Fractional CTO services by city
I provide fractional CTO leadership across California and beyond — and every city below is backed by a real client engagement, not generic market commentary. Browse by region to find the local story.
California
Florida
Indiana
Missouri
Nevada
New York
Texas
How geography actually matters in a fractional CTO engagement
Fractional CTO work is mostly remote, but proximity still matters in three specific ways: time-zone overlap with your engineering team, ability to be on-site for the high-stakes meetings (board, exec retreats, M&A diligence sessions, key customer escalations), and the network density that a senior technologist brings to your hiring pipeline. Each city page below makes the case for what local presence actually means at that level.
What a typical engagement cadence looks like
A standard fractional CTO engagement is structured as a monthly retainer covering 30–60 hours of work. The cadence usually breaks down to: weekly 1-hour exec-team standup, weekly 1-hour engineering-leadership sync, ad-hoc availability for incidents and decision points, and a monthly written executive briefing for the board or CEO. On-site presence is typically 2–4 days in the first month (kickoff, team interviews, architecture review), then 1–2 days per month thereafter — or quarterly for fully-remote engagements.
Virtual vs. on-site pricing
The retainer rate is the same whether the engagement is fully remote, hybrid, or on-site — pricing is structured around scope, complexity, and required hours, not commute. For on-site engagements outside Southern California, travel and lodging are billed separately at cost. Most clients run hybrid: monthly travel for the first two months, then quarterly on-site after that.
Which cities have anchor-client backing
Every city page below references at least one real engagement in or near that market — Marshall & Swift and TRW in Los Angeles, Carvana and PacifiCare in Orange County, LERETA in the Inland Empire, First American Financial across SoCal, and similar named work for other metros. This is intentional: when a city page can't anchor to a real engagement, it doesn't get published. There are no geo-shell pages on this site.
How city pages are chosen
The 25 cities currently published are weighted toward where active engagements have been (LA basin, Orange County, Inland Empire, Bay Area, San Diego, select Phoenix metros, Kansas City, Florida Space Coast, Southern Nevada). The roadmap for the next quarter adds Seattle, Portland, Denver, Austin, Dallas, Chicago, Atlanta, Nashville, NYC, Boston, and Miami — all driven by either inbound demand or specific past work in that market.
Frequently asked questions
What cities do you serve as a fractional CTO?
I serve clients across California metros (Los Angeles, Orange County, San Diego, San Francisco Bay Area, Sacramento, Inland Empire) and select metros nationwide including Phoenix, Seattle, Portland, Denver, Austin, Dallas, Chicago, Atlanta, and the NYC area. Every city page below links to a real client engagement in that market — not a generic geo-shell. If your city isn't listed, that doesn't mean I can't help; reach out and we can talk about whether remote-only or quarterly on-site works for you.
Are remote-only fractional CTO engagements priced the same as on-site?
Yes. The retainer is structured by scope and hours, not by location. Remote-only engagements have the same monthly rate as hybrid or on-site engagements. The difference is travel reimbursement — for on-site engagements outside Southern California, travel is billed separately.
Do you travel for in-person engagements outside California?
Yes. For engagements requiring quarterly or monthly on-site presence, I travel to client sites nationally. The most common pattern is monthly travel for the first two months of an engagement (kickoff, team meetings, stakeholder interviews) followed by remote cadence with quarterly on-site visits.
How is "near me" different for a fractional CTO vs. a full-time CTO hire?
A fractional CTO is location-portable in ways a full-time CTO is not. Most fractional CTO work happens via video and async — the on-site component is usually 1-4 days per month at the high end. That means "near me" for a fractional CTO is less about commute and more about time-zone overlap and ability to be on-site for the meetings that matter most. I'm based in Anaheim, California (Pacific Time) and have worked with clients in 30+ US metros under this model.
Do you take engagements internationally?
Selectively. For US-based clients with international operations, integrating with international engineering teams is part of the engagement. For non-US-headquartered companies, I take a small number of engagements per year — typically with Pacific Rim or European clients where time-zone overlap is workable.
Not sure which engagement model fits your city?
Wherever you're based, the discovery call is the same first step — a senior read on your systems, team, and roadmap before any commitment.
