What a fractional CTO is responsible for

A fractional CTO is a part-time chief technology officer: senior technical leadership without a full-time hire. Here is what that covers, in plain terms.

The responsibilities

• Technology strategy and architecture decisions
• Engineering team leadership, hiring, and mentoring
• Vendor evaluation and technology selection
• Technical due diligence support for investments and acquisitions
• Board and investor communications

The boundary

I operate as a fractional CTO between Level 1 and Level 7 of the CTO Levels framework: from the first engineers to a technology team of around a hundred. The engagement is typically one or two days a week, an ongoing relationship. The boundary is time and presence, not judgment: the fractional CTO is not in the building every day, and that is the trade. What does not change is the scope of the work: architecture, hiring, vendors, and board reporting.

If that is the help you need, the next step is a conversation about your team and where it is going.