Chief Technology Officer Full Time

This is a founding role. There is no salary at this stage. Compensation is equity only.

This role is for someone who wants to build a regulated fintech company from the ground up and is comfortable taking early-stage risk in exchange for long-term ownership. If short-term income stability is the priority, this is not the right fit.

About SambalPay

SambalPay is building a structured credit line platform (₹2,000 to ₹2 lakhs) for Bharat users earning ₹12,000–₹40,000 per month. The target segment includes salaried workers, self-employed individuals, gig workers, and thin-file borrowers underserved by traditional lenders.

The focus is disciplined infrastructure, not growth-at-any-cost.

• Transparent loan journeys
• Structured EMI-based repayment
• Real NBFC partnerships with compliant capital flow
• Responsible underwriting from day one
• Credit-building for first-time borrowers
• Tight risk and default control

This is a regulated lending infrastructure platform, not a lead-generation or arbitrage model.

What This Role Means

This is a technical co-founder role. You will design and build the entire technical foundation of SambalPay.

Responsibilities include:

• Making architecture decisions that hold at scale (1 lakh+ users)
• Embedding compliance into system design
• Designing risk logic that protects capital
• Balancing execution speed with long-term stability

You will not be managing engineers in abstraction. You will be building the system end to end.

Core Systems to Build1. Full Lending Lifecycle

• Mobile-first onboarding
• KYC orchestration
• Bureau integration
• Alternative data integration (if required)
• Rule-based underwriting engine (v1)
• Limit assignment logic
• Disbursal trigger system
• EMI schedule generation
• Repayment tracking
• Delinquency monitoring
• Collections workflow logic
• Internal admin and ops dashboard

The system must be modular, auditable, and NBFC-compliant.

2. Payments & Transaction Infrastructure

• UPI-based disbursal flows
• UPI and mandate-based repayments
• IMPS fallback logic
• Webhook listeners
• Idempotent transaction handling
• Retry and reconciliation mechanisms
• Internal ledger layer
• Automated settlement reporting

Every transaction must be traceable. Silent failures are unacceptable.

3. NBFC Integration & Capital Routing

SambalPay operates as an LSP with NBFC partners.

• NBFC API integrations
• Capital routing logic
• Loan book reporting
• Settlement and reconciliation systems
• Partner-level data isolation
• Architecture ready for multi-NBFC routing

The system must allow expansion without core rewrites.

4. Risk & Underwriting Infrastructure

• Rule-based risk engine (v1)
• Extensible decisioning framework (ML-ready later)
• Fraud detection baseline
• Early delinquency signal tracking
• Explainable and auditable risk logic

The objective is structural default control.

5. Security & Compliance

• Encryption at rest and in transit
• Role-based access control
• Immutable audit logs
• API security controls
• Secure cloud configuration
• Backup and disaster recovery systems
• Defined RTO and RPO
• Data protection aligned with Indian regulatory expectations

Execution RoadmapPhase 1: Zero to MVP (0–3 Months)

• Finalize architecture
• Set up AWS or GCP
• Build core lending engine
• Develop admin panel
• Integrate payment sandbox
• Integrate NBFC sandbox APIs
• Set up logging and monitoring

Outcome: Controlled internal MVP simulating full loan lifecycle.

Phase 2: MVP to Live (3–6 Months)

• Production-grade infrastructure
• Live UPI disbursals
• Bureau integration
• Risk engine v1 deployment
• EMI automation
• Reconciliation system
• Fraud baseline deployment

Outcome: Real users, real disbursals, tightly monitored exposure.

Phase 3: Live to Scale (6–18 Months)

• Queue-based asynchronous processing
• Horizontal scaling
• Database optimization
• Distributed caching
• Load and stress testing
• Analytics and data warehouse layer
• Infrastructure cost control per borrower
• Multi-NBFC routing

Target: 100K+ active borrowers without architectural failure.

Long-Term Architecture Expectations

As scale increases, the system must support:

• Stateless services
• Event-driven processing
• Distributed caching
• Database partitioning
• Multi-zone deployment
• High availability
• Partner-level data segmentation

Scaling should not require rebuilding the product.

FLDG & DLG Compliance

The system must support compliant First Loss Default Guarantee (FLDG) and Default Loss Guarantee (DLG) structures:

• Strict exposure caps as per RBI norms
• No implicit or open-ended guarantees
• Portfolio-level tracking
• Real-time exposure monitoring
• Automated cap enforcement
• Clear audit logs
• Segregation of guaranteed portfolios
• Transparent reporting

Compliance must be built into system logic, not handled manually.

Experience Required

• 5–10 years in fintech, lending, or payments
• Strong backend expertise (Python / Node.js / Go)
• Frontend exposure (React / Next.js)
• AWS or GCP architecture experience
• Experience integrating financial institutions
• Handling sensitive financial data
• Clear understanding of lending lifecycle and repayment mechanics

Strong Advantage

• Early-stage or founding engineer experience
• Built underwriting/decision systems
• Taken fintech from MVP to live users
• Exposure to collections systems
• Understanding lending unit economics