What Is a Fractional CTO — And When Do You Need One?

The term “fractional CTO” is still unfamiliar to a lot of founders. The concept is simple: senior technical leadership, part-time, without the cost or commitment of a full-time executive hire.

What a fractional CTO actually does

It varies by company, but typically includes:

• Technical strategy — aligning engineering work with business goals
• Architecture review — ensuring you’re building on foundations that will scale
• Hiring guidance — helping you find and evaluate engineering talent
• Team culture — establishing practices that keep good engineers and surface problems early
• Stakeholder translation — bridging the gap between technical reality and business expectation

When does it make sense?

A fractional CTO is a good fit when:

• You’re a startup with engineers but no senior technical leader
• You’ve outgrown your initial architecture and need someone to plan the next phase
• You need to hire engineers but don’t know how to evaluate them
• Your engineering team is struggling and you’re not sure why

It’s not a good fit if you need someone in the room every day making tactical decisions. Fractional work is strategic — it operates at the level of direction, not daily execution.

How I work

I currently work with Breadly and BeWell Health in this capacity. I take on a small number of clients to ensure I can give each one genuine depth of engagement.

If this sounds like what your company needs, get in touch.