Fractional Chief Technology Officer

ARQ Dental | Arqipelago, Inc.
Remote | 4 hours per week initially | Equity with future salary potential
About ARQ Dental
ARQ Dental is an AI powered operating intelligence platform built for Dental Support Organizations (DSOs) across the US.
DSOs operate across multiple practice management, finance, payroll and HR systems, creating fragmented data and limited visibility into business performance.
ARQ brings that data together into a unified platform, providing financial intelligence, operational analytics, benchmarking and AI driven insights to help DSO leadership improve performance, profitability and enterprise value.
We're already live with a US DSO, with real users, real data and an ambitious product roadmap covering predictive, prescriptive and Agentic AI capabilities.
We're now looking for an experienced technology leader to help guide our next stage of growth.
The Opportunity
We're looking for a hands on, commercially minded Fractional CTO who can initially commit approximately 4 hours per week, with the opportunity to increase their involvement as the business grows.
We already have an established development partner responsible for engineering and delivery. We're not looking for someone to manage day to day development.
We need someone who can bring senior technical expertise, challenge architectural decisions, identify risks and help ensure we're building a scalable, secure and commercially sustainable SaaS platform.
The role will also involve representing ARQ in selected technical discussions with customers, prospective clients, strategic partners and investors.
Initially, the focus is on strategic technical guidance and oversight, with responsibilities expanding as the time commitment increases.
Key Areas of Expertise & Responsibility
Technology Architecture & Scalability
Review our existing architecture, technology stack and infrastructure.
Advise on scalability, multitenancy, database design, performance and technical debt.
Guide key technology decisions, architectural tradeoffs and build versus buy considerations.
Help ensure the platform can scale efficiently across hundreds and eventually thousands of dental locations.
Data Architecture & Engineering
Strong practical fluency in Medallion Architecture and modern data engineering principles.
Experience with ETL/ELT pipelines, data lakes, lakehouses and data warehousing.
Expertise in data modeling, normalization, validation, reconciliation and data governance.
Understanding of semantic layers, standardized KPIs and analytical data models.
Ability to guide the architecture underpinning financial analytics, benchmarking, forecasting and AI.
APIs, Connectors & Integrations
Strong experience with REST APIs, webhooks, third party connectors and enterprise integration frameworks.
Experience integrating disparate and legacy systems into unified data platforms.
Advise on reusable integration approaches, data synchronization, monitoring and reliability.
Help reduce the development effort, cost and maintenance associated with integrations and customer onboarding.
Evaluate third party integration providers and build versus buy decisions.
Cloud Infrastructure & FinOps
Strong understanding of cloud infrastructure, FinOps and cost optimization.
Help establish visibility into technology costs per DSO, location and workload.
Advise on infrastructure, data processing, API and AI related costs.
Ensure technology decisions support scalable SaaS economics and sustainable margins.
AI, Agentic AI & Advanced Analytics
Strong understanding of modern AI architectures, LLMs, Agentic AI and autonomous or semi autonomous workflows.
Experience with AI agents, orchestration frameworks, tool calling, retrieval augmented generation (RAG) and integration with enterprise data.
Provide architectural guidance on building secure, reliable and scalable AI capabilities.
Support our roadmap for predictive analytics, forecasting, scenario planning and prescriptive intelligence.
Advise on agent governance, human oversight, accuracy, explainability, security and hallucination prevention.
Evaluate emerging AI technologies and identify practical opportunities to create customer value while managing costs.
Security, Compliance & Technical Oversight
Understanding of HIPAA, SOC 2, data privacy and enterprise security architecture.
Provide independent technical oversight to our existing development partner.
Review significant technical proposals, identify risks and challenge decisions constructively.
Support the founders with technology strategy, technical due diligence and engineering priorities.
Client, Partner & Investor Engagement
Confidently represent ARQ in technical discussions with existing and prospective DSO customers.
Participate in investor meetings and technical due diligence, addressing questions around architecture, scalability, AI strategy, technology costs and competitive differentiation.
Translate complex technical concepts into language that business leaders, customers and investors can understand.
What We're Looking For
Essential
Experience as a CTO, VP Engineering, Head of Engineering, Principal Architect or similar senior technical leader.
Proven experience designing and scaling complex SaaS and data platforms.
Strong fluency in Medallion Architecture, modern data engineering and enterprise data integration.
Deep understanding of APIs, cloud architecture, data pipelines and system scalability.
Strong understanding of AI, LLMs, Agentic AI architectures and their practical application in enterprise software.
Practical experience with FinOps and technology cost optimization.
Good understanding of security, compliance and enterprise software reliability.
Excellent communication skills, with the confidence and credibility to engage directly with enterprise customers, senior executives and investors.
Commercially minded, pragmatic and comfortable working with founders and external development teams.
Highly Desirable
Experience in US healthcare technology, dental technology or DSOs.
Knowledge of dental PMS systems such as Dentrix, Open Dental, Eaglesoft, Curve or Denticon.
Experience with finance, accounting, payroll and HR integrations.
Hands on experience building production AI agents and enterprise AI applications.
Experience scaling an early stage SaaS business.
Experience supporting enterprise sales, strategic partnerships, fundraising and investor technical due diligence.
Commitment & How the Role Will Evolve
We're deliberately starting small and want responsibilities to reflect the time available.
Initially | Approximately 4 hours per week
Focus on architectural guidance, technical reviews, identifying risks, advising on key decisions and providing independent oversight to our development partner.
Participate in selected client, partner and investor discussions where technical expertise is needed.
The existing engineering team will continue to own implementation and delivery.
As ARQ grows | Increased fractional commitment
As we acquire more customers, we'd like the role to expand, potentially to one or more days per week.
This could include greater responsibility for technology strategy, architecture, engineering oversight, integrations, AI and Agentic AI development, technical recruitment and external stakeholder engagement.
Longer term | Expanded CTO role
Depending on commercial success and mutual interest, there is an opportunity to evolve into a broader CTO leadership position.
The level of responsibility will always reflect the agreed time commitment.
Equity & Future Compensation
This is initially an equity only opportunity, with no cash salary at the outset.
Initial equity: An equity allocation reflecting the agreed four hour weekly commitment, experience and responsibilities.
Additional equity: Opportunities for further equity grants as the individual commits more time and takes on greater responsibilities, subject to agreed terms and vesting.
Future salary: Potential for paid compensation as ARQ achieves commercial success and has the financial capacity to support it.
Long term upside: The opportunity to grow into a significant CTO leadership position and participate in the value created as ARQ scales.
We're looking for someone who believes in the opportunity, wants to contribute meaningfully and is interested in building a long term relationship with the business.
Why ARQ?
Already live: A real platform being used by a US DSO, not just an idea.
Significant opport

Work arrangement
Yes