Fractional CTO in London

Role:
Fractional Chief Technology Officer (CTO)

Company:
Boardman

Location:
UK based, remote first, with occasional client site visits

Contract type:
Subcontractor, fractional

About Boardman

Boardman provides fractional technology leadership to early and mid stage scaling companies in the UK. We work with founders and CEOs who need senior technology leadership, but are not yet ready for or do not want a full time CTO, CIO or CISO.

Delivery is handled by a small group of experienced technology leaders who operate under Boardman\’s strategic direction. You focus on client outcomes. The Boardman team looks after positioning, marketing, and overall client relationship management.

Role Purpose

The Fractional CTO is responsible for providing strategic technology leadership to a small portfolio of client companies. You will help each client:

• Understand the current state of their technology, teams and processes
• Define a realistic technology strategy and roadmap that supports business goals
• Improve delivery, quality, security and ways of working
• Develop or reshape their technology team and supplier landscape
• You will typically work with 1 to 3 clients at a time, on a part time basis.

Key Responsibilities

1. Technology Strategy and Roadmap

• Run structured technology health checks and discovery activities for new clients
• Translate business strategy into clear technology direction and roadmaps
• Prioritise initiatives based on commercial impact, risk, effort and dependencies
• Advise on build vs buy decisions, vendor selection and platform choices

2. Architecture and Platforms

• Review current architecture for scalability, resilience, security and cost effectiveness
• Define pragmatic target architectures that are appropriate for the size and stage of the client
• Guide modernisation efforts, migrations and refactoring plans
• Oversee critical architectural decisions for cloud, integrations, data and infrastructure

3. Delivery and Ways of Working

• Introduce simple, appropriate delivery frameworks for small to medium teams
• Improve planning, estimation, Definition of Done and release management
• Help teams separate product work from support and firefighting
• Implement basic metrics and reporting so CEOs have clear visibility of progress

4. People, Teams and Suppliers

• Assess existing internal teams, skill sets and gaps
• Recommend changes to team structure, roles and responsibilities
• Support hiring for key roles, including specification, screening and interviews
• Coach and mentor existing leaders, and help them step into more senior responsibilities
• Review and, where needed, reshape supplier and agency relationships

5. Security, Risk and Governance

• Identify key technology, security and operational risks, and define mitigation plans
• Raise the baseline on information security, data protection and access control
• Support clients on routes toward Cyber Essentials, ISO style controls or enterprise buyer expectations
• Put in place practical incident management and post incident review practices

6. Stakeholder Management and Communication

• Act as a trusted advisor to CEOs, founders, boards and senior leadership teams
• Communicate complex technology topics in clear, commercial language
• Manage expectations, trade offs and prioritisation with both technical and non technical stakeholders
• Provide concise written and verbal updates, including executive summaries and board level reporting
• Required Experience and Skills

Essential

• Significant senior technology leadership experience, typically 10 or more years, including roles such as CTO, VP Engineering, Head of Technology or similar
• Proven track record of scaling technology teams and platforms in startups or high growth environments
• Strong knowledge of modern software engineering practices, cloud platforms and product development approaches
• Experience leading multi disciplinary teams, such as engineering, product, data and security
• Demonstrable experience in creating and delivering technology strategies and roadmaps aligned to commercial objectives
• Excellent communication skills, with confidence working directly with founders, CEOs and boards
• Ability to quickly assess unfamiliar environments and create clear, pragmatic plans

Desirable

• Experience working as a fractional, portfolio, interim or consulting CTO
• Exposure to information security standards or frameworks, such as Cyber Essentials or ISO 27001
• Experience with SaaS and subscription business models
• Familiarity with data platforms, business intelligence and analytics
• Experience working with investor backed or private equity backed businesses

Personal Attributes

• Commercially minded, comfortable talking about revenue, margin, unit economics and valuation
• Pragmatic, focused on simple solutions that work rather than heavy process
• Comfortable with ambiguity, able to operate in messy or fast changing environments
• Collaborative, able to build trust quickly with internal teams and external partners
• Low ego, willing to coach and develop others rather than always being the central hero

Working Arrangement

• Engagement model:
  Subcontracted to Boardman, delivering services to Boardman clients under the Boardman brand
• Workload:
  Flexible, agreed number of days per month, typically distributed across a small portfolio of clients
• Location:
  Remote first within the UK, with occasional on site visits when required
• Reporting:
  Report into Boardman\’s leadership for alignment on client approach, quality and standards

What Boardman Provides

• A steady flow of suitable client opportunities aligned with your experience
• Clear positioning, frameworks and templates to support discovery, strategy and delivery
• A community of other senior technology leaders to share patterns, challenges and solutions
• Central support for finance, admin, marketing, sales and client relationship management

How to Apply

• To apply, please complete the online application form on our website.

Applications can be submitted to the Boardman leadership team for review. Suitable candidates will be invited to an initial conversation and a structured assessment of strategic, delivery and leadership skills.