Chief Technology Officer (CTO & Co-Founder)

Company Overview

Forward Finance is building a next-generation Loan Against Securities (LAS) platform at the intersection of credit, AI-driven risk intelligence, and wealth technology. We are well-funded and in the final stages of receiving our Non-Banking Financial Company (NBFC) license. Our mission is to redefine how India unlocks liquidity from investments—simple, digital, and instant—while pushing the frontier of secured lending.

Job Summary

As the Chief Technology Officer and Co-Founder, you will be responsible for constructing our lending, risk, and wealth technology engines from the ground up. This role demands deep technical leadership, AI readiness, and the capability to run a full-stack technology organization in a regulated financial environment. You will work directly with the founding team, own the long-term product and technology roadmap, and play a pivotal role in shaping Forward Finance’s competitive advantage.

Responsibilities

• Technology Strategy & Architecture

  • Define and execute the end-to-end technology architecture for a high-availability LAS platform.
  • Build API-first, modular systems integrating custodians, RTAs (Registrar and Transfer Agents), brokers, KRAs (KYC Registration Agencies), credit bureaus, NBFC systems, and wealth platforms.
  • Architect real-time risk, valuation, limit management, and margin monitoring systems.
  • Build robust data infrastructure to support credit analytics, underwriting models, and AI-driven risk intelligence.

• AI & Automation Leadership

  • Embed AI throughout the product: automated underwriting, behavior models, fraud detection, operational workflows, and customer experience.
  • Evaluate and implement large language model (LLM)-based tools, agentic workflows, and developer-productivity AI stacks.
  • Ensure all data systems are AI-ready (structured, labeled, real-time accessible).

• Engineering Leadership & Execution

  • Build and lead a high-caliber engineering team, establish high-quality practices, and set up scalable cloud infrastructure with strong compliance.

• Compliance, Security, and Fintech-grade Resilience

  • Deliver systems aligned with NBFC norms, digital lending guidelines, data protection standards, and audit readiness.
  • Build a secure architecture with an emphasis on data privacy, zero-trust principles, identity management, and real-time monitoring.
  • Establish strong governance on model risk, data lineage, and vendor integrations.

• Product Thinking & Customer Experience

  • Drive product strategy for customers, distributors, and enterprise partners.
  • Work closely with business, credit, and operations to translate product requirements into scalable technology solutions.
  • Develop a seamless omnichannel customer journey—onboarding, limit setup, drawdowns, servicing, and collections.

• Co-Founder Ownership

  • Own technology roadmap and long-term competitive advantage creation.
  • Represent technology vision in board meetings, investor discussions, and key partnerships.
  • Align engineering goals with business scale, unit economics, and regulatory expansion.

Qualifications

• Essential

  • 10+ years of strong engineering experience, ideally with fintech, wealth technology, banking, or scaled B2C/B2B platforms.
  • Proven experience designing and scaling high-availability, API-driven, cloud-native systems.
  • Strong grounding in data engineering, machine learning (ML) systems, and AI adoption in real-world products.
  • Ability to build and manage teams from early-stage to scale.

• Preferred

  • Prior experience in lending, wealth technology, brokerage, or credit risk systems.
  • Start-up or 0-to-1 experience including ownership of architecture, security, and product.
  • Exposure to regulatory environments in India (NBFC, SEBI, RBI digital lending norms).

Ideal Persona

A technology leader who is:

• An architect-level thinker, hands-on when needed.
• Deeply curious about AI and automation.
• Strong in systems-thinking and risk architecture.
• Experienced in scaling regulated fintech products.
• Hungry to build something iconic in the secured credit space.

Growth Opportunities

Co-founder status with meaningful wealth-creation upside. Opportunity to build India’s most intelligent LAS platform from the ground up.

Benefits

• A well-funded company with strong business backing and imminent NBFC approval.
• Autonomy, speed, and the chance to build a category-defining fintech brand.

Contact

Reach out to us at jp.sinha@neoble.in