| Location | San Francisco, California |
| Website | https://www.getclera.com/ |
This is a rare, true co-founder opportunity — not a conventional CTO hire. You will join as an equal co-founder with meaningful equity (~28%), owning the research agenda, the product, and the engineering team from day one. The company is an AI-powered video advertising marketplace operating at the intersection of generative AI, creative tooling, and performance marketing. With a pre-seed round already closed (backed by experienced founders, operators, and institutional investors), a growing network of thousands of creators, and early brand traction, the flywheel is already spinning.
Several of the most consequential technical and product design decisions have been deliberately left open — because they belong to the person in this seat. You will not be executing someone else's roadmap. You will be writing it.
Set and own the full technical research agenda, making high-stakes architectural and product decisions independently
Build and scale the company's core AI-driven technical advantage — spanning generative video, multimodal models, and creator tooling
Lead product development across the platform: AI ad generation, creator marketplace infrastructure, brand personalization, campaign management, and creator payout systems
Hire, mentor, and grow an engineering and research team as the company scales
Collaborate closely with your co-founder on company strategy, fundraising narrative, and go-to-market direction
Operate as a hands-on technical leader in the early stages — writing code, reviewing architecture, and shipping product
Exceptional technical depth in AI/ML, with strong familiarity with generative models (video, image, or multimodal)
Product instinct — the ability to translate a creative and commercial vision into a coherent, scalable technical architecture
Founder mentality: high agency, comfort with ambiguity, and genuine ownership of outcomes
Leadership experience building or meaningfully contributing to technical teams at a startup or high-growth environment
Willingness to commit fully — this role requires 6–7 days per week in the early stage
Based in or willing to relocate to San Francisco for full-time, in-person collaboration
Nice to have:
Prior experience in adtech, martech, or creator economy platforms
Background in performance marketing or understanding of brand creative workflows
Previous co-founder or early-stage (01) startup experience
Equity: ~28% equal co-founder equity
Salary to be discussed; structured appropriately for a co-founder at the pre-seed stage
Real authority over the technical direction of the company — not a subordinate role
Visa sponsorship is not available for this role.
This role is fully on-site in San Francisco, CA. In-person, day-to-day collaboration with your co-founder is a core part of how this company operates at this stage.