Fractional CTO

Overview

Part-time, remote, month-to-month engagement with flexible hours. Compensation is a monthly retainer, with scope and budget to be agreed. The role includes regular coordination and an initial paid trial period.

The founder is building AI-powered software and is seeking a senior technical leader to own how these systems are built, operated, and maintained. You will lead the technical direction and engineering work, either by building key components yourself or by guiding developers you recommend or bring in.

Responsibilities

• Own the architecture for AI agents and automated systems, including model interactions, orchestration, memory, integrations, and hand-offs.
• Set up and manage infrastructure, including environments, deployment, CI/CD, secrets, logging, and monitoring.
• Establish evaluation and testing processes to measure system performance over time.
• Manage model and cloud costs by selecting suitable tools, using caching and budgets, and reporting spending regularly.
• Oversee security and reliability, including access control, data handling, rate limits, and failure recovery.
• Hire, direct, and review developers or contractors as needed, while maintaining code quality.
• Provide the founder with clear, regular updates on plans, progress, risks, and costs.
• Document systems so that code and technical knowledge remain with the company.

Qualifications

• 7+ years of software engineering experience, including 2+ years leading technical teams or working in a senior technical leadership role.
• Experience shipping AI agents or automated systems to production, with examples to share.
• Hands-on experience with Python and/or TypeScript, major AI model services, and tools for model integrations and workflow orchestration.
• Strong knowledge of cloud infrastructure, containers, and monitoring.
• Practical judgment about cost, security, and what not to build.
• Clear written communication, including the ability to explain technical tradeoffs to non-engineers without jargon.
• Comfortable working independently with light supervision.

Nice to have

• Experience with voice or messaging integrations, browser automation, multi-agent systems, startups, or managing remote contractors.