Fractional CTO — Senior Engineering Leadership | Scalexa

Fractional CTO — Senior technical leadership from $5K/month

For founders and execs who need senior technical leadership but cannot justify a full-time CTO at $250K-$400K all-in. Scalexa fractional CTOs are senior engineers with 15+ years experience who have shipped platforms at scale and led teams. Engagements run 3 months to 2+ years.

Tiers

Advisory — $5,000/month

2 days/month with the CEO and head of engineering. Architecture review, vendor selection support, hiring panels for senior engineering roles, board-prep technical narrative. Best for early-stage companies with a competent in-house lead who needs a sounding board.

Embedded — $9,000/month

1 day/week embedded with the team. Sprint planning input, code review on critical PRs, on-call architecture decisions, monthly board update. Best for growth-stage platforms with a small team that needs senior gravity but cannot afford a full-time CTO.

Operating — $17,000/month

2 days/week operating as the technical leader. Engineering org design, hiring and firing, vendor and platform decisions, security and compliance ownership, M&A technical due diligence. Best for portfolio companies, post-acquisition integrations, or platforms in transition.

Fractional CTO vs full-time CTO

A full-time CTO costs $250K-$400K all-in (salary, equity, benefits, recruiting fee). A Scalexa Fractional CTO at the Operating tier costs $204K/year with no equity dilution and no recruiting risk. For pre-Series-B companies the maths almost always favours fractional.