founding CTO

CTO / Technical Co-Founder —

CoreIDLocation: Flexible (Kenya / Africa / Remote)

Stage: Pre-seed, zero-to-one

Compensation: Equity (founder-level) + salary post-funding

Commitment: Full ownership mindset required

About CoreID:

CoreID is a consent-driven Health Information Exchange (HIE) that enables patients and healthcare providers to securely identify, access, and share essential health information across facilities — without replacing existing medical record systems.

We are building health infrastructure, not a startup app.

This is a long-term, national-scale system with regulatory, clinical, and ecosystem complexity.

The Role

We are looking for a CTO / Technical Co-Founder to architect, build, and lead the technical foundation of CoreID from the ground up.

This is not a “just write code” role.

You will:

• Own system architecture
• Make irreversible technical decisions
• Translate health ecosystem constraints into scalable systems
• Build something that governments and hospitals must trust

If you are not comfortable building under uncertainty, resource constraints, and pressure — do not apply.

What You Will Own (Non-Negotiable Responsibilities)

1. Core Architecture

• Design and implement a Health Information Exchange (HIE) architecture
• Build a consent-first access control model
• Implement minimal record vs extended record logic
• Design for interoperability, not data centralization
• Build a federated or hybrid exchange model (not a monolithic EHR)

2. Security & Trust

• Implement strong authentication & authorization
• Design audit trails, access logs, and consent history
• Apply privacy-by-design principles
• Understand healthcare data sensitivity and compliance realities
• Make security decisions that survive regulatory scrutiny

3. Interoperability & Standards

• Understand (or quickly learn) health data standards:
• HL7 / FHIR (at least conceptually)
• APIs for labs, pharmacies, clinics, insurers
• Build systems that integrate, not replace
• Design for facilities with very different levels of tech maturity

4. MVP Execution (Extreme Speed, Extreme Focus)

• Build an MVP in < 8 weeks
• Ruthlessly cut scope
• No overengineering
• No vanity features
• Every line of code must serve pilot success

5. Technical Leadership

• Set engineering culture from day one
• Make trade-offs consciously and document them
• Eventually hire and lead engineers
• Speak confidently to:
• Hospitals
• Government stakeholders
• Investors
• Technical auditors

Who You Must Be (Non-Negotiables)

You must:

• Think in systems, not features
• Be comfortable with healthcare complexity
• Understand that this is not an EHR
• Be able to explain technical decisions in simple language
• Be willing to build before you’re paid cash
• Have founder-level ownership mentality
• Be resilient, disciplined, and calm under pressure

🚫 This role is NOT for:

• Freelancers
• Part-time builders
• People chasing quick exits
• “Idea people”
• People who need hand-holding
• People uncomfortable with ambiguity

Compensation & Equity (Read Carefully)

• This is a CTO / Technical Co-Founder role
• Equity will be offered and negotiated privately
• Salary will be introduced post-funding
• No fixed salary at this stage
• If you are not comfortable with this — do not apply

We are looking for someone who wants to build something that matters, not just collect a paycheck.

Why This Is Worth It

• You will help build national health infrastructure
• Your work will impact millions of lives
• You will be a true co-founder, not an employee
• If successful, CoreID becomes foundational to healthcare systems.

Technical Requirements (Non-Negotiable)

The ideal CTO / Technical Co-Founder must have hands-on experience in most of the following areas:

Core Engineering

• Strong backend engineering experience (Node.js, Python, Go, or similar)
• API-first system design (REST / GraphQL)
• Experience designing multi-tenant systems
• Solid database design (PostgreSQL, MySQL, or equivalent)

Identity, Access & Security

• Authentication & authorization (RBAC, OAuth, JWT, or equivalent)
• Consent-based access control models
• Secure handling of sensitive data
• Audit logs and access traceability
• Basic threat modeling mindset

(You don’t need a PhD in cryptography — you need judgment.)

System Architecture

• Designing scalable, modular architectures
• Understanding of federated or hybrid systems
• Experience integrating with third-party systems via APIs
• Ability to design for low-tech environments and unreliable connectivity

Infrastructure & Deployment

• Experience deploying production systems (AWS, GCP, Azure, or equivalent)
• Containerization (Docker-level competence)
• CI/CD basics (GitHub Actions, etc.)
• Monitoring, logging, and error handling

Health Tech (Bonus, Not Mandatory)

• Familiarity with:
• HL7 / FHIR (conceptual understanding is enough)
• Health data workflows (labs, pharmacies, clinics)
• Prior health-tech experience is a plus, not a requirement

We value learning speed over domain history.

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