Head of AI – Rise Technologies

Join an early-stage fintech company revolutionizing SMB financial management

Rise Technologies is seeking an experienced AI leader to join our experienced team. We’re building AI-powered solutions that will transform how small and medium businesses manage their finances. Working alongside seasoned fintech veterans, including the founder of Paytrail, you’ll have significant impact on our technical direction and product development in this early-stage environment.
We are a small, product-focused team. We value clarity, ownership, and thoughtful engineering.

Fully remote position – Our team spans multiple countries, and we’ve built effective remote collaboration practices. Finland-based candidates (especially Jyväskylä area) are welcome for occasional in-person collaboration, but remote work is fully supported and expected.

The Role
As Head of AI you will:
– Define and lead the company’s AI vision and technical direction
– Design, build, and ship production-grade AI features end-to-end
– Integrate modern AI capabilities (agents, retrieval, automation, predictive models, etc.) into financial workflows
– Make AI a natural, trusted part of the user experience — not a bolted-on gimmick
– Collaborate tightly with engineering and product to keep architecture clean and scalable
– Establish evaluation frameworks, observability, safety controls, and development best practices
– Lay the foundation for a future AI team (and lead hiring when the time comes)
This is a player/coach role: you’ll spend a lot of your time writing code, prototyping, and shipping.

What You’ll Work On
– Smart automation and workflow tools for SMB finance
– Retrieval-augmented systems with strong security and accuracy
– Predictive and recommendation engines tailored to financial data
– Internal tools that make the entire team more productive
– Rapid experimentation production pipeline

Tech Stack You’ll Use
– TypeScript / Node.js
– PostgreSQL
– AWS (serverless-first)
– CDK for infrastructure
– Modern AI APIs and frameworks

The Good
– Full ownership of the AI roadmap in a fintech built by people whove done it before
– Clean, modern codebase — no legacy baggage
– Real impact on product and business direction
– High autonomy and fast decision-making
– Clear long-term growth path as the company scales

The Challenges
– Fast pace, shifting priorities
– You’ll be the first dedicated AI person — broad responsibility
– Early-stage ambiguity requires initiative and good judgment

What Were Looking For
– Proven experience shipping production AI/ML features (any domain)
– Strong system design and architecture skills
– Comfortable writing production code in TypeScript/Node.js and deploying to AWS
– Hands-on experience with retrieval systems, agents, or automation workflows
– Product sense — you can translate technical capabilities into user value
– Ability to balance speed, quality, and security in a regulated domain
– Startup mindset: proactive, adaptable, low-ego

Osaamisalue: IT & tietoliikenne