Fractional CTO and tech advisory
When growth outruns the technology function, founders need a senior partner who can set direction and still get into the work.
I join as a fractional CTO: technology strategy, engineering organisation design, delivery and operations, and a defined transition to a sustainable in-house team. The work sits with founders and executives: commercial trade-offs, not a backlog of tickets.
What you get
- Technology selection, system design, and hands-on delivery support where it unblocks the team
- CI/CD, observability, and modern engineering practices that hold up under load
- Recruitment and onboarding support for engineering leadership and a permanent team
- Operating-model choices: insourcing, specialist augmentation, and vendor management
- Alignment of technology investment with commercial outcomes and a realistic handover to full-time leadership
Evidence from delivery
On a high-growth e-commerce auction marketplace, I partnered with the founder through rapid volume growth: platform stabilisation, reliability, and a move from fully outsourced engineering to a permanent internal team with an engineering manager. Cloud running cost came down despite higher load; commercial growth followed the first major stability release.
For a global online marketplace group, I advised the CTO on group-level direction, architectural ownership, and alignment across acquired businesses with mixed stacks and cloud estates.
How engagements typically run
Advisory days, intensive phases around critical releases, and a written path to full-time leadership when that is the goal. I stay close to production issues, design sessions, and hiring, so advice is grounded in how the organisation actually ships.