Fractional CTO / CISO
Executive technology leadership. A fraction of the cost. None of the gap.
A fractional engagement puts a seasoned technology and security executive at your leadership table — setting strategy, owning the roadmap, managing risk, and holding every vendor (including your MSP) accountable to your business objectives. It fills the seat a full-time CTO, CIO, or CISO would hold, sized for an organization that doesn't need one full time.
The MSP gap
Your MSP keeps the systems running. Who’s setting the course?
Even excellent managed service providers are built to operate technology, not to direct it. They work from a service catalog, not your strategic plan. They rarely sit in your leadership meetings, weigh in on your growth strategy, or push back on their own scope and pricing.
We don’t compete with your MSP — we complete it. Direction from your side of the table is what turns a good MSP into a great one.
As your fractional technology executive, we define the strategy, translate business objectives into a prioritized roadmap, hold service levels and renewals accountable, and make sure the technology agenda reflects your agenda — not a vendor’s.
A fractional engagement fits when…
- Technology decisions keep landing on a CEO, CFO, or managing partner's desk by default
- You have an MSP — maybe a good one — but no one steering it strategically
- Security, compliance, or insurance questions are arriving faster than answers
- A major project (migration, platform replacement, office move, acquisition) is too big to get wrong
- You've outgrown ad-hoc IT but can't justify a $300K+ executive hire
What the role covers
Everything a full-time technology executive would own.
Scoped to your needs and reviewed quarterly — engagements scale up for major initiatives and down as internal capability matures.
Technology Strategy & Roadmaps
A prioritized, budgeted technology plan aligned to revenue, growth, and exit objectives — reviewed with leadership on a regular cadence.
Security Leadership & Governance
Risk management, policy, audit response, and board-level security reporting — the CISO function, right-sized for your organization.
MSP & Vendor Management
Independent oversight of contracts, SLAs, pricing, and performance — an advocate on your side of every renewal.
Budget & ROI Discipline
Every initiative costed, sequenced, and tied to a business outcome, so you always know why a dollar is being spent.
Major-Project Leadership
Executive ownership of migrations, platform replacements, and modernization efforts — from business case through cutover.
Team Development & Hiring
Defining roles, interviewing candidates, and mentoring internal IT staff as your organization grows into its own capability.
Engagement models
Three ways to work together.
All engagements begin with the Alignment Conversation and a baseline assessment, so leadership starts from evidence.
Advisory
A few hours per month: a standing leadership-team presence, on-call counsel for technology decisions, and quarterly roadmap reviews. The right entry point for smaller organizations.
Embedded
One to two days per week of hands-on leadership: running the IT function, managing the MSP, owning projects and budgets. The most common engagement for mid-sized organizations.
Interim / Project
Full-intensity leadership for a defined chapter: an executive departure, a major migration, an acquisition, or audit remediation — with a clean handoff at the end.
Let's connect
One conversation will tell you if this is the seat you've been missing.
Bring your frustrations, your roadmap — or the absence of one. You'll get a straight answer about whether fractional leadership fits.