Roles we hunt
Fractional CTO Recruitment
A fractional CTO owns your technology decisions for part of the week, or for a set engagement. You get someone who has run engineering and made architecture calls at a senior level, without a full-time executive salary. It fits a business with a product to build or fix but not yet the team to keep a full-time CTO busy, or one facing big AI decisions with nobody senior in-house to make them.
How has AI changed the fractional CTO brief?
Build-or-buy used to mean platforms and vendors. Now it includes which AI models and services to use, what data they can see, what they cost each month and who checks their output. Those calls are hard to undo. Coding assistants add a second job: setting rules on review and testing so the team doesn’t ship code nobody understands.
What does a fractional CTO work on?
- Architecture and build-or-buy calls, including which AI services to use and what they can touch.
- Hiring the first engineers or an engineering lead, and setting how they ship with AI in the workflow.
- Security and data basics, sorted before an investor asks.
- Deploying AI tools without creating new risk. A dedicated Chief AI Officer is the next step once that becomes a function of its own.
- Technical due diligence, for an investor or to get yours ready.
Who makes a good fractional CTO?
Usually someone who has been a CTO or VP of Engineering full-time and now advises a few companies. Look for:
- Architecture experience at your scale.
- AI they’ve shipped, what it costs to run, and how they find out when it breaks.
- A habit of writing decisions down.
- A written scope. Without one, a two-day arrangement drifts towards full-time work for part-time pay.
When does a business need a fractional CTO?
Common triggers: non-technical founders with an early product, an outsourced dev shop nobody can check, investor due diligence, or a board asking for the AI plan. It also covers a gap during a permanent search. If the role is full-time and ongoing, a permanent CTO is the better hire, and we’ll tell you if that’s your situation.
How do you hire a fractional CTO?
Scope comes first: the decisions to make, including the AI ones, the days per month and how long it runs. Then we approach technology leaders who fit, most of whom aren’t advertising their availability. We headhunt rather than recruit, with no candidate database and no keyword screening. How it works covers the process.
How does Headhuntly run a Fractional CTO search?
Like every Headhuntly executive search, it’s exclusive: one client, one role, complete focus. Before we approach anyone, we define three profiles, your company, the role and the person. If the brief isn’t settled yet, we help you set the KPIs and a 30, 60, 90 day framework first.
Then we go after people who aren’t looking. Based on the Gold Coast, hunting Australia-wide. Overseas too, when the right person is there. A typical search takes 3 to 6 weeks.
Our published fee (15% of the placed candidate's base salary plus super, plus an engagement fee) is for permanent roles. A fractional or interim engagement like this one is priced against the contracted arrangement, day rate or retainer, not a base salary. Tell us the scope and we’ll walk you through it. Detail on permanent searches is on how it works.
Related roles
Questions, answered
What does a fractional CTO do differently from a full-time CTO?
The job is the same, technical direction, architecture decisions and leading the engineering team, on fewer days a week or for a fixed engagement. It suits a business that needs senior technical judgement, including on AI, without a full-time workload.
How many days a week does a fractional CTO work?
Commonly one to three days a week, or a block of days each month. Some work, such as an architecture review or technical due diligence, runs better as a short fixed project than an ongoing arrangement. We agree the cadence before the search starts.
What does Headhuntly charge for a fractional CTO search?
The published fee (15% of base salary plus super, plus an engagement fee) applies to permanent hires. For a fractional CTO we price against the contracted arrangement instead. Tell us what the engagement covers and we'll walk you through it.
When should a business hire a fractional CTO instead of a full-time one?
When you need someone senior to set technical direction and get AI tools into production properly, but don't yet have the engineering headcount or budget to justify a full-time hire. Common triggers are an early-stage product, a technical due diligence process, or a gap while you hire permanently.
How do you check a fractional CTO is genuinely AI-fluent?
Ask about AI they put into production, what it cost to run, how they checked its output, and what they'd change. Model names without a decision attached usually mean they haven't shipped it.
Hiring a Fractional CTO?
Tell us about the role. We’ll tell you straight whether it needs a headhunt, and what the search would look like.