Fractional CTO
One to three days a week over months. Strategy, architecture, hiring, vendor and board conversations, and a steady hand for the engineering leads.
Fractional and interim CTO for SaaS and platform companies
Technical leadership and AI judgement in the shape you need it: a few days a month, a few months full-time, or for good. Currently CTO of Public Sector Network, and open to conversations about the next engagement.
Five ways to work together
Interim CTO
Full-time for a defined period: a gap between leaders, a turnaround, a raise or an acquisition where the technology story has to hold up.
Technical due diligence
A fixed-scope review of code, architecture, team and operations with a plain-language report for investors, acquirers and boards.
AI strategy and delivery
A short, fixed-scope review of where generative AI pays off in your product and your engineering, what it will cost, and a delivery plan with guardrails written into your SDLC. Based on running a production platform with AI in the loop since 2025.
Full-time CTO
For the right company I will join properly. Many full-time CTO hires start as a fractional engagement, which lets both sides find out before committing. Talk to me about the stage, the team and what the next three years look like.
When to call
The situations that land on my desk
- Your CTO or lead engineer has left, or is about to.
- You are raising or selling, and the data room needs a technology story that holds up to scrutiny.
- Engineering costs are up, shipping is down, and nobody can say why.
- The board is asking what the AI plan is.
- A customer, auditor or acquirer wants ISO 27001 or SOC 2 and you do not know where to start.
- You are a non-technical founder and need someone on your side of the table with engineers, agencies and vendors.
- The platform works today but will not survive ten times the load, or the next five years.
How I work
Straight talk, then hands on
Start with a conversation. Thirty minutes, free. Tell me what is going on and what you are hoping for. I will say honestly whether I can help, and if I can’t, I’ll introduce you to someone who can.
Then a short diagnostic. For anything bigger than a one-off question, the first few weeks are a fixed-scope look at the code, the architecture, the team, the roadmap and the costs. You get a written assessment in plain language and a 90-day plan. If we stop there, you still have something you can act on.
Then the engagement. Fractional means one to three days a week with me in your leadership meetings, your board pack, your hiring loop and your architecture decisions. Interim means full-time for a defined period with a defined handover. I am hands-on where it matters: I review code, I write it when that is the fastest way to unblock a team, and I run a production platform with AI tooling in the loop, so what I recommend is what I do.
I plan my own exit. The point of a fractional or interim engagement is a company that no longer needs me: an engineering leader hired or grown, decisions written down, and a team that ships without me in the room.
Practicalities. I am in Cape Town (UTC+2) and have run a platform for an Australian company from here since 2021: my mornings overlap with Australian afternoons, my afternoons with the UK, Europe and the US east coast.
The platform I run today
2022–present · CTO
Public Sector Network platform
The community, events, learning and marketplace platform behind Public Sector Network, a free government-only network across Australia, New Zealand and North America. Built from the first commit in 2022 and run end to end as CTO.
- 100,000+ government professionals across Australia, New Zealand and North America
- First commit in January 2022 to ISO 27001:2022 readiness
- Automated tests from 67 to about 5,250 in two years, CI on every push
- Run since 2025 as a team of one with AI tooling in the loop
Your real team as CTO
One of the biggest mistakes new CTOs make is thinking their team is still the tech team. Your real team is the executive team, and that changes how you spend your week.
The Gotcha Game That Drives Great Engineers Away
Most tech interviews are a game of gotcha that makes the interviewer feel clever and loses solid builders. The best interviewers are great conversationalists who listen.
Start with a conversation
Tell me what is going on and what you are hoping for. I will say honestly whether I can help, and if I can’t, I’ll introduce you to someone who can.
Cape Town · UTC+2 · remote. Four years running a platform for an Australian company from here: my mornings overlap with Australia, my afternoons with the UK, Europe and the US east coast.