Vetted Chief Technology Officers

“Engineering leader/player-coach who built and validated a preference-based recommendation engine using clustering, including generating test data to evaluate how clusters evolve over time. Has SRE/DevOps experience and has owned production incidents end-to-end (logging-driven RCA and refactoring patterns that failed at large data scale). Emphasizes quality and platform stability via unit, integration, and load testing, and has managed performance via regular 1:1s and PIPs.”

“Engineering leader who drove Lightroom Mobile’s roadmap at Adobe by enforcing reuse of Photoshop imaging tech to deliver RAW, non-destructive mobile editing with full Creative Cloud compatibility. In startup environments, has repeatedly scaled and professionalized engineering orgs (career ladders, evaluation systems, delivery process) and led high-stakes cloud/platform transformations—migrating off Heroku and consolidating fragmented AWS/GCP usage into a single GCP platform—improving reliability, deploy speed, and cutting cloud costs by 20%+.”

“Senior engineering/technology leader with experience driving board-backed, multi-year platform transformations in retail commerce (American Eagle) and scaling ML/product delivery platforms at Amazon Alexa. Known for data-driven build-vs-buy decisions, org scaling (6→80), and measurable outcomes including 98.5%→99.9% uptime, 234 experiments generating ~$200M revenue lift, and increasing delivery velocity from 1.5 to 30 features/week while transitioning to DNN/large-model architectures.”

Jimmie Lee

Screened

Executive Technology & Strategic Operations Leader specializing in AI governance and cybersecurity

Greater Seattle Area, WA25y exp

“Serial entrepreneur who has launched 9+ bootstrapped businesses and has repeatedly raised capital as a CTO for other startups, leveraging a 7,000+ funder network and a sales-like fundraising pipeline approach. Deeply embedded in the VC/studio/accelerator ecosystem for 15+ years and currently mentors/advises with Stanford Venture Studios, Alchemist, and Ignyte in Dubai. Recently left Meta and is specifically targeting CTO roles for the next 5–10 years.”

SHIVA SANDY

Screened

Executive CTO/CIO specializing in FinTech, cloud transformation, and cybersecurity

Walnut Creek, CA27y exp

“Banking/credit-union technology executive (CTO/CTIO) who has led modernization and product delivery through major change, including a post-merger roadmap that helped grow a credit union from $600M to $1.5B in 3 years. Hands-on leader who drove cloud microservices/API architecture, introduced CI/CD, and accelerated releases from quarterly to weekly while scaling teams and operating effectively with distributed/remote orgs.”

“Chief AI Strategy at startup Zenera with 30 years in technology strategy/design, experienced in building business plans across startups and large enterprises (projects, new products, and M&A). Deeply familiar with enterprise AI go-to-market challenges (slow procurement/pilot cycles) and preparing for VC expectations (e.g., targeting a16z) by emphasizing unique tech and paying customers.”

“Co-founded Aethernet Inc., a B2B IoT connectivity platform with a usage-based revenue model and direct sales motion to device manufacturers. Bootstrapped with founder capital and strict cost control, with angel interest pending technical validation; developed the product through multi-year architecture experiments to deliver measurable latency/reliability/scalability/cost advantages versus DevOps-heavy incumbents like AWS IoT Core.”

Jim Woodroffe

Screened

Executive Engineering Leader (CTO/VP) specializing in scaling platforms, AI, and cloud infrastructure

San Francisco, CA24y exp

“Entrepreneurial operator who previously built an AI context layer for personal communication/relationships and has worked with a New York-based venture group to evaluate early-stage ideas from both technical and business angles. Currently exploring broad startup opportunities and collaborating with 2–3 early-stage companies, with a structured approach to assessing market outcomes, competition, and team fit.”