Fractional CTO services
You cannot afford a full-time CTO. You also cannot afford to operate without one. Borrow one before you buy one. Fractional leadership gives you senior technology capability for the fraction of the week you actually need it, with none of the cost of a permanent executive hire.
Depending on where the gap sits, we can provide a fractional CTO to own direction and architecture, fractional programme management to hold delivery together, or a fractional senior engineer for genuine technical depth. It is rarely the same person for each.
It is also not a Salesforce job. Salesforce is usually the largest thing in the estate and it is where our depth is, but these roles cover the whole technology function: architecture, vendors, security, budget, roadmap and the team. Nobody hires senior leadership and asks for one slice of the estate.
Three ways to borrow senior capability
Different gaps need different people. We would rather tell you which one you actually need than sell you the most expensive.
Fractional CTO
Direction and decisions
Strategy and roadmap, architecture, security posture, vendor and licence negotiation, team structure, and translating technology risk for the board. The seat that decides, and that has the standing to say no.
Fractional Programme Management
Delivery held together
Senior accountability across a portfolio rather than a single project: governance, sequencing, dependencies and honest reporting. For organisations running more change than their internal structure can absorb.
Fractional Senior Engineer
Depth on retainer
Hands-on technical capability for the work a capable in-house team cannot quite reach. Architecture reviews, complex build, integration design, and a second pair of eyes on anything that would be expensive to get wrong.
What the CTO seat covers
A Chief Technology Officer aligns technology strategy with business goals, oversees technology operations and drives innovation. A fractional one does the same job, for the days a month it genuinely takes.
Strategy and roadmap
Where the technology is going and in what order, tied to what the business is trying to do rather than to what is interesting.
Architecture
The decisions that are expensive to reverse: platform choices, integration approach, build versus buy, and what gets refused.
Security and risk
Posture, governance and the questions your auditors, insurers and larger customers are going to ask.
Vendors and spend
Contracts, renewals and licence positions. Frequently pays for itself here alone, because vendors price against the absence of a technical buyer.
The team
Structure, hiring, and what to keep in-house versus buy in. Including, eventually, hiring your permanent CTO.
Board translation
Technology risk and investment in the language your executives and investors use, which is a distinct skill from having the judgement in the first place.
Where an estate gets stuck
Most technology estates are stuck at a stage, not at a task. Naming the stage is usually the first useful thing a fractional lead does.
Establish
Security, data, process
The foundations. Permissions that reflect who does what, data you would put in front of a board, and processes that are written down. Unglamorous, and everything above it depends on it.
Expand
Integration
Systems that agree with each other. Most organisations attempt this before Establish is finished, which is why integrations become the thing that breaks silently.
Augment
AI
Agents and automation on foundations that can carry them. Earned, not bought.
The same ladder runs through everything C24 does, which means the roadmap you get here is the one our delivery teams would work to.
What holding the seat covers
These are different jobs and people often ask for the wrong one. The question is scope, not seniority.
Fractional
You need the technology function led, across the whole estate, on an ongoing basis. Bounded by the organisation. Ends when you hire, or does not end.
Leadership
You have a programme, or a defined piece of the estate, that needs someone senior directing it. Bounded by the work. Ends when the work does.
Why take the seat from us
Expertise
A bench, not a CV
A named lead with a certified team behind them. Depth on Salesforce, integration, data and security without hiring four people, and cover when your lead is away.
Alignment
Technology tied to the commercial plan
We start from what the business is trying to do. Sometimes the honest answer is that you do not need a technology change. That is what you will hear.
Solutions
Judgement you can act on
Recommendations that come with a route to delivery, whether that is your team, ours or a third party. Advice with nobody to execute it is a report.
Cost-efficiency
A fraction of the cost, and it shows up in the contracts
A permanent CTO is a substantial fixed cost. Fractional gives you the judgement for the days you need it, and frequently pays for itself in vendor negotiation and avoided rebuilds.
Work out what the seat needs
A short conversation is usually enough to work out how many days a month the seat actually needs, and whether you need it at all. Sometimes the honest answer is that you need a Health Check and a decision, not a person.
Fractional CTO services: frequently asked questions
The same job as a permanent CTO, for the days a month it genuinely takes: strategy and roadmap, architecture decisions, security and risk posture, vendor and licence negotiation, team structure, and translating technology risk for the board.
No. Salesforce is where our depth is and it is usually the largest thing in the estate, but the seat covers the whole technology function. Nobody hires senior leadership for one slice of the estate, and we do not sell it that way.
Scope. Fractional is bounded by the organisation and runs ongoing. Programme leadership is bounded by a specific piece of work and ends when it does. Some clients start with one and move to the other.
Usually between two and six, depending on the size of the estate and how much change is in flight. We would rather scope it honestly and revise it than sell you a bigger number than the job needs.
That is the intended outcome in a lot of engagements, and we help with the hire: the role definition, the technical assessment, and the handover. An arrangement that makes itself permanent has stopped being fractional.
Close, and the terms get used interchangeably. Interim usually means full-time cover for a vacancy over a fixed period. Fractional means part-time on an ongoing basis. We do both, and which one you need depends on whether you are covering a gap or filling one you never had.
Both. We are explicit about which hat we are wearing. Where C24 delivers work recommended by our own fractional lead, that is disclosed and the decision stays yours. Plenty of clients use us for the seat and someone else for delivery.
Get in Touch
Tell us roughly how big the estate is and how much change is in flight, and we will tell you how many days a month the seat needs.