--- title: "Fractional CTO & CMO" date: 2026-03-04T12:19:00+01:00 author: Santiago Melluso canonical_url: "https://www.takefortytwo.com/en/services/fractional-cto-cmo/" section: Services --- [Services](https://www.takefortytwo.com/en/services/)[Back to listing](https://www.takefortytwo.com/en/services/)Ongoing / Retainer # Fractional CTO& CMO You need senior leadership but you don’t want a full-time hire. A Fractional CTO brings technical strategy, vendor management, architecture decisions, and team mentoring. A Fractional CMO brings brand positioning, channel strategy, campaign leadership, and budget oversight. We’ve operated at that level for clients across industries for nearly two decades. We plug in quickly, speak both languages — business and technical — and make sure the right decisions get made at the right time. **This is for you if:** - You’re scaling but not yet at the stage where a full-time CTO or CMO makes financial sense. - Your technology or marketing function lacks senior direction and it’s showing up in the results. - You need someone who can represent your interests with vendors, agencies, and your own board — not just execute tasks. **What you’ll get from this:** - Executive-level ownership of your technology or marketing function on a defined time commitment. - Strategic decision-making, vendor evaluation, team mentoring, and budget stewardship. - A direct line to someone who knows your business and speaks with authority on your behalf. - The flexibility to scale the engagement up or down as your needs evolve. [Get in touch](https://www.takefortytwo.com/en/contact/) ## Frequently Asked Questions When does a fractional CTO/CMO make more sense than a full-time hire?When the work needs senior judgment a few hours a week, not 40. Typically: pre-Series A startups, mid-size companies between full-time leadership transitions, or organizations where the technology/​marketing function isn’t yet large enough to justify a six-figure executive but is too important to leave to junior staff. The fractional model fails when the role actually needs daily presence; we’ll tell you if that’s the case. How much time per week do you allocate?Engagements typically run 4 – 16 hours per week, sized to the company rather than sold as pre-packaged blocks of hours. That time is structured as a mix of strategy sessions, vendor and team reviews, hiring support, and on-call availability for decisions that can’t wait for the next meeting. Quarterly reviews adjust the allocation up or down as your needs change. Can the fractional CTO actually represent us with vendors and our board?Yes, that’s the point. A junior in-house head can execute but can’t push back on a Big‑4 consultancy or argue architecture in a board meeting. Fractional leadership is hired exactly for those moments. We’ve operated at that level ​“across industries for nearly two decades”, which translates to credibility in the room. Read [Agency of Record vs Agency of Ecosystems](https://www.takefortytwo.com/en/blog/agency-of-record-agency-of-ecosystems/) for related context. How is this different from hiring a consultancy?A consultancy delivers a project; fractional leadership owns an outcome. The fractional CTO/CMO is part of the team, attends the leadership meetings, and is accountable for the function over time. This works because we mentor your in-house people, not replace them. Does this overlap with AI Workflow or Tech Stack Selection?Often, yes, and that overlap is deliberate: the same fractional leader can own several workstreams instead of you hiring for each one. A fractional CTO commonly leads the [Steward](https://www.takefortytwo.com/en/solutions/steward/) ongoing function, owns architecture decisions, and brings in specialist services (AI, stack selection, replatforming) when the moment demands them. Same person, multiple workstreams, one accountable owner. How do you scale up or down as our needs change?Engagements have a quarterly review built in. If you’ve hired in-house and the fractional role is no longer needed, we ramp down. If a major project lands and you need more presence, we ramp up. The flexibility is the point of the model. ## You might also like #### AI Workflow & Multi-Agent Automation AI is infrastructure. We design and deploy workflows where AI agents handle the repetitive and time consuming and you focus on what will always need a human. [ Read More ](https://www.takefortytwo.com/en/services/ai-workflow-multi-agent-automation/) #### Tech Stack Selection & Architecture The wrong stack is a slow tax on your business. We help you build a coherent architecture before you commit to tools you'll spend years working around. [ Read More ](https://www.takefortytwo.com/en/services/tech-stack-selection-architecture/) #### Steward There's delivering reports. And there's running operations. This is not delivering reports. Grow your direct sales channel with an embedded ecommerce department. [ Read More ](https://www.takefortytwo.com/en/solutions/steward/) ![](data:image/png;base64,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)![Dark warm scene with a robotic figure working at a cluttered desk](https://takefortytwo-new.transforms.svdcdn.com/production/media/blog/The-Agency-of-Record-is-Dead.webp?w=1648&h=885&auto=compress%2Cformat&fit=crop&dm=1774785497&s=b501a05f2d48ca1a756062c5eaaad3b0) #### The Agency of Record is Dead Announcing the death of the Agency of Record may be an exaggeration, but the change is really real. Long live the Agency of Ecosystems. [ Read More ](https://www.takefortytwo.com/en/blog/agency-of-record-agency-of-ecosystems/)