Who is hiring fractional CTOs
- Non technical founders with a product built by an agency or a first engineer who now need somebody to own it.
- Seed and Series A companies where investors want a technical leader in the room before they write the next cheque.
- Scale ups with an engineering team of ten to thirty and nobody senior between the founder and the developers.
- PE backed and family office businesses modernising a platform that the business depends on and nobody understands.
- Companies in the UAE building a regional product team and wanting a leader who has hired and scaled before.
What the engagements look like
| Engagement | Days a week | What it is for |
|---|---|---|
| Own the roadmap | One to two | Architecture, priorities, the technical story for investors |
| Build the team | Two | The hiring plan, the first senior engineers, the interview bar |
| Rescue the platform | Two to three | A product that is failing under load or a rebuild nobody has scoped |
| Technical diligence and the raise | One, for a quarter | The data room answers, the architecture review, the investor meeting |
What it pays
The published band for a fractional CTO on this bench is £800 to £1,400 a day, set by the operator and shown on the profile. The US and UAE rate pages carry the dollar and dirham bands. Companies see the rate first, so the conversation is about the roadmap rather than the invoice.
The profile that gets chosen
- The systems built and scaled, with the shape of the team and the traffic in ranges if the exact figures are sensitive.
- The hires made. A founder hiring a fractional CTO is usually hiring somebody to hire for them.
- The stack, briefly, and the stage. A seed stage founder wants to see seed stage, not a decade at a bank.
- A published day rate and Available now switched on. The bench filters for both.
The line between a fractional CTO and a contractor
Contract development is paid for output. A fractional CTO is paid for judgement: what to build, who to hire, what to say to the board. The profiles that get the senior briefs read like the second thing. The bench lists only the second thing, verified by hand against the LinkedIn profile and the CV, and companies approach the operator directly.
How to get on the bench
List yourself in about five minutes: name, LinkedIn, country, the seat, a two line bio, years of experience, your rate and a CV as a PDF. A person checks the listing before it goes live. Companies then approach you from the profile, and the engagement is yours. There is no registration fee.
Common questions
Are fractional CTO jobs remote?
Most are, with time in the room for planning and hiring. The profile says where the operator is based and whether they work remote, hybrid or on site, and companies in the UK, the US and the UAE filter on it. A UK based fractional CTO working with a US company remotely is common.
What does a fractional CTO earn per day?
The published band on this bench is £800 to £1,400 a day in the UK. Operators set the rate and it is printed on the profile. Two clients at two days a week is a full practice.
Do I need to have been a CTO already?
The companies that hire from the bench expect somebody who has held the seat or run an engineering organisation at the stage they are at. A VP of engineering who has built and scaled a team qualifies. A senior developer who has not yet led one usually does not, and the verification checks for it.
More of them, on hiring, contracts and what a fractional engagement costs, on the fractional executive FAQ.