I help CTOs, founders, CEOs, and operating partners — at scaling startups and PE-backed or mid-market teams — when engineering is no longer simply “slow,” but the whole product-engineering system is starting to buckle under pressure: unclear priorities, too much WIP, AI confusion, weak execution loops, overloaded managers, and a CTO who needs a sharp right hand.
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01 You might be here if
02 What I do
When the system around the work breaks down, effort stops translating into progress. Priorities shift, decisions blur, work piles up, bottlenecks hide, and nobody has a clear picture of what's actually in the way.
AI sharpens this. For teams with a clear operating model, it's a real multiplier. For everyone else, it accelerates existing dysfunction: more throughput into the same bottlenecks, a wider gap between activity and outcomes.
I help CEOs, CTOs, and VPs of Engineering find what's actually in the way and make the path forward clear.
The aim isn't more output. It's engineering the business can plan revenue around — a value lever, not a cost centre, on a timeline that pays for itself.
My coaching background is why the changes stick. Teams that understand why the system works keep running it after I leave.
The business should be able to feel the difference.
03 How I work
04 Engagements
Engagement
Execution slows down when it’s unclear what’s actually getting in the way. I identify the organizational, technical, and leadership patterns creating friction, and which changes are worth making first.
It also works as a pre-hire bridge or independent assessment — post-acquisition, between CTOs, or when a non-technical founder needs to evaluate an inherited team before committing to a permanent hire.
You walk away with:
Most engagements start with a 2–4 week Product & Engineering Diagnostic. If there is a fit, I can then stay on as fractional CTO or VP of Engineering — depending on what the system needs.
Book a callFractional leadership
For Series A/B startups (10–40 engineers) and PE-backed or mid-market businesses modernizing an under-invested engineering function. Two registers, same person, depending on what the system needs.
As Fractional CTO — the strategic brain in the room when the founder is stretched or the CTO needs a senior counterpart for the bets that matter: AI posture, architecture, build vs. buy, hiring shape. Ongoing partnership, a few hours a week.
As Fractional VP Engineering — hands-on operator installing the execution system when delivery has become slow, noisy, and hard to predict. Clear ownership, visible work, tight feedback loops, and the operating rhythm that makes delivery predictable. Time-bounded, 3–6 months.
In both, I build internal capability so the team runs it without me. The engagement ends when it’s no longer needed.
What gets installed or sharpened:
Fractional CTO: ongoing, a few hours a week. Fractional VP Engineering: typically 3–6 months. In both, the goal is to make the role unnecessary.
Book a call05 Patterns I see
"We adopted AI. PRs are up. The business doesn't feel it."
"Everyone is busy. Everything is in progress. Nothing is actually done."
"Every week, the priorities change. We can never plan."
"We hired strong engineers and still don't ship enough."
06 In practice
A B2B SaaS cold-outreach platform. I inherited an engineering team that had been led adversarially — walled off from the rest of the business, distrusted, barely shipping. The core product system was structurally wrong for how the product was actually used. Email open rates were in single digits.
I made the work visible and got it flowing first. That unlocked a full re-architecture delivered in roughly two months — and rebuilt how engineering worked with sales, customer success, and product.
Open rates moved to a stable 40–50%. That changed the commercial envelope — sales could promise a different SLA, retention improved.
Customer success and other previously-alienated teams said, privately and publicly: they'd never worked with a tech team that listened and shipped that fast.
The technical fix was a symptom. The constraint was the relationship.
07 Why me
For the last decade, I’ve repeatedly been brought into struggling technical organizations to figure out why things weren’t working, and help turn them around. I’m consistently strongest at identifying the real sources of friction, surfacing what others feel but can’t clearly explain, and restoring execution coherence across product and engineering.
That work has spanned teams from ~10 to 200+ engineers, through HelloFresh's IPO and TourRadar's post-Series-C scaling — at scale and through institutional transitions, not only at the early stage.
My background spans software engineering, product & engineering leadership, and systems thinking. From 2021 to 2024, I coached startup founders, CTOs, and VPs of Engineering full-time, not as a side practice, but as the main work. The technical knowledge gets you in the room. The coaching is what makes the change outlast the engagement.
I’m not a hype merchant, a transformation consultant, or a "10x AI productivity" salesman. I help leadership teams see clearly what’s breaking, and what to do about it.
08 Get in touch
If this sounds like a company you’re building, leading, investing in, or advising, I’d be happy to talk.