What is Menyala?

Menyala is a venture builder founded by Temasek, a global investment firm headquartered in Singapore. We empower builders to drive technological shifts.

What is the Role?

We are seeking a visionary CTO to architect and spearhead the development of an AI-powered Know Your Business (KYB) platform for a new venture. In this foundational role, you will blend strategic vision with hands-on execution, driving innovation from initial concept through MVP and beyond. The Technical Lead will be instrumental in building the core platform architecture, implementing AI capabilities, and making critical technical decisions that will shape the product's future. Longer-term, this role will also explore emerging technologies like Decentralized Identifiers (DID) and Verifiable Credentials (VC) to enhance the platform's capabilities.

This technical leadership will be crucial in establishing the platform as a game-changing solution in the KYB and compliance landscape.

Opportunity Context

This new venture is an early-stage startup launched by Menyala in partnership with a large financial institution, which will serve as both a customer and potential investor. The venture’s mission is to transform the complex KYB and compliance landscape through an agent-based AI framework that automates workflows such as document processing, risk profiling, and identity verification, delivering a global, scalable solution. As financial institutions face increasing regulatory demands and inefficiencies from manual verification processes, this platform offers a secure, streamlined solution that integrates AI to improve compliance workflows.

In the longer term, the platform aims to incorporate cutting-edge technologies, including Decentralized Identifiers (DID) and Verifiable Credentials (VC), to enable user-controlled identity verification, making it adaptable for future compliance requirements. This is a unique opportunity to join a founding team with strategic backing and a commitment to building an innovative, high-impact solution. For the right candidate, this role also offers a pathway to a CTO position as the venture scales.

Responsibilities

• Technical Leadership and Vision:
  • Architect and lead the development of the AI-powered KYB platform, overseeing the journey from initial concept to MVP and beyond.
  • Implement a scalable, agent-based architecture that automates key KYB workflows like document processing, risk profiling, and identity verification.
  • Make critical technical decisions, including technology stack and infrastructure, that align with the product’s long-term vision and ensure adaptability to evolving compliance needs.
  • The architecture should meet data privacy, security, and compliance requirements, including exploring federated or other scalable solutions.
• AI and Backend Integration:
  • Build and optimize AI-driven capabilities to enhance KYB processes, incorporating advanced data extraction, risk assessment, and identity validation tools.
  • Ensure robust backend integration, including secure data pipelines, APIs, and modular infrastructure that enables the AI agents to work seamlessly across multiple workflows.
• Emerging Technology Exploration:
  • Evaluate and plan for integration of emerging technologies like DID and VC as the platform evolves.
  • Stay ahead of advancements in AI, ML, and compliance technology, bringing new insights and capabilities to the platform as it grows.
• Team Building and Mentorship:
  • Recruit, mentor, and lead a cross-functional team of AI engineers, data scientists, and backend developers, fostering a collaborative and high-performance culture.
  • Establish technical standards and best practices to ensure high-quality development and continuous innovation.
• Cross-Functional Collaboration:
  • Partner closely with the CEO, product, and business teams to align technical strategy with business goals, user needs and regulatory requirements.
  • Clearly communicate technical concepts and platform vision to non-technical stakeholders, building trust and alignment across departments.

Qualifications

• Experience:
  • 8+ years in AI/ML and backend development, with a proven track record of leading projects from concept through to launch and scaling.
  • Extensive experience in a startup or high-growth environment, demonstrating the ability to navigate ambiguity, make critical decisions quickly, and adapt to evolving priorities.
  • Hands-on experience bootstrapping and building AI-driven platforms from initial concept through MVP and scale.
  • Experience in financial services, regtech, or compliance domains is a strong plus.
  • Familiarity with Decentralized Identifiers (DID) and Verifiable Credentials (VC) technologies is a desirable advantage.
• Technical Skills:
  • Strong experience in building production-grade AI systems: Machine Learning and LLMs, including various techniques for enhancing model capabilities such as Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG) and Agentic AI frameworks . Experience orchestrating multiple AI models and implementing robust evaluation and monitoring frameworks.
  • Expertise in data architecture: designing scalable data pipelines and real-time data processing workflows to support AI systems in production environments.
  • Experience designing secure, compliant data architectures that adhere to global privacy regulations (e.g., GDPR, PDPA).
  • Backend development proficiency: modern frameworks (Node.js, FastAPI, etc), event-driven architectures, REST/GraphQL APIs, and distributed systems design.
  • Infrastructure and DevOps: cloud-native development (AWS/GCP/Azure), Kubernetes orchestration, serverless architectures, and Infrastructure as Code (Terraform, etc).
  • Security and reliability: experience building secure, compliant systems with comprehensive monitoring, observability, and proven scalability in production.
• Leadership and Vision:
  • Visionary approach to technical leadership, balancing hands-on execution with strategic planning to build a scalable and adaptable platform.
  • Comfortable in a startup environment, with experience leading development in fast-paced, resource-constrained settings.
  • Strong team-building skills, with the ability to mentor, inspire, and scale a high-performing technical team, fostering a culture of innovation and excellence.