Overview
Fractional Leadership puts senior engineering or product leadership into a team that needs the judgment calls made but isn't ready to hire a full-time VP or Head of Engineering — or is between one leaving and the next one starting. Roadmap, architecture decisions, hiring — the calls that shape everything downstream — without the long-term burn of a full-time executive hire.
When this fits
- You're an early-stage team making architecture and roadmap decisions without anyone senior enough to own them.
- You're between engineering leaders — a departure, a search that's taking longer than planned — and need continuity, not a gap.
- You need someone to run hiring for a senior role: write the bar, run the interviews, make the call.
- You want the judgment of a full-time hire without committing to one before you know if the role is permanent.
What you get
- A set number of days a week of senior leadership time, focused on the decisions that actually need a senior person.
- Architecture and roadmap direction, written down — not just verbal advice that evaporates when the engagement ends.
- Hiring support for the senior roles underneath: bar-setting, interview loops, and the final call.
- A handover plan from day one, so the team isn't dependent on the fractional leader staying forever.
What we won't do
- Stay past the point where you should hire full-time. Our job is to make ourselves unnecessary.
- Sit in meetings without shipping decisions. Every engagement produces a written roadmap and architecture record.
- Take on more than a couple of these relationships at once — leadership needs continuity, not a rotating cast.
- Promise outcomes we can't measure. Hiring and architecture decisions get evaluated like everything else we do.
How we work
- Assess. A short audit of the team, the roadmap, and where the gaps in ownership actually are.
- Set the cadence. Agree on a weekly time commitment and the standing meetings that matter — no more, no less.
- Own the decisions. Roadmap, architecture, hiring — the fractional leader owns the calls, not just advises on them.
- Write it down. Roadmap and architecture decisions get documented, so they outlive the engagement.
- Plan the exit. From month one, we're building toward the point where you hire full-time or decide you don't need to.
Monthly retainer, scoped to your time commitment — let's talk about what your team needs.