CTO - Director of AI Engineering - NCT

Banyan Software is the best permanent home for software businesses that serve specialized industries, their employees, and their customers. We are on a mission to acquire, build, and grow great companies worldwide, helping them modernize through shared AI expertise and operational discipline. The Banyan Software Foundation, endowed with $100 million in Banyan stock, leverages technology to build a greener and more equitable world. Banyan is Great Place to Work Certified, a five-time Inc. 5000 honoree, and a top 10 company on the Deloitte Technology Fast 500. Founded in 2016 and headquartered in Atlanta, Banyan operates more than 100 portfolio companies across North America, the UK, EU, and APAC. Head of AI Engineering Company: Next Chapter Technology (An Operating Company of Banyan Software) Location: US-Based (Remote) — Must meet federal-adjacent compliance eligibility Reports To: Chief Executive Officer About Next Chapter Technology (NCT) Next Chapter Technology builds CaseWorks, a mission-critical content and workflow management platform embedded in county-level Health and Human Services operations across the United States. With a 15-year engineering history, a captive install base, and structured operational data, NCT sits at an inflection point to become an AI-first platform. As a Banyan Software operating company, we combine the agility of an independent business with the permanent backing of a global enterprise that buys, holds, and grows software companies for life. The Opportunity We are seeking a Head of AI Engineering to spearhead NCT’s transition into an AI-first platform. This is an intensely hands-on, builder-to-leader role designed for an elite engineer who is energized by complex, legacy transformation. You will lead from the front with a strict "build-solo-first" mandate . Your initial mission is to personally design, build, and prove the first version of NCT's AI-driven capability, shipping measurable customer value before expanding headcount. Once the AI factory framework is successfully established, you will take on the people-management responsibility of scaling and upskilling the engineering team to adopt these modern workflows. We are not looking for a hands-off manager or a slide-deck architect—anyone who has left day-to-day technical execution behind will not be a fit. What You Will Own AI-First Modernization (Hands-On): Personally design and build NCT's foundational AI capabilities (RAG systems, code generation, LLM orchestration, and multi-agent workflows) to analyze legacy code and generate production-ready services. Platform Modernization: Pragmatically refactor legacy components into scalable, cloud-native services and replace manual workflows with AI-driven automation without succumbing to the temptation of a wholesale platform rewrite. Phased Engineering Leadership: Once the AI factory is proven solo, you will assume direct delivery outcomes: managing team execution, elevating talent density, setting engineering rhythms, and mentoring developers into an AI-native way of working. Safe, Compliant Execution: Safely deploy features (utilizing feature flags, shadow mode, and monitoring) while strictly operating within government-adjacent and public-sector compliance frameworks (HIPAA, CJIS). Banyan Ecosystem Partnership: Act as the core technical partner to the CEO while collaborating with Banyan's centralized AI initiatives to accelerate localized product value. What We Are Looking For Deep Software Breadth: 8+ years of hands-on software engineering with a proven track record of modernizing complex architectures and establishing cloud-native/DevSecOps practices. Production AI Experience: Documented history of shipping functional AI/ML systems end-to-end to real users (data pipelines, modeling, deployment, and monitoring). You treat AI tooling as the core foundation of engineering productivity. The "Build-Solo" Appetite: Experience as a founding or first AI engineer who is completely comfortable deli