Remote / Hybrid • AEST Timezone

Fractional CTO in Sydney

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

Why Sydney Startups Choose Fractional CTO

Sydney is Australia's largest tech hub and financial services center. The city is home to successful startups like Atlassian and Canva, inspiring a new generation. Industries like FinTech, PropTech, HealthTech, Enterprise SaaS, and E-commerce thrive thanks to a growing VC ecosystem and access to world-class talent.

However, this concentration creates unique challenges: technical salaries are among the highest in the region (AUD 280K-450K for CTO), competition for experienced talent is intense, and APRA, Privacy Act, and ASIC compliance requirements are high. Many startups find that traditional full-time CTO hiring is impractical at early stages.

Challenge

Common Challenges

High technical salaries make full-time CTO expensive (AUD 280K-450K)
Intense competition for experienced technical talent
Strict regulatory requirements (APRA, Privacy Act, ASIC)
Need for rapid scaling after funding rounds

Time zone makes working with global investors and partners difficult
High technical salaries make full-time CTO expensive (AUD 280K-450K)
Intense competition for experienced technical talent

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

How Fractional CTO Solves Them

Access to experienced CTO without Sydney salary premiums (AUD 150K-300K+ annual savings)
Start immediately—no 3-6 month hiring process
Scale engagement up/down as you progress through funding rounds
Expertise in building distributed teams with effective asynchronous communication and remote-first focus
Global best practices with Australian market understanding

What I do

Build MVP

Turn your Sydney startup idea into a working product

Tech stack selection for Australian talent market
Launch in 3-4 months with scalable foundation
Architecture ready for investor demos

Scale Product

Grow from seed stage to Series A in Australia

Handle 10x growth without outages
Manage technical debt and refactoring
Prepare for Australian VC due diligence

AI Transformation

Integrate AI/ML into your startup

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

Technology Audit

Technical assessment before raising capital

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

Technical Due Diligence for Investors

For Sydney 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 Sydney talent market
Build hybrid teams (local + remote engineers)
Establish engineering culture

Pricing

Packages for Sydney 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 for Sydney Startups

Working hours overlap: Sydney is 6-7 hours ahead of my timezone. Your morning (8-10am AEST) is my late evening for live calls. Main work through asynchronous communication: Slack, email, Loom—guarantees effective 24-hour productivity.
Communication rhythm: Weekly strategic call with founders (your morning). Daily asynchronous updates via Slack and email, enabling work without downtime. Loom videos for complex issues. Emergency availability for critical situations.
In-person visits: Visits to Sydney available for Scale CTO and higher packages by arrangement. Available for board meetings and investor presentations (remote or in-person).