Fractional CTO and technical leadership
A senior technical leader in your company a few days a month: owning architecture, the roadmap, hiring, and the conversations with your board.
The problem
You need a CTO's judgement before you can justify a CTO's salary
Early and growing companies hit the same wall: technical decisions are getting expensive, but a full-time CTO costs more than the company can carry, and a bad hire at that level sets you back a year.
Meanwhile the decisions keep coming. Which stack? Build or buy? Who to hire first? Why is the release late again? Without someone senior who has done it before, founders end up making these calls alone or deferring to whoever writes the most code.
What I do
Own the technical direction
I set the architecture and the technical roadmap, tie them to your business goals, and make the trade-offs explicit so you know what you're buying with every decision.
Lead and grow the team
I run technical hiring, define roles and career ladders, mentor senior engineers, and fix the delivery process so the team ships predictably.
Manage vendors and agencies
If an outside team is building your product, I hold them to a standard: reviewing their work, their estimates, and their invoices against what you actually need.
Represent technology to the board
I translate engineering into plain business terms for founders, boards, and investors, and I'm in the room for fundraising and partner conversations when you need me.
What you get
- Technical roadmap tied to business milestones
- Architecture decision records for major choices
- Hiring plan, role descriptions, and interview loop
- Delivery process with clear metrics
- Monthly technology report for founders and the board
- A handover plan when you're ready to hire a full-time CTO
How we'd work together
Most fractional CTO work runs on a monthly retainer with a set number of days each month, reviewed every quarter. When you're ready for a full-time CTO, I help you hire them and hand over cleanly.
Hourly advisory
Senior technical advice when you need it, without an ongoing commitment.
Monthly retainer
Ongoing technical leadership with a set amount of time each month.
Questions
How much of my time does a fractional CTO need?
Typically one to two days a week, depending on your stage. We set the cadence up front and adjust it each quarter as the company changes.
Will you write code?
When it helps. I'm hands-on: I review pull requests, prototype risky pieces, and pair with engineers. But the job is leadership, so I won't become your team's bottleneck.
Can you work alongside our existing lead engineer?
Yes, and often that's the point. I work with your lead engineer to grow them into the role, rather than over their head.
What happens when we hire a full-time CTO?
I help define the role, run the search with you, and hand over documentation, context, and relationships so the new hire starts at full speed.
Other services
- AI and LLM integration
Production AI that earns its place: ambient AI, retrieval-augmented generation, agents, and clinical or enterprise AI with the guardrails your domain requires.
- Healthcare software and EHR integrations
HIPAA- and PHIPA-aware architecture, HL7 and FHIR integrations, and connections to labs, pharmacies, and e-prescribing networks.
- Software architecture and cloud
Architecture that fits your stage and scales with you: system design reviews, cloud strategy, reliability, security, and cost control.
Find out if fractional leadership fits your stage
A 30-minute call is enough to tell whether you need a fractional CTO, an advisor, or something else entirely.