Fractional CTO who still ships
Hands-on technical leader across AI automation, enterprise workflows, editorial platforms, real-time collaboration, cloud infrastructure, APIs, media pipelines and high-traffic production systems.
Selected evidence
Real projects for The Telegraph, Little Pickles, Somersets, KISSD and Genco. Explore the business problems, what I built and the decisions behind the delivery.
I helped bring Little Pickles to life with my partner, took on its administration, and single-handedly built the public website and the staff and family portal around the business’s day-to-day needs.
A connected editorial platform spanning collaborative authoring, reusable content formats, media workflows and published experiences.
A custom Shopify-backed storefront and business dashboard for an established shaving and skincare brand.
From customer touchscreens and fleet servicing to advertising, commercial agreements and revenue sharing. One connected platform across the physical product and the people running the business.
Audience rules, reader data and commercial experiences across Telegraph web and app surfaces.
A coherent group website with distinct journeys for water, agriculture, and mechanical and electrical engineering.
The common thread
From a clear business website to a platform that runs across teams, services and physical machines.
Explore all the work| Area | Knowledge and usage |
|---|---|
| OpenAI, Anthropic and Vertex | Codex, Claude, Gemini, MCP servers, agent workflows, API access, structured prompts, tool use and automation patterns |
| Agentic systems | Role-based agents, tool boundaries, human review loops, escalation paths and durable context |
| Living documentation | Markdown-first operating models, reusable corrections, read orders, handoffs and AI-ready repo context |
| LLM workflow design | Generation, classification, summarisation, enrichment, extraction and business-process automation |
| Semantic search | Embeddings, vector search, article-driven lookup, fallback behaviour and production search UX |
| Applied AI governance | Guardrails, source constraints, review checkpoints, auditability and safe rollout inside real teams |
| Area | Knowledge and usage |
|---|---|
| Serverless applications | High-traffic APIs, event-driven services, scheduled jobs and operational tooling |
| Content delivery | CDN-backed delivery, cache behaviour, invalidation patterns and production publishing paths |
| Storage and media | Object storage, upload flows, media processing, thumbnails, renditions and asset pipelines |
| Security and access | IAM-aware architecture, environment separation, secrets handling and least-privilege thinking |
| Observability | Logs, traces, smoke tests, service status checks and debugging production request paths |
| Cost and scale | Traffic-aware architecture, caching strategy, right-sized services and pragmatic operational trade-offs |
| Area | Knowledge and usage |
|---|---|
| Google Cloud | Cloud services, integrations, content tooling and production workflow support |
| Google Sheets | Configuration-driven content systems, datasource editing workflows and operational handoff processes |
| Search and discovery | Article/content lookup, metadata workflows, indexing and retrieval-driven editorial tooling |
| Workspace automation | Docs, sheets, scripts and team workflow automation where the business process lives in Google tools |
| Area | Knowledge and usage |
|---|---|
| Node.js | Node 0.4 to Node 24, production APIs, CLIs, workers, services and platform tooling |
| TypeScript / JavaScript | Full-stack application code, shared contracts, strict typing where useful and legacy migration paths |
| React | CMS interfaces, dashboards, internal tools, collaborative editors and production user workflows |
| APIs | REST services, route design, request validation, versioning, compatibility and service contracts |
| Architecture | Modular services, server-authoritative state, config-first systems and clear ownership boundaries |
| Testing | Unit, integration, live E2E, regression checks, Playwright workflows and trace-backed validation |
| DevOps | Deployment flows, local dev environments, CI-friendly checks, smoke tests and operational runbooks |
| Linux | Server operations, shell tooling, process management, networking basics and production troubleshooting |
| Area | Knowledge and usage |
|---|---|
| WebSockets | Live systems, status channels, trace streams, collaborative editing and operational debugging |
| Yjs | Shared document state, collaborative editing semantics, presence and client/server authority decisions |
| State sync | Server-owned canonical state, user-intent mutations, dirty-state handling and cross-client consistency |
| Observability | Trace-first diagnosis, snapshot debugging, live test artifacts and race-condition investigation |
| Area | Knowledge and usage |
|---|---|
| CMS platforms | Authoring workflows, permissions, previews, configuration-driven forms and editorial production tooling |
| Embeddable content | Reusable digital formats, interactive embeds, template runtimes and render-safe payloads |
| Media workflows | Image/video search, upload, crop, metadata, adaptive readiness and asset contract design |
| Publishing systems | APIs, templates, embed runtimes, compile flows, cache behaviour and delivery reliability |
| Analytics | Usage tracking, workflow impact, dashboards, KPI reporting and decision-support tooling |
| Area | Knowledge and usage |
|---|---|
| Fractional CTO work | Technical strategy, architecture rescue, delivery focus and hands-on implementation |
| Product engineering | Zero-to-one builds, internal platforms, productised tooling and measurable business outcomes |
| Team leadership | Hiring, mentoring, high-trust delivery, cross-functional collaboration and senior stakeholder management |
| Commercial judgement | ROI/KPI focus, trade-off calls, operational cost awareness and pragmatic prioritisation |
| Startup experience | Co-founder history, multiple CTO roles, fast product delivery and scale-up engineering |
Skills by evidence
full-stack web apps / APIs / service design / front-end systems / operational code
cloud architecture / deployment systems / scaling / resilience / cost-aware delivery
live collaboration / state sync / presence / runtime observability / system authority
multi-agent workflows / business process automation / guardrails / review loops
editorial tooling / CMS workflows / media pipelines / internal tools
architecture / hiring / mentoring / delivery / cross-functional work
How I work
I stay close to the code, even when the job title gets bigger.
I like systems where the architecture, workflow and business outcome all matter.
I build tools that make teams faster instead of asking teams to work around bad systems.
I am useful when the problem crosses product, infrastructure, people and the awkward bits in between.
Depth, supported by better tools
I work in depth: understanding the business, designing the system and staying close to the code. Since 2021, I’ve been adopting and integrating AI across my workspace and tooling, making research, development, documentation and repeatable delivery part of a connected way of working.
That investment helps me deliver across multiple businesses alongside a full-time role and life as a father of four. I turn project knowledge, decisions and lessons into reusable context, so each piece of work builds on what came before.
For clients, that means direct access to an experienced engineer with an effective working system behind him. I own the architecture, review the output and remain accountable for what ships.
Contact
Best fit: fractional CTO work, architecture rescue, platform delivery, AI workflow implementation, productised technical consulting, or situations where someone needs to both think and build.
See my availability and choose a time to talk through your business, the challenge and what useful help would look like.
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