Your engineering team has outgrown the way it was built.
Fractional CTO for companies at the point where engineering has stopped running itself. I take on the org design, the hiring and the delivery, at whatever weight the problem needs, and leave behind a team that runs without me.
Scoped to what is actually slowing you down
Four ways in, depending on where you are. A short review before you commit to anything, ongoing leadership on retainer, full-time cover while you search, or a focused piece of work on AI. Every engagement is fixed-fee, agreed in writing before any work starts.
Fractional CTO
A few days a month or a couple of days a week, leading your engineering function. Org design, hiring, delivery, architecture direction and the technical story your board hears. You get a senior engineering leader on the days you need one, and no salary on the days you do not.
Engineering Health Check
A short review of how your engineering function actually works: where delivery is stalling, who the company is quietly dependent on, and what is worth fixing first. Useful on its own, and it tells us both whether a longer engagement makes sense.
AI Adoption and Policy
Most companies now have engineers using AI tools with no agreed standards behind them. I set the policy, the review process and the guardrails, then get the tooling genuinely adopted rather than announced. I have done this across whole engineering, data and data science functions.
Interim Head of Engineering
Full time cover when the role is empty and the search is going to take months. I hold the function together, keep delivery moving, and help you hire the permanent person rather than quietly becoming them.
Hands-on Senior Engineering Leader
I'm David Goodman. I've spent 20+ years in software engineering, the last 9 years leading teams of up to 50 engineers across fintech, cybersecurity and enterprise SaaS, from American Express through to scale ups and startups moving at a very different pace.
DG Fractional is new. I'm not. I've run engineering functions of every size, including taking a 40 person function past 50, so whatever size you're at now is a size I've already worked at. And I'll be the person in the room doing the work rather than a name on a proposal with someone junior behind it. I still get into the code when it helps, not to ship features for you, but because it is hard to judge an architecture call or an estimate from a status update.
I've also led AI transformation at real organisational scale. Rolling out Claude Code and agentic development workflows, automated PR reviews and coding standards across whole engineering, data engineering and data science functions. I've had to make that land with hundreds of engineers, which is a very different problem from picking the tool.
First degree in Artificial Intelligence, back in 2006, before it was fashionable, with an MSc in Information Technology since.
Connect on LinkedInWhere I actually help
Every engagement starts with what's slowing the company down rather than a template. Whatever I find, the report includes what it costs to fix, how long it takes, and whether it needs doing now or can wait until after the next raise.
Org design
How the team is structured, who owns what, and where the reporting lines have quietly stopped working.
Hiring and retention
Getting the right senior people through the door, and giving the ones you have a reason to stay.
Delivery
Why things take as long as they do, and what actually moves cycle time rather than just measuring it.
Architecture
Whether the system, and the data behind it, is built to grow or just built to survive today.
AI adoption
Getting real value out of AI tooling, with standards and review sitting behind it.
Board and investors
The technical story your board hears, told in language they can actually act on.
Four steps, first call to handover
Get in touch
Company, stage, and what hurts.
Agree scope
Days and fee, fixed upfront.
First 90 days
Diagnose, then fix what costs most.
Lead and hand over
Identify the person who replaces me.
Days, fee and outcomes are agreed in writing before any work starts. No hourly billing, no surprises at the end of the month. Notice is 30 days either way. Every engagement is covered by an NDA and professional indemnity insurance.
Built for the stage where the founder cannot do it all
The point where the team is too big to run informally, and too small to justify a full-time CTO on a full-time salary.
Series A and B Founders
You raised, hired quickly, and delivery has got slower rather than faster. You want someone who has been through this stretch before and knows which bit breaks next.
Non Technical CEOs
You cannot tell whether the engineering answers you are getting are good ones. I can, and I will tell you plainly, so you have what you need to make the judgement call.
PE and VC Portfolio Companies
An experienced engineering voice inside a portfolio company, without adding a permanent line to the cost base or waiting 6 months for a search.
Companies Between CTOs
The role is empty, the search will take months, and the team needs someone holding it together now.
Not sure your engineering can carry the next stage?
Based in the UK, working with companies wherever they are. Replies within 1 business day.