Researching tech and business cases; suggesting practical solution options
Translating business goals into technical requirements (functional & non-functional)
Preparing and obtaining approval for app UI / UX flows
Estimating budgets, timelines, and team size needed
Vendor & Contractor Oversight
Regular oversight of contractors’ work
Code reviews and architecture reviews
Verifying correct, up-to-date source code (no lock-in)
Ensuring code is readable, maintainable, and scalable
Managing handovers between vendors or in-house hires
Managing cloud accounts (AWS, GCP, Azure)
Cost optimization (cloud bills, SaaS subscriptions)
Designing scalable and secure architectur
Backup, monitoring, and incident response setup
Quality assurance, automated testing frameworks
Load testing and performance monitoring
Cybersecurity reviews and penetration tests
Identifying how AI/ML can be applied to business goals
Data strategy (collection, storage, pipelines, privacy)
Integrating LLMs, chatbots, or AI assistants into workflows
Technical documentation (so knowledge isn’t lost with devs)
Build vs. buy vs. low-code/no-code decisions
Vendor/tool evaluation & selection
Assisting with hiring and interviewing technical talent
Mentoring junior developers or non-technical founders
Setting coding standards, best practices, and playbooks
Onboarding/offboarding engineers securely
Fractional CTO “hotline” for quick problem-solving
Crisis management (server down, data breach, contractor left)
Any other software-related assistance as needed
Investor/board-ready technical reports and presentations