Founding Technical Lead

Solpace is an independent Stockholm-based music technology startup supported by KTH Innovation. We exist to return financial power, direct fan ownership, and creative autonomy to the artists, clubs, and dancers who live the culture—replacing corporate streaming pennies, 30% store cuts, pay-to-reach algorithms, and ticketing monopolies. We fuse sonic & multimodal AI, data-driven booking & yield forecasting, 0%-commission music & DJ-set commerce with instant multi-party Smart Splits, automated promo video & Meta/CRM distribution for artists and organisers, and offline-resilient live event infrastructure into one high-throughput platform. We are looking for a Technical Co-founder / CTO to take full architectural ownership from day zero alongside our founder (KTH IndEk Computer Engineering & ML, CS at SU) and scale the platform, custom ML models, and live infrastructure with us. What We Have Built So Far
• Core platform under active development in a clean TypeScript/Python monorepo (React, Next.js, React Native, Node.js/Express, Python/FastAPI, PostgreSQL/pgvector, SQLite, Redis, BullMQ, MeiliSearch, Stripe Connect, Docker, Caddy).
• Live public website with interactive product demos and waitlist at solpace.org.
• Supported by KTH Innovation in Stockholm for venture development and commercialisation, with active scene outreach across Stockholm and European nightlife. What You Will Lead & Build
• High-Concurrency Ticketing & Financial Integrity: Architect race-condition-free inventory locking under sudden ticket-drop traffic spikes, alongside BullMQ job queues, idempotent webhook pipelines, and deterministic multi-party settlements (Stripe Connect Smart Splits) with zero state drift.
• Offline-Resilient Edge & Cryptographic Door Terminals: Engineer local-first state sync and edge verification so door terminals validate 30-second rotating cryptographic QR tickets in zero-connectivity basement clubs—scaling toward local festival mesh networking and satellite-backed fallback.
• Audio AI, Custom RecSys, Lucy & LLM Fine-Tuning: Build our core AI & RecSys stack—fine-tuning open-weight LLMs and custom PyTorch, TensorFlow & scikit-learn models, evolving Lucy (our zero-privilege AI event concierge combining 0-token DSP heuristics with multimodal GenAI), scaling Python/FastAPI & Modal GPU pipelines (CLAP, OpenL3, YAMNet, librosa, CLIP, ffmpeg, pgvector), and training sequential, deep ranking, and graph recommendation models.
• Real-Time Community, Yield Forecasting & Distribution: Scale clock-synced pre-release listening lounges, role-moderated event chat rooms, and low-latency messaging alongside predictive demand/booking-risk pipelines, automated promo video rendering, and Meta Graph API / AI CRM distribution workflows. Who You Are
• Studying or graduated from KTH (Datateknik, Machine Learning, Teknisk Fysik, or IndEk Data/ML) — or an experienced fullstack, backend, or ML engineer in Stockholm who thrives on end-to-end architecture, real-time systems, and applied ML.
• Deep fluency in TypeScript (React/Next.js, Node/Express) and/or Python/ML, with a strong grasp of relational databases (PostgreSQL), caching/queuing (Redis), concurrency, idempotency, and production security/auth.
• Strong plus for hands-on experience in one or more of: PyTorch, TensorFlow & scikit-learn (multimodal embeddings, pgvector, graph/sequential RecSys, LLM fine-tuning), offline-first mobile/edge sync (React Native, SQLite, signed QR verification), real-time messaging/media streaming, or multi-party payment ledgers (Stripe Connect).
• Passionate about independent electronic music, club culture, or live events, and ready to take full technical ownership as CTO.

What We Offer
• Substantial Co-founder Equity: True founding ownership in Solpace (equity-based founding role at pre-seed stage; no corporate bureaucracy).
• Full Technical Mandate: Complete ownership over system architecture, stack decisions, and engineering culture from day zero.
• Flexible Setup: Works alongside studies, thesis, or current commitments in Stockholm (hybrid at KTH Teknikringen / Sveavägen), transitioning into full-time as we scale. Interested? Apply directly or send a few lines with links to your GitHub, shipped systems, or something technically interesting you have built. Explore our platform and full role specs: https://solpace.org/careers/ Or send your GitHub / shipped work for a coffee in Stockholm: hello@solpace.org