Lead Software Architect

We’re building Cloudinary’s next growth engine.

Cloudinary for Builders focuses on GenAI-native, builder-first ecosystems. Our job is to create the right technical entry points into Cloudinary: integrations, plugins, connectors, workflows, and new developer-facing products. The space is early, messy, and full of opportunity.

We’re looking for a Senior Technical Leader to act as the R&D Lead and de-facto CTO of Cloudinary for Builders. Think technical co-founder inside Cloudinary. You’ll own the technical direction end to end and build whatever is necessary to unlock this market.

We’re a small, fast-moving, highly autonomous team. No fixed roadmap. No Jira treadmill. No hard line between product and engineering. You’ll help define the problems, evaluate solution spaces, and ship the fastest way to test real value. Sometimes that’s a plugin. Sometimes an integration. Sometimes a workflow. Sometimes something new.

Responsibilities

• Own the technical direction of Cloudinary for Builders, end to end, like a Co-founder & CTO
• Co-lead the pod with its GM, shaping both product and technical decisions
• Explore and evaluate emerging platforms (LLMs, builder tools, agent frameworks) and decide where Cloudinary should show up
• Design, build, and ship integrations, plugins, connectors, widgets, and other low-friction entry points for builders
• Own architecture, DevOps, deployment, and operations — whatever needs to be done, gets done
• Build pragmatically: ship what validates value, cut everything else
• Continuously adjust focus based on learnings and constraints in pursuit of product-market fit
  
  

Requirements

• 10+ years as a senior developer or technical leader, still highly hands-on
• Strong founder mentality: ownership-driven, comfortable with ambiguity, biased toward solutions
• Prior startup or founder experience is a strong plus
• Deep familiarity with developer ecosystems and active involvement in the dev community
• Proven experience building integrations, plugins, SDKs, or platform extensions
• Hands-on experience with GenAI and LLM tooling, including:
• LLM and agent integrations
• MCPs or similar protocol-based systems
• Tools, widgets, or workflows inside LLM environments
• Gemini Gems, ChatGPT tools, or similar extensibility models
• Experience with automation/workflow tools (e.g. n8n) is a plus
• Strong understanding of cloud architecture, DevOps, and production systems
• Full-stack in the broad sense: infrastructure, APIs, systems, integrations (frontend polish is secondary)
• Curious, fast-learning, pragmatic, and biased toward shipping
  
  

Cloudinary is a leading cloud-based image and video platform. This role offers a rare chance to operate like a founder while leveraging Cloudinary’s scale, platform, and reach. Cloudinary for Builders is intentionally small and autonomous, with real freedom to shape both the product and how Cloudinary engages the next generation of builders.

We may use artificial intelligence (AI) tools to support parts of the hiring process, such as reviewing applications, analyzing resumes, or assessing responses. These tools assist our recruitment team but do not replace human judgment. Final hiring decisions are ultimately made by humans. If you would like more information about how your data is processed, please contact us.