Free checklists, scope templates, rate guides, and onboarding playbooks for fractional CTO engagements. Built for engineering leaders and technical founders.
For the fractional CTO: what to gather in week one, questions that establish credibility fast, and the first deliverable to produce.
Find a CTO Engagement →Onboarding checklist for fractional CTO engagements — covers codebase access, team structure review, security audit, and 30/60/90-day technical milestones.
Find a Fractional CTO →Market rate benchmarks for fractional CTOs — hourly rates by company stage, what drives price up or down, and how to structure the engagement.
See CTO Rate Benchmarks →Scope of work template for fractional CTO engagements — defines technical deliverables, hours, team interaction model, and success criteria.
Find a Fractional CTO →Use this free tool alongside your templates to accelerate the engagement.
Most fractional CTO failures trace back to a model mismatch, not a skills mismatch. The person you hire to advise on architecture decisions 5 hours a month is a completely different engagement than someone who runs your sprint planning and manages three engineers week-to-week. The template you use for onboarding and scoping should reflect which model you're actually buying.
The three models that dominate the market: Tech Advisor (4–8 hrs/month, $150–$250/hr, advisory only), Embedded Tech Lead (15–25 hrs/month, $200–$350/hr, team ownership), and Build CTO (30+ hrs/month, $275–$450/hr, hands-on build then hand-off). Each model produces a different scope template, different success criteria, and a different set of first-week onboarding requirements.
For the Embedded Tech Lead model — the most common pattern for Series A companies — the onboarding checklist needs to address: codebase access and architecture review, introduction to the engineering team, access to existing roadmap and sprint history, vendor account credentials, and a first-week deliverable (usually a technical assessment or prioritized backlog review). Without a structured onboarding, the first 30 days become an expensive orientation instead of delivered value.
The deliverables vary by model, but the highest-value outputs across all three are: a technical roadmap with realistic timelines, a build-vs-buy decision framework for key infrastructure choices, a hiring plan for the engineering team, a security and compliance baseline (SOC 2 readiness, data handling policies), and technical investor materials for due diligence. Templates for each of these outputs reduce the time from engagement start to first deliverable by 30–40%.
One factor that's often overlooked: the fractional CTO's exit plan. The best engagements are explicitly designed to make themselves redundant — either by building the team to the point where a full-time hire makes sense, or by documenting architectural decisions so thoroughly that the next technical leader can onboard quickly. The offboarding checklist in this library is designed for exactly that transition.
Use the rate guide to benchmark before you negotiate. Fractional CTO rates have risen 15–20% since 2023 as demand outpaced supply in the post-ZIRP market. Underbidding quality candidates is more expensive than it looks once you factor in a failed 60-day engagement and restart costs.
Fractional CTO rates range from $150/hr for a tech advisor role to $450/hr for a hands-on Build CTO engagement. Most ongoing retainer arrangements land between $200–$350/hr. Monthly retainers typically run $4,000–$12,000 depending on hours and scope.
It depends on the model. Tech Advisor engagements typically run 4–8 hrs/month. Embedded Tech Lead roles run 15–25 hrs/month. Build CTO engagements can exceed 30 hrs/month for the duration of an MVP build or team scaling sprint.
Only in the Embedded Tech Lead and Build CTO models. In the advisory model, the CTO gives guidance but the CEO or product lead still makes day-to-day engineering decisions. Clarify direct vs. advisory reporting before the engagement starts.
Week 1: codebase access and architecture review. Week 2: team introductions and process assessment. Week 3: deliver a written technical assessment (what's working, what needs change, risk areas). Week 4: present a 90-day roadmap with prioritized initiatives and resource plan.
The clearest signal: when the fractional arrangement creates more coordination overhead than it saves. For most companies, this happens around 8–12 engineers or when the technical complexity of the product requires daily strategic input. At that point, a full-time CTO hire is the right move.