Fractional CTO_Travel Tech Start-Up

What We Are Building A marketplace platform serving three audiences:

• Travelers — discover, follow their favorite creators and advisors, and book curated luxury island and beach resorts instantly in one place
• Travel Creators & Advisors — build a branded storefront, share their expertise, and earn commission on every booking they drive
• Resort Partners — feature their properties and exclusive offers to a qualified audience of travelers ready to book

The platform includes:

• Booking engine with real-time availability and direct channel manager connectivity
• Commission and automatic payouts for creators and advisors
• Subscription plans for creators, advisors, and resorts
• Monthly bidding for featured placement
• Membership with exclusive resort rates
• AI-powered travel recommendations to connect creators and suggested resorts
• Mobile-first app built for discovery and instant booking

The Role We are a vision-driven founding team with a designer, developer, and engineer in place. We are rebuilding the platform from the ground up — Version 2 — and need an experienced technical leader to own all architectural decisions and guide the team from the top.

• Define and own the tech stack — evaluate and select the right frontend, backend, database, and third-party services for a marketplace of this complexity
• Architect the booking flow end-to-end — from resort inventory and availability through payment processing, booking confirmation, and post-stay retention
• Own security and compliance from day one — payments, user data, privacy, and subscription data
• Select and integrate the right CRM — one that manages our three-sided relationships across travelers, creators/advisors, and resort partners
• Set up creator commission and payout infrastructure — ensuring accurate attribution, commission calculation, and compliant payouts via Stripe Connect or equivalent
• Connect all systems cleanly — CRM, booking engine, payments, AI layer, email, and analytics must talk to each other without manual data patching
• Protect us from costly early mistakes — wrong architectural decisions at this stage mean expensive rebuilds later
• Translate between business vision and technical execution — our founding team is non-technical and needs a trusted technical voice who can communicate clearly without jargon
• Oversee and guide the existing tech team — provide direction, review technical decisions, and ensure the team is building the right things in the right order
• Start with a full audit of the current live platform before defining the V2 rebuild path

What We Are Looking For

• Has built a marketplace, booking platform, or creator commerce platform before
• Experience with subscription billing, bidding systems, or marketplace monetization
• Travel tech, luxury ecommerce, or fintech experience is a strong plus
• Proven track record of delivering on time in a startup environment
• Communicates clearly with non-technical founders - no jargon

Engagement Details Type: Fractional — part-time with the opportunity to transition into a full-time role Stage: vuecollection.com is live. Rebuild V2 Location: Remote Compensation: Open - fee and equity considered for the right person