Introduction

The CTO (Chief Technology Officer) is a strategic role within any organisation that has technology development as a core part of its business. You can benefit from adding a CTO to your team, with no long-term headcount commitment, by retaining a consultant CTO from Priocept.

In the case of a business which develops and markets software products, or operates a digital platform that delivers online services direct to customers, the CTO will be responsible for technical strategy, technical architecture, and ongoing development of the software products or digital platform.

Hiring a full-time CTO can be expensive. It can also be difficult to find, attract and retain the right individual, regardless of cost. The strategic input that a CTO can provide may also not be required five days per week, making the recruitment of a full-time CTO an inefficient way of bringing the required technical expertise into your organisation.

Priocept helps its clients address this challenge by providing interim and fractional CTO services.

Interim CTO

Your business may be in need of a full-time but temporary CTO for a discrete project such as developing a new technical strategy, designing a new software architecture, or fixing issues with existing technologies and development processes.

Perhaps you need a CTO to work four or five days per week, but only for a month or two. Rather than hiring a full time CTO or a contractor, you would like a short-term consultant to fill the CTO role. We call this the “Interim CTO”. You hire a CTO on an interim basis for a pre-defined period of time.

Fractional CTO

On the other hand, you may consider the CTO to be a long-term strategic role within your company that will be needed for months or years to come. You are ready to make a longer-term commitment, but you don’t need or can’t justify a full-time hire.

Perhaps one-day-per-week, or even one-day-per-month, will be sufficient to provide the technical direction that you are looking for, or to tackle the various technical challenges that come up occasionally in your business. We call this the “Fractional CTO”. You retain a fraction of a CTO, on a medium or long-term basis.

Priocept offers both interim and fractional CTO services, or a combination of both, with the opportunity to change from one to the other as required.

Benefits

Before recruiting your own CTO, consider the advantages of a consultant CTO provided by Priocept:

• Proven track record – We will provide a consultant with prior experience of working as a CTO for multiple businesses across multiple sectors.
• No risk – No recruitment fees or other upfront charges. No “performance management” required for underperforming individuals – we always guarantee client satisfaction and will either replace a consultant CTO at our own expense, or wave our charges entirely, if you are not 100% satisfied.
• Complete flexibility – Choose an interim CTO, a fractional CTO, or a combination of both. Change the arrangement as required, when your business needs change.
• Reduced lead times – Expect to spend two or three months to recruit an internal CTO, from advertising the position through to their first day on the job. Priocept can typically provide an equivalent consultant with only two to three weeks’ notice.
• Supporting resources – The CTO should be an expert in their field but they can’t know everything about every technology. Consultant CTOs at Priocept have access to other people within the company that they can call upon to assist with technical design or product evaluation, to develop a proof of concept, or to fix urgent or tactical code-level issues.

Engagement Model

Our day rates for a consultant CTO are competitive with the costs of a direct hire. Contact us for a more detailed proposal.

An interim CTO would typically work for a majority of their time (between three and five days per week) over a period of a month or more, while a fractional CTO would typically be retained for between one and four days per month, on a rolling three months’ notice basis.

Reduced rates are available for longer term contracts. We are happy to work both remotely and on-site at your offices. Travel and accommodation expenses may apply for on-site visits.