInUse the LinkedIn application for this role. Include your CV and a concise example of a problem you owned end to end: the outcome, your decisions, the evidence you used, what went wrong, and what changed because of your work. Do not include patient data, unnecessary personal information, or confidential employer material.