Fractional CTO
Senior technical leadership on agreed days each month, for a team without a technology lead or between leads. Daniel Grimes leads it, and delivery is agentic.
- Agreed days each month
- Three-month minimum
- Led by Daniel Grimes
Worth being straight about, because the honest version is what makes the recommendation worth anything.
When it fits
- A team with no senior technologist
Someone has to own the architecture, the build-or-buy calls and the hiring bar, and nobody internal can yet.
- A company between technology leads
Continuity over the decisions that cannot wait while a permanent hire is found.
- A delivery lead is away and a release cannot wait
Short cover on one named workstream, so the release keeps moving and is handed back cleanly.
When it does not
- The problem is a specific piece of work
A stalled integration, a migration, a release nobody can get out of the door. That needs delivery, not governance.
- There is already a technology lead
A second senior voice over the same decisions creates ambiguity rather than capacity, and the ambiguity lands on the team.
- What is actually needed is code shipped
Leadership time and delivery time are different purchases. Paying a leadership rate for delivery hours is how this model gets expensive quietly.
- Senior technical leadership on agreed days each month
- Three-month minimum, then month to month with one month's notice
- Decisions, architecture and runbooks recorded in your own accounts, not in anyone's head
- Delivery is agentic: AI agents carry the execution, and Daniel Grimes owns the decisions and the risk
- DBHQ takes a small number of engagements at a time, so the principal who scopes the work leads it through to handover.
A short, bounded block for when a lead is away and a release cannot wait.
An initial two-to-four-week block of agreed days on one named workstream: ownership of the delivery backlog, the open technical decisions closed, implementation and release coordination, and a handover to whoever picks it up next. Cover is a separate short block, outside the three-month minimum.
The commercial shape of a DBHQ engagement, stated rather than implied.
- The client retains executive authority, budget approval and employment decisions
- Days, scope and notice are agreed in writing before work starts
- Every engagement ends with a handover to a named operational owner
- Can we buy this monthly?
- Yes. The retainer is agreed days each month, with a three-month minimum and then month to month with one month's notice.
- What if we only need cover for a few weeks?
- That is the cover shape: an initial two-to-four-week block of agreed days on one named workstream, ending in a handover. Cover is a separate short block, outside the three-month minimum.
- What does agentic delivery mean here?
- AI agents carry the execution - reading the estate, drafting, testing - and Daniel Grimes owns the decisions, the risk and the relationship. Every claim about it names the engagement, the team size and the duration.
- Who makes the decisions?
- The technical calls inside the agreed days are made and recorded as part of the work. Budget, headcount and company direction stay with you.
- Do we own what you build?
- You do. Code, documentation, data and tooling stay in your own accounts, and handover to a named operational owner is part of the work.
- How does it start?
- A short call to agree the days, the scope and the first decisions. Where the work cannot be scoped yet, an assessment comes first.
The record behind it
Twenty-six years of engineering delivery across defence, banking, insurance, energy, commodities, healthcare and identity - the decisions above have been made in places where getting them wrong was expensive
Need technical leadership on agreed days?
Describe the team, the decisions waiting and the days you think you need. You will get a straight answer on whether the retainer fits and what it would take.
I reply within 24 hours