Fractional leadership & AI adoption
A head of engineering, part-time.
A fractional engineering lead on retainer for the decisions that need one, and a plain path to AI-native ways of working for the team that has to live with them.
Fractional engineering lead
A senior technical owner, part-time.
For a company that has a product and a couple of developers, and no one senior to own the technical decisions. Present in your planning and your pull requests, not only your inbox.
A typical week · an example
- Planning
A session with the founders: what to build next, what to stop building, and why.
- Review
The pull requests that matter, read properly, with the reasons written down.
- Decisions
A hiring conversation, a vendor choice, an architecture question, each answered in writing.
- The note
A short written note: where the roadmap stands against reality this week.
- DirectionWhat to build, in what order, and what to leave alone.
- ReviewThe review that keeps a codebase honest, on the changes that matter.
- Hiring helpThe job description, the interview, the decision. Including the decision to hire a full-time lead when it is time.
- A roadmap that survives contact with realityRevised in writing as reality arrives, not abandoned.
AI-workflow adoption
Assess, set up, train, hand off.
For teams that want to work with AI agents in their engineering and don't know how to start.
- Assesswhere the work is
- Set uptools and guardrails
- Trainon the real work
- Hand offyou run it
- AssessWhere the work actually is, and where models help. Written down, along with what we'd leave alone.
- Set upTools, guardrails and workflows, configured for your team and your data.
- TrainHands on the real work, with the people who do it. Not a slide deck.
- Hand offYou run it. We stay reachable.
Who it's for
And who it isn't.
For
- A company with a product and a couple of developers, and no one senior.
- A team that wants to work with AI agents in its engineering and doesn't know how.
- A founder who needs a technical decision answered in writing this week, not next quarter.
Not for
- A company that needs a full-time CTO. We can help you hire one.
- A team looking for a signature on decisions already made.
- Anyone who needs someone on site five days a week.
How we engage
A retainer, or a scoped engagement.
- A monthly retainer for the fractional leadEnough to be present in your planning and your reviews every week. The shape is agreed before we start.
- A scoped engagement for adoptionAssess to hand-off, with a price and a date.
- A deposit up frontWork starts once it clears.
- In writingDirection, decisions and the roadmap, written down, so they outlast the meeting.
Questions
Asked before, answered plainly.
- How many hours is fractional?
- It is set by the retainer, not the clock: enough to be present in your planning and your reviews every week. We agree the shape before we start.
- Will you write code?
- Some, where it unblocks the team. The role is direction and review, not a hidden extra developer.
- Which AI tools do you set up?
- The ones that fit your stack and your risk. We assess first and recommend in writing.
- How long does adoption take?
- It is a scoped engagement with a hand-off at the end. The length depends on the team, and we tell you before we start.
- Can this turn into more?
- Yes. A fractional lead often ends in a hire, and adoption often leads to an integration project. Both are fine; neither is assumed.