Some problems need twenty years of judgement, not forty hours a week. A fractional engagement buys you the judgement without the salary, the equity conversation or the twelve-month notice period.
The clearest signal is that your hardest technology problems are currently being decided by people who are guessing — a founder without an engineering background, a capable senior developer promoted past their experience, or a board asking questions nobody in the room can answer with confidence.
When it is the wrong call. If what you need is more code shipped, a fractional CTO is an expensive way to get it. That is a staff augmentation problem, and we would tell you so rather than sell you the more expensive service.
Architecture and platform choices, build-versus-buy, technical debt triage, security and data-handling posture, and the sequencing of what gets rebuilt versus lived with. The output is a decision you can defend, not a document that sits unread.
Defining the engineering roles you actually need rather than the ones you assume, sitting in on technical interviews, setting the bar for code review, and being honest about whether the existing team can get you where you are going.
Keeping delivery honest against the plan, and translating in both directions — turning board questions into engineering priorities, and engineering reality into language a board can act on.
| Fractional CTO | Full-time CTO | Consultancy | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Commitment | Days per month | Full-time salary + equity | Length of the project |
| Accountability | Ongoing | Ongoing | Ends with the deliverable |
| Time to start | Weeks | Months of search | Weeks |
| If it is not working | 30 days’ notice | Notice, severance, disruption | Contract runs out |
| Best for | Judgement you need repeatedly | A team large enough to need a leader daily | A one-off question |
The honest test is frequency. If technical decisions of consequence arrive weekly, fractional works. If they arrive daily, you need someone full-time and we would rather help you hire them than under-serve you.
What you are trying to achieve, what is currently in the way, and who else has a say in technical decisions.
We shortlist from our network of 21,000+ screened professionals — within 7 days of a signed brief — and you interview whoever you want to.
We agree the days per month and what they are for. This is deliberately revisited rather than fixed for a year.
Contract, access and introductions handled by us. Typically working within 2–4 weeks of the brief.
Scope up, scope down, or convert to a permanent hire. 30 days’ notice either way.
The work splits roughly three ways: decisions (architecture, build-versus-buy, platform choices), people (defining the engineering roles you need, sitting in on technical interviews, setting the standard for code review), and oversight (keeping delivery honest against the plan and translating between the engineering team and the board). What it is not is a pair of hands writing features — if that is the need, staff augmentation is the cheaper answer.
It depends on whether you are in a decision-heavy phase or a steady one. Setting up an engineering function or running due diligence needs materially more contact time than maintaining an established team. We scope the commitment against what you are actually trying to get done, and it can move up or down as that changes.
A consultant is usually engaged to produce a recommendation and leaves once it is delivered. A fractional CTO carries the consequences of the recommendation, because they are still there in three months when it has to work. The accountability is ongoing rather than terminating with the document.
Often that is the sensible path — the fractional period tells you what the role actually needs to be before you write the job description. We can also run the search for the permanent hire, and the fractional CTO is usually the best-placed person to assess the candidates.
Yes. Fractional resource services cover senior expertise across the same disciplines we staff — engineering, design, marketing, finance, data and operations. Fractional CTO is simply the engagement we are asked for most.
Fractional engagements are priced monthly or by day rate against the scope of the commitment, and like all our rates they are inclusive of employment, payroll, insurance and benefits. A full all-inclusive rate card is available on request.
That is usually a faster way to scope a fractional engagement than a job description.
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