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.