Head of Engineering

Head of Engineering / Founding Tech Lead -

CTO Track

Company: Totem Interactive

Products: Velocity and other AI, SaaS and digital platforms

Location: Mumbai, full-time, on-site/hybrid preferred

The role

We are looking for a senior, hands-on technical leader who can become the technical spine of Totem

Interactive.

Not someone who only writes code.

We need someone who can take an ambiguous business problem, convert it into the right architecture,

break it into milestones, lead the team and ship a reliable product to users.

You will initially operate as our Head of Engineering / Founding Tech Lead, with a clear path toward CTO

based on demonstrated ownership, delivery and leadership.

What you will work on

Our primary product is Velocity, an AI interaction layer that helps users get better results across tools

like ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, Lovable and other AI platforms.

Velocity includes:

Browser extension and web application

AI prompt optimisation and scoring

Multi-model integrations

Memory and personalisation systems

Enterprise dashboards and analytics

Payments, authentication and usage infrastructure

Automation, observability and release systems

You will also provide technical leadership across selected Totem Interactive projects involving AI, SaaS,

web, mobile, automation and client platforms.

What you will own

Technical architecture across frontend, backend, AI and infrastructure

Product delivery from requirements to stable production release

Code quality, testing, security, observability and documentation

Engineering milestones, estimates, ownership and delivery timelines

Release processes that protect existing users

Code reviews and technical decision-making

Hiring, mentoring and raising the standard of the engineering team

1

Identifying technical debt, fragile systems and single points of failure

Translating product and business requirements into executable technical plans

Communicating risks, blockers and trade-offs before they become problems

Building systems that do not depend on one person to operate

You will remain hands-on.

We are not looking for a manager who only assigns work. You should be capable of entering an

unfamiliar codebase, understanding what is wrong, fixing critical systems and showing the team what

good execution looks like.

What we expect

Strong full-stack engineering experience

Evidence of products you have personally shipped and operated in production

Strong understanding of APIs, databases, authentication, payments and cloud infrastructure

Experience with modern JavaScript/TypeScript stacks such as React, Next.js and Node.js

Working knowledge of Python and AI application development

Experience with LLM APIs, RAG, agents, evaluations, prompt pipelines or vector databases

Experience with CI/CD, monitoring, deployment and production incident handling

Ability to evaluate architecture, not merely add features

Ability to lead engineers without creating politics or dependency

Strong written and verbal communication

High ownership, low ego and complete transparency around progress and blockers

Chrome extension experience is highly valuable.

Exact years of experience matter less than the quality and complexity of what you have shipped. As a

general benchmark, we expect someone operating at a strong senior or staff-engineer level.

How we work

We move fast, but we do not confuse speed with completion.

A feature is not complete because the code was pushed. It is complete when it:

Meets the agreed acceptance criteria

Has been reviewed and properly tested

Works in the intended production environment

Does not break existing users

Has known limitations documented

Has been verified from the user and business perspective

We value direct communication, early escalation and clear ownership.

No theatre. No vague progress. No hiding behind hours worked.

We care about what was committed, what shipped and whether it works.

2What success looks like

First 30 days

Understand and audit the current architecture

Identify critical technical, security and continuity risks

Stabilise the release and deployment process

Establish clear ownership across the engineering team

Create a practical technical roadmap

First 60 days

Improve engineering velocity and production reliability

Remove critical single-person dependencies

Introduce stronger testing, reviews and release standards

Ship meaningful product improvements

Begin raising the capability of the existing team

First 90 days

Independently run technical delivery across Velocity

Build a predictable, high-output engineering function

Help recruit or restructure the team where required

Own architecture, releases and technical execution with minimal founder intervention

Present a clear long-term technical strategy for Totem and Velocity

Who will thrive here

Someone who:

Is a builder and finisher

Can think strategically and still work inside the code

Takes responsibility without needing constant supervision

Enjoys turning messy systems into clear ones

Raises standards through example

Can disagree directly without becoming political

Wants to help build the company, not merely occupy a senior title

Compensation and growth

Compensation will be competitive and flexible for an exceptional candidate.

The role offers:

Direct access to the founder and business decisions

Significant ownership over products and technical direction

Opportunity to build and lead the engineering organisation

CTO progression based on proven performance

Meaningful long-term upside or equity for the right person after alignment and delivery are

established

3The CTO title will not be handed out on day one. It will be earned through execution, judgement,

leadership and trust.

How to apply

Send:

1.

Your LinkedIn and GitHub

2.

3.

4.

5.

6.

Three products or systems you have meaningfully built

The exact role you played in each

One difficult technical decision you made and why

One example where you improved a weak codebase, product or engineering team

Your current location, availability and compensation expectations

Generic applications without evidence of shipped work will not be considered.

Pay: ₹60,000.00 - ₹100,000.00 per month

Benefits:

Flexible schedule

Leave encashment

Paid sick time

Work from home

Work Location: In person