Fractional CTO
Small teams often have strong engineers but no one whose job is the technical big picture: architecture, process, hiring, and the roadmap that ties them together. A fractional CTO gives you that senior judgement a few days a month, so you make the expensive decisions well the first time instead of paying for them later.
Executive-level technical judgement at a fraction of a full-time CTO salary, scaled to what you need.
The expensive decisions, stack, architecture, hiring, get made with experience behind them.
Delivery processes, priorities, and a technical roadmap the whole team can actually execute against.
Direction
- Architecture review and target-state direction
- Technical strategy aligned to business goals
- Build-vs-buy and major technology decisions
- Prioritised technical roadmap
- Risk and technical-debt assessment
Process & delivery
- Delivery process and team workflow setup
- Branch, review, and release practices
- AI-assisted development and tooling direction
- Quality, security, and reliability practices
- Vendor and tooling decisions
Team
- Org structure and hiring plan
- Technical interviewing and candidate assessment
- Mentoring for senior and lead engineers
- Onboarding and knowledge-sharing practices
Leadership
- Regular leadership cadence with founders
- Stakeholder and board-level technical communication
- Hands-on involvement on critical decisions
- Succession plan toward an in-house CTO when ready
Diagnostic
Talk through where you are: architecture, team, and process. We return the two or three decisions most worth getting right now, and how we'd approach them.
Advisory
Lightweight fractional engagement: regular leadership cadence, architecture and roadmap direction, and on-call judgement for the decisions that matter.
Embedded Retainer
Deeper fractional CTO involvement: hands-on leadership across architecture, process, and hiring under a regular cadence. Monthly time-and-materials, scaled to your needs.
Best fit
- Startups and small teams without senior technical leadership
- Founders making architecture or hiring decisions outside their expertise
- Teams that need direction on process, delivery, and AI tooling
- Companies not ready for, or not needing, a full-time CTO yet
Not a fit
- Teams that already have strong full-time technical leadership
- Organisations wanting a name on the org chart with no real involvement
- Engagements seeking pure staff augmentation rather than leadership
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Read case study01How is a fractional CTO different from a consultant?
A consultant typically delivers a scoped project and leaves. A fractional CTO takes ongoing ownership of your technical direction, architecture, process, hiring, roadmap, on a regular cadence, acting as part of your leadership team rather than an outside adviser.
02How much time do you commit?
It scales to your needs, from a few days a month for advisory direction to a deeper embedded retainer. We right-size the commitment during scoping and adjust as the company grows.
03Will you help us hire a full-time CTO eventually?
Yes. Part of the role is building toward your independence: setting up the team, processes, and architecture so you can hire a full-time CTO when the time is right, and helping you assess candidates when you do.
04Are you hands-on or advisory only?
Both, depending on the engagement. We give strategic direction and, when it matters, get hands-on with architecture decisions, critical reviews, and setting up delivery practices. We are practitioners, not slide-deck advisers.