Fractional technology leadership
Your business runs on software. Who is accountable for it?
Most growing companies need senior technical judgement long before they can justify a full-time CTO. Fractional leadership is that judgement a few days a month, from someone who has carried the role.
As Head of Systems & Software at a multifamily SaaS company, I led about 80 engineers across 12+ teams on four continents. Before that I spent seventeen years running enterprise platforms inside a public research university. The work on this page is the same work, sized for a company that needs it part time.
This is probably for you if
- Your software was built by a founder, a contractor, or an agency, and nobody left in the building can say with confidence how it works.
- Every integration is one vendor update away from a bad week.
- A customer, an investor, or an auditor has started asking questions about security or compliance that you cannot answer yet.
- Everybody is telling you to do something with AI, and you would like it to be something that does not leak customer data.
- You need to hire engineers, or manage the ones you have, and you are not sure what good looks like.
How it starts
Three steps, and you can stop after any of them.
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The diagnostic
Free, in beta
A few questions about what your business runs on and where it slows down, and a straight answer about whether a conversation is worth your time.
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Assessment
Two weeks, fixed fee
I start where the work happens: time with the people doing it, and one job traced end to end across every system and record it touches, with a same-day playback of what I found. Then the code, the vendors, the security and the team, and a written roadmap with every improvement tiered by effort. The fee is agreed before we start, and the roadmap is yours whether or not we keep working together.
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Fractional leadership
A set number of days a month
Senior technical leadership on a monthly retainer. I own the roadmap, hold vendors and agencies accountable, sit in the room for the decisions that need it, and build up the team so that eventually you need me less.
What it covers
An honest read, then a plan
What you have, what it is costing you, and what to do first. In plain language, with the trade-offs named rather than hidden.
Vendors, agencies and contractors
Someone on your side of the table who can read a statement of work, review what was actually delivered, and tell you whether a quote is reasonable.
Integrations that stop breaking
The same platform and integration work behind 285+ device capabilities across 57 vendors, sized for a company with a handful of systems instead of hundreds.
Security and compliance you can show someone
Access control, audit trails and the groundwork for SOC 2 or a customer security questionnaire, done so that the answer is evidence, not a promise.
AI adoption with guardrails
Getting your team real value from AI tooling without handing it your customer data or your judgement. At my last company I wrote the AI leverage strategy that six more teams went on to adopt.
Hiring and growing the team
Writing the role, interviewing alongside you, and setting up how the team works so the next engineer you hire is productive in weeks rather than months.
“Joshua is a rare technical leader who looks past the immediate code to focus on what moves the entire business forward.”
Based in Lubbock, Texas. Working anywhere.
Most of the work happens remotely. If you are in West Texas, I am glad to sit across the table instead.
Book a short call Try the diagnostic (beta) See the practices
Other ways to work together: Advisory (days to weeks) · Hands-on delivery (a scoped build)