VESTD INC.

YOUR SAFETY NET. EARNED OVER TIME.

Co-Founder & Chief Technology Officer

COMPENSATION: Equity-only to start. Deferred salary of $150,000/year activates at seed close or profitability. 2-5% equity, 4-year vest, 1-year cliff.

LOCATION: Dallas, TX preferred. Open to remote.

STAGE: Pre-seed. Targeting a $2.5M seed round in Q3 2026.

About Vestd

Vestd is a pre-launch fintech mutual pool providing portable, salary-replacement income protection for W-2 workers — the first product of its kind. Members contribute 5% of salary monthly for five years, then 1% going forward. In return, Vestd provides up to 18 months of full salary replacement upon involuntary separation from employment.

We are incorporated as a Delaware C-Corp, building toward a Texas launch, with a seed round in progress targeting institutional fintech investors. There are no direct competitors. The model is novel, the regulatory path is clear, and the market is enormous.

The Opportunity

We are looking for a technical co-founder who wants to build something that has never been built. You will own the entire technology stack from day one — architecture decisions, product roadmap, engineering hires, payroll integrations, the mobile app, and the data infrastructure. You are not joining a company that already has a tech team. You are building one.

This is not a job. It is a founding role. The right person is someone who has done this before, understands the weight of co-founder equity, and is energized by the challenge of building financial infrastructure from scratch in a highly regulated industry.

What You Will Own

Payroll Integration & Core Infrastructure

The Vestd model lives or dies on real-time payroll data. Separation events are verified via payroll termination codes. Member contributions flow through payroll deduction. This is the most critical technical dependency we have.

• Architect and build API integrations with Gusto, Rippling, ADP, Paycom, and Paychex

• Design the member contribution pipeline — payroll deduction, fund routing, pool accounting

• Build automated benefit payment workflows triggered by verified separation events

• Ensure data accuracy, reconciliation, and audit trails across all payroll partner connections

Mobile Application (iOS & Android)

Members manage their Vestd account, track tier progression, submit fund requests, and receive payouts through the app. It needs to be clean, fast, and simple enough that someone filing a benefit payment during the worst week of their life can do it without friction.

• Lead architecture and development of native iOS and Android applications

• Build member-facing features: onboarding, contribution tracking, tier dashboard, benefit request flow

• Integrate with payroll partner APIs for real-time status and verification

• Ensure WCAG accessibility compliance and sub-2-second load performance

Data, Reporting & Dashboards

Vestd operates two P&Ls — Vestd Inc. and the Vestd Member Owned Pool — and serves payroll partners, regulators, and investors who need clean data. You will build the reporting layer that makes all of that legible.

• Build Power BI, Tableau, or Salesforce dashboards for internal operations and partner reporting

• Design the data warehouse and pipeline architecture (pool financials, member cohorts, actuarial data)

• Create investor-facing reporting infrastructure for board and seed investor updates

• Build partner portal data exports and API feeds for payroll platform integration

Platform Architecture & Security

• Architect the core Vestd platform for scale.

• Own infrastructure decisions: cloud provider, database, authentication, API gateway

• Ensure SOC 2 compliance posture and financial data security from day one

• Build for regulatory auditability — the Delaware Statutory Trust structure requires clean, defensible transaction records

Technical Leadership

• Partner directly with the CEO and CFO/COO on product roadmap and investor technical due diligence

• Recruit and lead the engineering team as we scale post-seed

• Own the technical narrative in investor conversations and partner diligence calls

• Make architectural decisions that serve a 10-year company, not just the MVP

What We Need You to Have

• Proven experience as a founding CTO, technical co-founder, or first engineering leader at a fintech or financial services startup

• Hands-on experience building and shipping native iOS and Android applications

• Proficiency with Power BI, Tableau, or Salesforce for operational and partner dashboards

• Strong command of REST and GraphQL API design and integration

• Experience with cloud infrastructure (AWS, GCP, or Azure) and financial-grade security requirements

• Ability to operate as the sole technical decision-maker in a pre-seed environment — you will be building before there is a team

• High business acumen — you understand unit economics, LTV, CAC, and how the technology decisions you make affect the P&L

Preferred

• Experience in regulated financial products — insurance, lending, payments, or benefits

• Familiarity with Delaware Statutory Trust structures or pooled financial product architecture

• Experience with Salesforce CRM integration

• React Native with TypeScript for cross-platform mobile components

• PostgreSQL, Firebase, or equivalent for member data at scale

• Prior experience at a company that raised a seed or Series A round

Who You Are

You have built something before, and you want to build something again. You are not looking for a safe senior engineering job at a Series C company. You are looking for a founding role with real ownership in a company that has a real shot.

You are strategic enough to make architectural decisions that compound over five years and tactical enough to write the code yourself on day one. You have low ego and high standards. You communicate clearly with non-technical co-founders and investors without condescension.

You understand that Vestd is solving a problem that has never been truly solved — portable income protection for the American worker — and that building the technology behind it is a meaningful thing to do.

Equity & Path to Compensation

This role starts equity-only. We are being transparent about that because we respect your time and ours.

• 3-5% equity stake (negotiable based on experience and scope)

• 4-year vesting schedule with 1-year cliff

• Deferred salary of $150,000/year activates at seed close or profitability — whichever comes first

• Co-founder title: Co-Founder & Chief Technology Officer

• Full board-level visibility into financials, cap table, and investor conversations from day one