When a fractional engineering leader makes sense
A full-time CTO or Head of Engineering is one of the most expensive and slowest hires a company makes, and a wrong hire at that level is hard to undo. A fractional leader gives you senior judgement now, for the days you need it, while you work out what the permanent role should look like.
It works when there is a team to lead, or one about to be hired, and a founder or CEO who wants a clear technical partner. Typical situations:
- A non-technical founder needs someone to own the technology and hold the agency or contractors building it to account
- A technical founder has become the bottleneck and needs to hand over engineering management
- Your CTO or Head of Engineering has left, and you need interim leadership while you hire
- You are preparing for a raise or sale, and the platform, process and documentation need to be ready for investor due diligence
- Enterprise customers are asking for SOC 2, ISO 27001 or security questionnaires, and nobody owns the answers
- Delivery has slowed, releases break things, and nobody can say why
What I own: strategy, standards, hiring, delivery
The engagement covers team and roadmap ownership, not just advice. We agree in writing which decisions are mine, which are shared and which stay with you, so the team always knows who makes each call.
It is the same work I do as Head of Engineering (AI & Cloud) at Magnus Infotech, where I lead engineering strategy, architecture and delivery across backend, web, cloud and platform infrastructure, and defined the engineering standards and development processes. Earlier, as a team lead at CodeFulcrum, I led a team shipping web, desktop and mobile applications and improved release reliability through stronger deployment practice.
- Strategy: a technology roadmap tied to the business plan, written architecture decisions, and build-or-buy calls made on evidence
- Standards: code review, testing, CI/CD, security and documentation practices the whole team follows
- Hiring: team shape, role descriptions, interview process and technical assessments, plus mentoring for the people you already have
- Delivery: planning, release process and the measures that show whether the team is speeding up or slowing down
- Stakeholders: one clear technical voice for the CEO, board, investors and enterprise customers
- Suppliers and cloud: oversight of agencies and contractors, cloud spend and third-party risk
Fractional CTO for AI startups
AI startups face technical decisions early, often before there is anyone senior to make them. Which model provider to build on, whether to fine-tune, how to measure quality and how inference cost scales with customers all shape both the product and the margins.
This is where my background is most specific. I build production LLM applications, RAG pipelines and multi-agent workflows, I’m a Databricks Certified Generative AI Engineer, and I’ve done evaluation and red-teaming work on frontier LLMs and autonomous coding agents through Mercor, Turing, Uber AI Solutions, DataAnnotation, Mindrift, AfterQuery and Terac. That helps me set up evaluation that tells you honestly whether the product works, and prepare answers to the questions investors now ask about AI products.
- Model strategy: which providers to use, how to keep models switchable, and when fine-tuning is worth it
- Evaluation: test sets and automated pipelines that measure quality before and after every change
- Unit economics: inference cost per customer, tracked against pricing and gross margin
- AI security: prompt injection, data leakage and agent permissions handled before customers or auditors ask
- Investor readiness: clear answers on what is proprietary, where the data came from and how accuracy is measured
How the month works (cadence, reporting)
Fractional leadership only works with a predictable rhythm, so we fix it at the start. The days are agreed in writing, up to 2 a week, and kept consistent where possible so the team can plan around them.
Between those days I stay reachable for decisions that can’t wait, and the monthly report gives you, and your board if you want, a clear view of where engineering stands.
- Weekly: a one-to-one with the CEO or founder, plus time with the team on planning, architecture and code review
- Monthly: a written exec report on delivery, risks, hiring, cloud spend and the decisions needed from leadership
- Quarterly: a roadmap and team review, and a check that the days and scope still fit
- Throughout: written architecture decisions and documentation, so knowledge stays with the company, not with me
What you get
- A first-month assessment of the team, codebase, architecture, delivery and security, with a written plan
- A technology roadmap tied to the business plan, owned and kept current
- Engineering standards for code review, testing, CI/CD, security and documentation
- A hiring plan, role descriptions and interview process, with help running technical interviews
- A monthly exec report on delivery, risks, hiring and cloud spend
- Support with investor due diligence and enterprise security questionnaires
- A handover plan for when you appoint a permanent leader
How it works
Step 01 · Before we start
Intro and scope
A free intro call, then a short discovery under NDA. You get a written scope setting out the days each week, what I own and the monthly price.
Step 02 · Month 1
Assess and plan
Time with the team, codebase, cloud and roadmap. The first monthly report sets out what is working, the main risks and a 90-day plan.
Step 03 · Each month
Lead
The weekly cadence with you and the team, standards and decisions put in place, hiring under way, and a written exec report every month.
Step 04 · When you hire
Hand over
When you appoint a permanent CTO or Head of Engineering, I help define the role, interview candidates and hand over the roadmap, documentation and team.
Proof
“What truly sets Arslan apart is the ability to communicate complex technical concepts in a clear and accessible manner.”
Ivan Zoria
Software Engineer
“Steady progress, predictable delivery, and code that’s easy to review and integrate.”
Sean Metcalf
Founder, getKaivo
“He’s played a key role in driving our efforts toward SOC 2 and ISO 27001 compliance, and improving our software security capabilities.”
Leon Marsh
Founder CEO · Board Director, Advisor & NED
Price
From £5,500/month. For up to 2 days a week. The days, scope and monthly price are agreed in writing. Every engagement starts with a free 1-hour intro call, and you get a written scope with a fixed or capped price before any work starts.
FAQ
How much does a fractional CTO cost in the UK?
My fractional CTO and Head of Engineering engagements start from £5,500/month for up to 2 days a week. The final price depends on the number of days, the size of the team and what I own, and it is agreed in writing before we start. There is no recruitment fee and no long hiring process.
What is the difference between a fractional CTO and a fractional Head of Engineering?
A CTO usually owns technology strategy and represents it to the board, investors and customers. A Head of Engineering usually owns the team and delivery. At scale-up stage one person often has to do both, so I scope the role around what you need rather than the title.
What leadership roles have you held?
I’m Head of Engineering (AI & Cloud) at Magnus Infotech. Before that I was Head of Software Engineering at Software Stories, where I owned technology vision, product strategy and architecture, led a consulting team of 7, and led technical due diligence, security assessments and compliance work. I offer fractional CTO leadership as a service, built on that experience.
Can you work alongside our technical founder?
Yes. Many technical founders want to keep the product and architecture vision but hand over engineering management, hiring and process. We agree in writing who owns which decisions, so the team never gets two answers to the same question.
Can a fractional CTO prepare us for investor due diligence?
Yes. I carry out technical due diligence for investors, so I know what their reviewers look for. As your fractional leader, I make sure the architecture, code, security, documentation and key-person risks are in order before the data room opens.
Can you be our interim Head of Engineering while we hire?
Yes. Interim leadership keeps delivery moving and decisions being made while you search. I can help write the role, run technical interviews and hand over to the person you appoint, so they start with a working roadmap and documented systems.