CTO-level judgment for founders and teams who need it now, without a nine-month executive search. I set technical direction, lead the people doing the work, and build hands-on when it counts — then hand back a team that can run the system without me. Scale Data's engineers keep the work moving between sessions.
Three situations where senior technical leadership pays for itself fast.
You're making architecture, hiring, and build-vs-buy decisions that will shape the next two years, and you want someone senior in the room before you commit to them.
Your engineers are good, but no one is setting technical direction or protecting their time. You need that steadily — without the cost or the months-long search for a full-time CTO.
A rebuild, a scaling wall, fundraising diligence, or a first AI initiative — a decision where getting the technical call right matters more than usual, and staying wrong gets expensive.
One role across the full range — from strategy to hands-on delivery.
Turn business goals into a technical plan with the priorities, sequence, and trade-offs named out loud — including what not to build yet.
Assess what you have and design what you need, including the technical diligence investors and acquirers ask for. An architecture isn't finished until it explains how you get there from the system you run today.
Hire the right engineers, set expectations they can develop against, and protect their capacity — so the team keeps shipping after I leave.
Direct coding agents through bounded specs, isolated worktrees, and coordinated review, with production access kept outside their control — speed a person still stands behind.
Modern data and cloud foundations across AWS, GCP, and Azure — including the migrations between them, done without stalling the product work that shares the same engineers.
Not just advice. Prototype the hard part, ship the critical path, unblock the team — then get back out of the way.
Pick the depth that fits where you are. Start light, go deeper when it's working. Every engagement begins with a call and a point where we decide whether to continue.
For founders who want a sounding board.
A few hours a month
Standing time, plus async between sessions
For teams that need steady senior leadership.
One to two days a week
Ongoing, scoped per engagement
For a critical build or a turnaround.
Several days a week
Deep in the work, for a defined stretch
Every engagement starts with a call — no commitment.
You work directly with the person doing the work — someone who has built and led engineering teams, not an account manager routing you to one. Behind that, Scale Data's engineers keep things moving between sessions. I measure the engagement by one thing: whether your team can run the result after I'm gone.
Founder, Scale Data
I've run Scale Data since 2024, and served as CTO at Radix through 2025. Before that I was VP and GM of Data at Xero, leading a 65-person organization, and I led data engineering at Ticketmaster / Live Nation for over a decade. I still work hands-on. Claude Certified Architect Professional (CCAR-P).
Real engagements, real outcomes
Where I've built and led
From first call to shipped outcomes.
A call on your goals, stage, and constraints — and an honest read on whether a fractional CTO is even the right move. If it isn't, I'll say so.
A focused look at your architecture, team, and roadmap, with the people who use and maintain the system. You get a clear read on risks, gaps, and quick wins.
A concrete plan: what to do, in what order, and why. Yours to keep, whether or not we keep working together.
Advisory or hands-on, at your tier's cadence — always toward leaving your team able to run and change the system without me in the room.
Book an intro call, or send a note and I'll get back to you.