Service

Interim and Fractional CTO

Technology leadership from people who have founded companies and led engineering teams.

Engagement

On request

Quoted against the days each month, the period of interim cover, or the scope of the assessment.

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A chief technology officer for the period or the number of days an organisation needs one. Our principals have founded technology companies and led engineering at start-ups, and they hold the role rather than advise on it. Organisations engage us for one of two purposes: to build a high-performing engineering team and lay the foundations it works on, or to assess a technology landscape and prepare it for a vendor-neutral handover to a managed service provider or a management consulting firm.

What you get

  • Engineering organisation design, role definitions and a hiring plan
  • Recruitment of senior engineers, and of the permanent CTO or head of engineering who succeeds us
  • Engineering practice: delivery process, code review, release, on-call and the measures that track them
  • Technical foundations: architecture principles, platform choices and a decision record practice
  • Technology landscape assessment covering systems, ownership, contracts, cost and risk
  • A vendor-neutral handover pack from which a managed service provider or consulting firm can be selected and briefed

Ideal for

Founders, chief executives and boards who need technology leadership before they can hire it, or an independent account of their technology estate before they outsource it.

The engagement

Technology leadership from people who have held the role.

Many organisations need a chief technology officer before they can recruit one, or for a period in which they cannot. A founder may be building a product without a technical co-founder. A company may have lost its CTO, or outgrown the arrangement it began with. A board may need to decide what to do with an estate that nobody in the organisation can describe in full.

Our principals have founded technology companies and led engineering at start-ups. They have hired engineering teams, chosen and operated the platforms those teams work on, and answered to boards and investors for the results. An interim or fractional CTO from Mamluk holds the role, with the authority and accountability agreed for the engagement, rather than advising the person who does.

Organisations engage us for one of two purposes, described below. In both cases the engagement is planned to end: with a permanent technology leader in post, or with the estate in the hands of a provider selected on the merits of its proposal.

Two purposes

Build the team, or prepare the estate for handover.

Purpose one

Building a high-performing engineering team

For an organisation that intends to own its technology and needs the team, and the foundations under it, to be built correctly from the beginning. The CTO designs the engineering organisation, recruits its first senior engineers, establishes how the team plans, builds, reviews, releases and supports its software, and takes the architecture and platform decisions that will be expensive to reverse later.

The engagement ends when the organisation has appointed its permanent CTO or head of engineering and that person has taken over the team, the practice and the record of the decisions already made.

Purpose two

Assessing a technology landscape for a vendor-neutral handover

For an organisation that intends to place the operation or development of its technology with a managed service provider, or to engage a management consulting firm to change it. The CTO establishes what the organisation runs, who owns each part of it, what contracts and licences attach to it, what it costs and where its risks lie, and states the requirements a provider must meet.

The assessment is written for the organisation, not for any provider, so that each proposal can be compared against the same requirements. Where the organisation wishes, we take part in the selection and supervise the transition.

Deliverables

What the engagement produces.

Engineering organisation and hiring plan

The structure of the engineering team for the next stage of the organisation, the roles in it and what each is responsible for, and the order in which they should be filled. Each role has a written definition and an interview process that tests for it.

Senior hires and a successor

The CTO leads the recruitment of the team's first senior engineers, and of the permanent CTO or head of engineering who will succeed the engagement. The successor's role is defined against the organisation as it is when they are appointed, not as it was when the engagement began.

Engineering practice

How work is planned and prioritised, how code is reviewed and tested, how software is released, and how the team responds when a system fails. The practice is written down and adopted by the team, together with a small set of measures that show whether it is working.

Technical foundations

Architecture principles the team can apply without escalation, the platform and tooling choices the product will run on, and a decision record practice that preserves the reasons for each significant choice. These are the decisions that are cheapest to take correctly at the start and most expensive to change afterwards.

Technology landscape assessment

A complete account of the estate: applications, data, integrations and infrastructure; the owner of each; the contracts, licences and suppliers attached to them; their running cost; and the risks the organisation carries in each. It is written to be read by a board and by a provider who has never seen the estate.

Handover pack and provider selection

The requirements, service levels and division of responsibilities the organisation needs from a managed service provider or consulting firm, in a form that can be issued to several of them. Where requested, it extends to evaluating the proposals, supporting the selection, and supervising the transition to the provider chosen.

Engagement shapes

Three ways organisations buy this.

  1. A defined period

    The interim CTO

    A CTO who works most of the week in the role for a defined period: while the organisation is between permanent CTOs, while it builds its first engineering team, or while it carries out a significant change. The engagement usually ends with the appointment of a permanent successor and a handover to them.

  2. A number of days each month

    The fractional CTO

    A CTO who holds the role for a fixed number of days each month, for an organisation that needs technology leadership but not yet a full-time executive. The fractional CTO leads the engineering team, attends the board or leadership meetings where technology is decided, and is available for the decisions that require one. The commitment is a number of days, which can be changed as the organisation grows.

  3. A defined scope

    The assessment

    A technology landscape assessment and handover pack for an organisation preparing to engage a managed service provider or a management consulting firm. It is scoped against the size of the estate, and may continue into provider selection and supervision of the transition.

Independence

An assessment written for the organisation, not for a provider.

We hold no reseller agreements and accept no referral fees from managed service providers, consulting firms or software vendors. The requirements in a handover pack are those of the organisation, and every provider is evaluated against the same ones.

Mamluk also builds and licenses its own software and offers services of its own. Where one of them is relevant to an organisation's requirements, the interest is declared in the written assessment.

Region

On site and remotely, across the GCC.

We work on site and remotely in the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Qatar, Kuwait and Oman. A CTO in this region takes decisions on data residency, the location of control functions and the jurisdiction of each supplier, and those decisions shape the team, the platform and the choice of provider.

Our principals take those decisions for the platforms Mamluk operates, under the same regulation.

Questions

Common questions about interim and fractional CTOs.

What is the difference between an interim and a fractional CTO?
An interim CTO holds the role for a defined period, usually while an organisation is between permanent CTOs or is building its first engineering team, and works most of the week in it. A fractional CTO holds the role for a fixed number of days each month, for an organisation that needs technology leadership but not yet a full-time executive. The responsibilities are the same; the time committed is different.
Who will the CTO be?
A Mamluk principal who has founded a technology company or led engineering at a start-up, and who has built and run the kind of team the engagement concerns. The principal is named before the engagement begins and remains the same person throughout. We do not subcontract the role.
How is this different from enterprise architecture as a service?
Enterprise architecture as a service provides architectural direction without an executive role: the architect advises your leadership and does not manage your engineers or hold a budget. An interim or fractional CTO holds the executive role, with the authority, reporting line and accountability agreed in the engagement letter. An organisation that already has a technology leader usually needs the first; one that does not usually needs the second.
Will you help us hire a permanent CTO?
Yes. Most interim engagements end with the appointment of a permanent CTO or head of engineering. We define the role against what the organisation has become, take part in assessing candidates, and hand over the team, the decisions taken and the reasons for them to the person appointed.
Why does a technology assessment need to be vendor-neutral?
An assessment written by the firm that hopes to be awarded the resulting contract describes the estate in terms of the services that firm sells. A vendor-neutral assessment describes what the organisation runs, what it owns, what it owes and what it needs, so that managed service providers and consulting firms can be compared on the same requirements. We hold no reseller agreements and accept no referral fees. Where a service Mamluk offers is relevant to the requirements, the interest is declared in the written assessment.
What does a handover to a managed service provider or consulting firm involve?
The assessment produces an inventory of systems, their owners, the contracts and licences attached to them, their cost and their risks, together with the service levels and responsibilities the organisation requires. That becomes the basis of the selection and the brief to the provider chosen. Where the organisation wishes, we take part in the selection and supervise the transition until the provider is operating the estate.
Do your CTOs work only on Kubernetes and infrastructure?
No. The role covers the engineering organisation, the delivery practice, the product architecture and the technology budget, as well as the platform. Our particular depth is in platforms and infrastructure, and where an engagement needs that depth it is available from the same practice through Kubernetes consulting.
How is the engagement priced?
It is quoted per engagement. A fractional engagement is quoted against the number of days each month, an interim engagement against the period of cover, and an assessment against the scope of the estate. The first conversation is not billed.

The rest of the practice

Technology leadership is one of six ways to engage us.

The same engineers deliver all six. Most engagements begin as one of them and become another once the estate is understood.

Enterprise Architecture as a Service

A senior architect on call, paid for by the day.

Read the engagement model →

Kubernetes Consulting

Strategy, architecture and platform design for Kubernetes done properly.

Read the engagement model →

Kubernetes Development

Custom operators, charts, controllers and the long maintenance tail.

Read the engagement model →

Kubernetes Support

A Kubernetes support contract with named engineers and a defined response time.

Read the engagement model →

Managed Kubernetes on Premise

A fully managed Kubernetes practice running inside your own data centre, on BKE.

Read the engagement model →

Not sure which applies

Describe the estate and the outcome you need, and we will say which engagement applies. The first conversation is not billed.

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Small teams. Plain contracts. Real architects.

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