Remote / Hybrid • AEST Timezone

Fractional CTO in Melbourne

Expert technical leadership for Melbourne startups. CTO services in AEST timezone. Build, scale, and transform your product without full-time costs.

Why Melbourne Startups Choose Fractional CTO

Melbourne is Australia's second-largest tech hub with a strong university ecosystem and a center for healthcare innovation. The city is known for its creative tech culture and somewhat lower costs compared to Sydney. Industries like HealthTech, EdTech, FinTech, AI/ML, and Enterprise SaaS thrive thanks to proximity to leading research universities.

However, this ecosystem creates its own challenges: technical talent salaries remain high (AUD 250K-400K for CTOs), competition for senior talent is growing, and regulatory compliance requirements from APRA, Privacy Act, and ASIC are just as strict. Many startups find that traditional full-time CTO hiring is impractical at early stages.

Challenge

Common Challenges

High technical salaries make full-time CTOs expensive (AUD 250K-400K)
Growing competition for experienced technical talent
Strict regulatory requirements (APRA, Privacy Act, ASIC)
Need for rapid scaling after funding rounds

Timezone makes working with global investors and partners difficult
High technical salaries make full-time CTOs expensive (AUD 250K-400K)
Growing competition for experienced technical talent

Strict regulatory requirements (APRA, Privacy Act, ASIC)
Need for rapid scaling after funding rounds
Timezone makes working with global investors and partners difficult

How Fractional CTO Solves Them

Access to experienced CTO without Melbourne premiums and salaries (AUD 120K-240K+ savings annually)
Start immediately — without 3-6 month hiring process
Scale up/down as you progress through funding rounds
Expertise in building distributed teams with remote-first focus across timezones
Global best practices with understanding of Australian market

What I do

Build MVP

Turn your startup idea into a working product

Tech stack selection for Australian talent market
Launch in 3-4 months with scalable foundation
Investor demo-ready architecture

Scale Product

Grow from seed stage to Series A in Australia

Handle 10x growth without failures
Technical debt management and refactoring
Prepare for Australian VC due diligence

AI Transformation

Integrate AI/ML into your startup

LLM integrations and GPT-based solutions
ML systems for competitive advantage
Strategy, implementation, and MLOps

Technology Audit

Technical assessment before fundraising

Code quality and architecture review
Prepare for Melbourne VC due diligence
Risk map and recommendations

Technical Due Diligence for Investors

For Melbourne investors evaluating startups

Comprehensive technical risk assessment
Team and product scalability analysis
Reports for investment committees

Team Building

Hire your first 5-10 engineers

Navigate Melbourne talent market
Build hybrid teams (local + remote)
Implement engineering culture

Pricing

Packages for Melbourne Startups

Contract Length:

Currency:

Advisor CTO

$3,600per month

6 hours per week, 24 hours per month

For early-stage startups with an MVP or an idea that need oversight and support without full-time involvement.

2 strategic sessions per month (90 minutes each)
Technical stack and architecture audit
Slack support (48-hour response time)
Hiring support: candidate reviews and recommendations

What's included:

6-month technical roadmap
Architecture guidelines document

Outcome:A clear plan and recommendations for technology and team development without the overhead of a full-time CTO.

Contract term:1 month

Growth CTO

Scale CTO

$12,000per month

≈3 days per week, 80 hours per month

Series A+ startups with 15-20+ engineers preparing for the next funding round.

Everything from Growth CTO package
Participation in executive meetings and investor discussions
Building engineering management team (leads, engineering managers)
Due diligence support for fundraising
Organizational design: team structure, processes, rituals
Technical debt strategy and refactoring roadmap
Vendor and partner negotiations (AWS, third-party services, contractors)

What's included:

Engineering handbook and team culture code
Leveling and compensation framework
Engineering metrics dashboards (DORA, velocity, code quality, etc.)
Incident management and on-call rotation

Outcome:A mature engineering organization with clear processes, metrics, and a culture of product ownership.

Contract term:from 6 months

How Remote Work Functions with Melbourne Startups

Working hours overlap: Melbourne is 6-7 hours ahead. Your morning (8-10am AEST) is my late evening for calls and meetings
Communication rhythm: Weekly strategic call with founders, async via Slack and email for zero-downtime work
In-person visits: Visits to Melbourne available for Scale CTO+ packages by arrangement. Available for board meetings and investor presentations (remote or in-person).