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

Currency:

Advisor CTO

$3,600per month

~6 hours per week of dedicated time

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

How we work:

Bi-weekly strategy session with founders (90 min)
Technical stack and architecture review - are you building on the right foundation?
Code review of critical decisions and risky PRs
Candidate screening: resume review, interview structure, hire/no-hire recommendations
Infrastructure and tooling spend review - are you overpaying for cloud and third-party services?
Async access via Slack (48-hour response time)

What you walk away with:

Technical assessment report - honest evaluation of your codebase, infrastructure, and risks
Technology roadmap - prioritized recommendations for the next 6 months
Hiring scorecard - what to look for in your first 3-5 engineers

Outcome

Confidence that your technical decisions are sound and a clear plan to build on - without costly mistakes.

Month-to-month, cancel anytime

Growth CTO

Scale CTO

$11,000per month

~20 hours per week of dedicated time

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

How we work:

Everything from Growth CTO package
Daily involvement in engineering operations - standups, planning, escalations
Executive team participation - board prep, investor meetings, due diligence support
Engineering management development - coaching team leads into engineering managers
Organizational design - team topology, processes, rituals, communication structures
Vendor strategy - cloud cost optimization, service negotiations, contractor management
Technical debt strategy - refactoring roadmap balanced against product delivery

What you walk away with:

Engineering handbook - culture, standards, processes, expectations
Leveling and compensation framework - career ladders and salary bands
Engineering metrics dashboard - DORA metrics, velocity trends, code quality
Incident management playbook - on-call rotation, severity definitions, postmortem process
Technical due diligence package - investor-ready architecture and security documentation
Security and compliance assessment - SOC2, GDPR, HIPAA readiness evaluation
Engineering headcount plan and infrastructure budget forecast

Outcome

A mature engineering organization ready for due diligence and the next funding round.

3-month minimum commitment

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).