When the seat is empty and the clock is running.
Full-time technology leadership for US and Canadian companies, temporarily. I step in to cover a sudden gap or carry the company through a transition, holding delivery steady, leading the team, and handing off cleanly to the permanent hire.
What is an interim CTO?
An interim CTO is a senior Chief Technology Officer who runs your technology function full-time for a temporary stretch: covering a sudden departure, carrying a merger or restructure, or holding the seat until the permanent hire lands. The ownership is real while it lasts. Strategy, delivery, the team, the board conversation, all of it is mine to run, and the engagement ends when the transition does.
The pricing is public. In the US market an experienced interim CTO runs $1,500–$2,500 a day, which lands at roughly $25,000–$50,000 a month near-full-time. My published price is $30,000 a month for embedded, near-full-time leadership in the seat, with a fixed-fee Diagnostic from $20,000 if you want the honest read first. If the gap doesn't need full-time coverage, the fractional engagement runs $18,000 a month. The full breakdown is in the interim CTO pricing guide.
I've held this kind of seat before, including as CTO and architect for a regional healthcare network, where I shipped two EMR SaaS platforms while live patient care kept running. Most of the work is remote. I serve US and Canadian companies from Eastern Time, with same-day overlap across North America.
Also known as: temporary CTO, short-term CTO, transition CTO, acting CTO, contract CTO, CTO gap coverage.
The CTO just left. Now what?
Interim leadership is about stability and momentum, not a placeholder.
A sudden departure
Your CTO is gone and the team, the roadmap and the investors all need a steady hand this week, not in six months.
A transition to manage
A merger, a restructure, a pivot. Someone senior has to hold the technology function together while it changes shape.
A bridge to the right hire
You want to hire the permanent CTO carefully, not panic-hire. I keep things moving and help you bring in the right person.
Stabilize. Lead. Hand off.
Stabilize
- Assess delivery, team, risk and the immediate fires
- Reassure the team, the board and the customers
- Keep shipping, momentum is the priority
Lead
- Run the technology function full-time, hands-on
- Fix what's breaking; make the calls that were stuck
- Bring AI-native practices in where they create leverage
Hand off
- Help define and hire the permanent CTO
- Document decisions, architecture and the plan
- Leave the function stronger than I found it
A track record, not a pitch.
Interim isn't a placeholder. It's full ownership of the technology function for as long as it takes to make the next chapter someone else's to run well.
What boards & founders ask.
What's the difference between an interim CTO and a fractional CTO?
An interim CTO is full-time but temporary, I'm in the seat every day to cover a gap or carry a transition, typically for a defined period. A fractional CTO is ongoing but part-time. Both are hands-on; the difference is the depth and duration of the commitment.
How quickly can you start?
Usually within one to two weeks. Interim work is urgent by nature, so I keep capacity for exactly this situation and give the mandate full-time attention from day one.
Will you help hire my permanent CTO?
Yes. Part of the job is leaving cleanly, that means helping define the role, assessing candidates, and handing off the architecture, decisions and plan so your permanent hire succeeds.
What do you leave behind?
A function someone else can run. Whoever takes the seat next inherits a documented function and a team that can run it. If you need that team, I hire it and interview every candidate. If the people are already there, I get them to the point where nothing routine comes back to me. The hard questions still can, for as long as you need. An interim that ends with the company still needing the interim has failed.
How long does an interim engagement last?
Until the transition is complete and the function is stable, sometimes a few months, sometimes longer. It ends when the problem is solved, not on an arbitrary date.
Related reading & paths.
What an interim CTO costs
The pricing guide: US day rates, monthly numbers, and why firms charge more.
Fractional vs full-time vs interim
An honest breakdown of which kind of technology leadership your company actually needs right now.
Fractional CTO
The part-time alternative when the gap doesn't need full-time coverage, with published pricing.
Need someone in the seat
now?
If the seat is empty and the clock is running, let's talk today.