Chief Technology Officer/Vice President of Engineering, Wagmo
$300-400k
+ Equity
Pet insurance and wellness plans
Open for applications
Pet insurance and wellness plans
21-100 employees
Open for applications
$300-400k
+ Equity
21-100 employees
Company mission
To bring pet parents the confidence they need to give pets the care they deserve.
Role
Who you are
- Proven experience in a senior engineering leadership role, ideally as a SVP of Engineering, CTO or similar, with a track record of managing and scaling engineering teams of 15+ members
- Strong technical expertise in modern software development, including architecture, security, compliance, and hands-on experience with technologies such as Python, Django, Golang, React, and Next.js
- Deep expertise as a subject matter expert in AI/ML engineering, including experience with data science workflows, model lifecycle management, and leveraging generative AI to build differentiated products and drive operational efficiency
- Track record of delivering enterprise-level B2B platforms or SaaS solutions—ideally in a regulated or highly secure industry like insurance, healthcare, or fintech
- Exceptional leadership and interpersonal skills to build trust, motivate engineers, and elevate the engineering team’s visibility and impact within the broader organization
- Experience driving performance management, goal setting, and operational excellence in a fast-growing, high-growth startup environment transitioning from Series A to Series B and beyond
- Ability to pragmatically address technical debt and legacy system challenges while maintaining focus on delivering scalable, high-quality solutions
- Strong communication skills with the ability to engage effectively with executive leadership, product teams, and cross-functional stakeholders
- Willingness and ability to work onsite in New York at least three days a week, collaborating closely with leadership and product teams
- A growth mindset and pattern recognition skills to quickly assess current team capabilities and technology landscape, and to define and execute a clear vision for technical and organizational maturity
- Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Engineering, or a related field preferred; advanced degrees or relevant certifications are a plus
What the job involves
- As CTO / VP of Engineering at Wagmo, you will lead the company through its next inflection point: transforming Wagmo into an AI-first technology platform powering a broader pet healthcare ecosystem
- This is a build-and-transform role with direct impact on how the company scales, operates, and delivers value
- You will own Wagmo’s technical vision and execution across core platforms and data systems, evolving how technology powers both internal operations and customer-facing experiences
- This includes modernizing our architecture to support AI-native capabilities and leveraging Wagmo’s unique data assets to drive scale, insight, and differentiated products for employers and pet parents
- You will lead a high-performance organization, setting a high technical bar and fostering a culture of ownership, experimentation, and accountability
- Reporting directly to senior leadership, you will partner closely with Product, Operations, and the executive team to ensure technology is a true growth lever
- Lead, grow, and inspire a high-performing engineering organization, setting a strong culture of ownership, technical rigor, continuous learning, and disciplined execution - with AI fluency embedded across the team
- Define and drive the evolution of Wagmo’s technical architecture, ensuring scalable, secure, and resilient systems that support enterprise customers, platform growth, and AI-enabled workflows
- Build and scale Wagmo’s data engineering and analytics foundation, treating data as a first-class product that powers AI workflows, operational decision-making, and customer-facing insights
- Own the application of AI across the platform - identifying where automation, agentic systems, and data-driven intelligence meaningfully improve internal operations and customer-facing experiences
- Partner closely with executive leadership, Product, and Customer teams to align technical strategy and delivery with business priorities, enterprise requirements, and long-term platform bets
- Establish and maintain best-in-class engineering and AI development practices, including CI/CD, observability, security, model evaluation, documentation, and architectural decision-making to enable speed without sacrificing quality
- Build and operationalize engineering systems that improve productivity, prioritization, and accountability, while empowering engineering leaders and ICs to own outcomes end-to-end
- Manage technical debt and AI experimentation with a pragmatic, ROI-driven lens — balancing near-term delivery with long-term scalability, compliance, and maintainability
- Serve as a visible technical leader across the company, clearly communicating tradeoffs, timelines, risks, and investment decisions to executives, stakeholders, and external partners
- Own Wagmo’s security posture and compliance programs, including maintaining SOC 2, managing vendor risk, and leading incident response in partnership with internal and external stakeholders
Our take
Wagmo is a pet wellness company with a tech-first approach, designed to cater to the needs of new pet parents with a range of wellness and insurance plans.
The company provides two primary pet health plans: Wagmo Insurance for emergency care and Wagmo Wellness for routine pet maintenance. Backed by the National Speciality Insurance Company, Wagmo connects pet parents with budgeting tools, reliable veterinary care providers, and trustworthy advice, ensuring pets receive the care they deserve. These are provided to individuals on subscription or as an employee benefit through the workplace.
The Wagmo-Rover partnership marks a significant stride in Wagmo's mission to improve pets' and owners' lives. By teaming up with the largest online pet care marketplace, Wagmo expands its influence, granting discounted access to top-tier pet care for partner organisation employees. This collaboration underscores Wagmo's commitment to responsible pet care and signals a bright future, as the company continues to innovate and collaborate to meet global pet owners' evolving needs.
Freddie
Company Specialist at Welcome to the Jungle
Insights
-3% employee growth in 12 months
Company
Funding (last 2 of 3 rounds)
Aug 2023
$8.9m
EARLY VC
Jul 2021
$12.5m
SERIES A
Total funding: $24.4m
Company benefits
- Equity in the company
- Company paid medical premiums for employee-only plan (3 out of 4 medical plans)
- Dental, vision, voluntary life, short term disability and long-term disability
- Commuter assistance
- Company paid Wagmo pet wellness and insurance plans through monthly reimbursement
- Unlimited paid time off
- 12 weeks parental time off
- 401k
- Company wide open feedback model
Company HQ
Greenwich Village, New York, NY
Leadership
Christie Horvath
(Co-Founder & CEO)Graduated from Harvard Business School with a Master of Business Administration. Served as the Vice President of BlackRock for 6 years before founding Wagmo.
Alison Foxworth
(Co-Founder)Graduated from The Wharton School with a Master of Business Administration. Previously worked in Advisory Services and Financial Insurance at BlackRock. Also served as the Director at Garrison Investments Group.
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