Fractional AI CTO
Senior technical leadership without a full-time hire. Architecture and code reviews, a straight answer on AI strategy, help choosing vendors, a roadmap that matches your stage, and mentoring for your engineers, on a month-to-month retainer.
You need the judgement, not the full-time salary
A lot of teams are at the point where technical decisions have real consequences, choosing a stack, evaluating an AI vendor, setting a roadmap, but not at the point where a full-time CTO makes financial sense. The result is that those decisions get made under-informed, or deferred. A fractional arrangement covers the judgement calls: regular reviews, someone to pressure-test a plan, and a steady hand mentoring the engineers you do have.
What the retainer covers
- Regular architecture and code reviews, with findings your team can act on
- AI strategy guidance: what is worth doing, what is hype, and what order to do things in
- Vendor and tool evaluation, so you are not choosing a platform on a sales call alone
- A technical roadmap matched to your stage, budget, and team size
- Mentoring for your engineers, raising the level of the team over time
- Availability for the decisions that come up between reviews
How it works
- 1
Onboard
We spend the first weeks understanding your product, stack, team, and the decisions on the table.
- 2
Set a cadence
A regular rhythm of reviews and check-ins is agreed, sized to what you need and what the retainer covers.
- 3
Review and advise
Architecture, code, and plans are reviewed on that cadence, with written findings and clear recommendations.
- 4
Be on call for decisions
Between reviews, we are reachable for the vendor choice, the hiring question, or the architecture call that cannot wait.
- 5
Grow the team
Over time the focus shifts to mentoring your engineers so more of the judgement lives in-house.
What you get out of it
- Technical decisions made with senior input instead of guesswork
- A roadmap that fits your actual stage and budget
- Vendor choices tested before you commit
- Engineers who level up from working with someone more experienced
Questions we get about this
It is a retainer for judgement and guidance, not a full-time schedule. In practice that means a set cadence of reviews and check-ins plus availability for decisions in between. The exact shape is agreed at the start and adjusted as needs change.
Ready to scope fractional ai cto?
Send us the details of your setup: the tools, the volume, the workflow. We'll come back with an honest assessment and a fixed quote.