@ 1001ai
Chief of Staff to CTO — 1001 (1001.ai). P0. London, with regular travel across the Middle East for customer meetings, workshops, demos, and company priorities.
Technical operator working directly with the CTO across engineering, hiring, product, demos, and customer work. Keeps priorities moving, closes open loops, helps the technical organization execute with clarity. Combines technical program ownership, engineering operations, customer work, hiring, and prototyping. Some projects strategic and highly visible; others are chasing updates and fixing details to get work over the line.
RESPONSIBILITIES: own initiatives delegated by the CTO through to completion; turn decisions into actions/owners/deadlines; track commitments and open loops; lead special projects (technical strategy, org design, headcount, budgets, platform investment); maintain a clear view of major technical initiatives (progress, risks, dependencies, staffing); improve planning/reviews/accountability; surface tradeoffs between customer delivery, platform investment, and capacity; support technical hiring end-to-end; participate in customer discovery and translate operational problems into product requirements; turn customer problems into convincing prototypes and demos with modern AI tools; own demo delivery from brief through rehearsals; join Middle East customer engagements and carry actions through; represent the technical org credibly.
REQUIREMENTS: 2-5 years of EXCEPTIONAL performance in software engineering, technical product, startup operations, forward deployed engineering, or technical strategy. Strong academic or professional track record from a top engineering program, top technology company, or high-performing startup. Enough technical fluency to follow architecture/AI/engineering discussions credibly; can build a convincing prototype with modern AI tools. Extremely organized, high ownership, "handle it" mindset; persistent with EQ and diplomacy; comfortable with both high-profile and unglamorous work; highly responsive; willing to travel regularly across the Middle East. Strong judgment on handle/propose/escalate; clear structured communicator; comfortable with customers, executives, senior technical leaders; low ego, discreet.
BONUS: software engineering or technical product experience; founder/early-stage/founding-team experience; prior Chief of Staff, TPM, product, or FDE experience; AI products/prototypes/demos; technical hiring or eng ops; enterprise or government customers; Arabic or Gulf-region experience.
CALIBRATION (the client's words: "Our engineers are from top labs and top schools. I expect at least the same bar" — apply it to this role too): target archetypes — ex-Palantir FDE/deployment strategist; McKinsey/BCG/Bain consultant WITH a CS/engineering degree who moved to a startup; CoS or founder's associate at an elite AI startup; TPM at a top tech company; ex-founder (exited or wound down) from a top program; Oxbridge/Imperial/ETH/Ivy engineering grads with startup operator arcs. Evidence of shipping (side projects, prototypes, AI tooling fluency) strongly preferred. London strongly preferred. NOT pure project managers/scrum masters, NOT EA/office-ops profiles, NOT non-technical MBAs without engineering fluency, NOT 10+ yr corporate program managers.