Find a Virtual CTO

Your technical engineering practices can be the difference between painting yourself into a technical corner or being able to scale well when you hit on product market fit. Architecture can be fluid during the earlier days of a technical application, and the right Chief Technology Officer can help with the timing, risk and robustness of your technical strategy.

Available soon (20)

Photo of Antony McDonald

Antony McDonald

With over 25+ years' experience in senior leadership roles (CEO, CIO, COO), I am a proven executive with a strong track record in business startups and transitions.

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Works in
Wellington, Remote
Available for
2-3 days per week
Available from
May 2025
  • vCTO
  • vCOO
  • vCPTO
  • vCPO
  • vCISO
Photo of Ben Fellows

Ben Fellows

A hands on, big picture thinker that can add value by coming alongside your tech teams to help them get the most value out of technology. I'm working on the tools most weeks and then also advising customers on which direction to take with tech stack.

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Works in
Remote, Palmerston North
Available for
2 days/week
Available from
May 2025
  • Architecture Advisory
  • vCPO
  • Board Advisor
  • vCTO
  • Security Advisor
  • vCDO
Photo of Benjamen Walsh

Benjamen Walsh

Strategic business leader with over 20 years’ experience driving digital transformation, business architecture, and enterprise consulting across the public, private, and not-for-profit sectors. Proven founder, podcaster, educator, and executive with a track record of aligning complex programmes with strategic intent. Known for thought leadership, product innovation, and empowering delivery teams at scale. Based in Wellington, open to remote work aligned with NZT.

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Works in
Wellington, Remote
Available for
1-2 days/week
Available from
May 2025
  • vCPO
  • vCTO
  • Board Advisor
Photo of Bradley Scott

Bradley Scott

Fractional CPO & Fractional CTO with executive level and board experience at SaaS companies in NZ and the USA including Xero, Fiserv, Mooven and UneeQ. My skills and experience encompass both technical and product management domains which makes me particularly well suited to lead cross-functionally in companies with significant architectural, delivery or technical complexities.

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Works in
Auckland
Available from
May 2025
  • vCTO
  • vCPO
  • Board Advisor
Photo of Chris Buxton

Chris Buxton

I am a commercially astute and globally experienced digital executive with a proven track record leading transformation across government, intelligence, and private sectors. As a former CIO of New Zealand’s foreign intelligence agency and Chief Digital Officer of its national data agency, I bring a rare blend of strategic vision, cyber expertise, and hands-on leadership. I specialise in helping organisations unlock the value of their data, modernise digital capabilities, and build cyber-resilient operating models. Through Hemlock Consulting and strategic partnerships, I provide vCxO services that turn complexity into clarity, enabling clients to act with speed, confidence, and measurable impact.

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Works in
Wellington, Remote
Available for
16 hours per week
Available from
May 2025
  • vCOO
  • vCTO
  • vCISO
  • Board Advisor
Photo of Christopher Pike

Christopher Pike

Startups often struggle with balancing speed and scalability—investing too little leads to technical debt and instability, while over-investing too early wastes resources and slows momentum. I help early startups build the right engineering and data foundations to scale efficiently without unnecessary complexity. By focusing on practical, high-impact decisions, I ensure teams can move fast today while avoiding costly roadblocks tomorrow.

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Works in
Remote
Available from
May 2025
  • vCTO
  • vCDO (Data)
Photo of Daniel Walters

Daniel Walters

I am a fractional CTO, a Principal Consultant for several well-respected consultancies, and a CTO coach who works with CTOs and CEOs across a diverse range of industries. I advise and mentor startups, and as a fractional, I specialise in working with Scale-ups and helping them address growth pains.

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Works in
Australia, Auckland
Available from
May 2025
  • vCTO
  • vCPO
  • Board Advisor
Photo of David Lunt

David Lunt

I have over 20 years of experience in senior Fintech roles (vCOO, vCPO, vCTO), and am looking to support innovative payments based businesses ready to scale, raise, and build product.

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Works in
Australia, Hybrid in-person & remote, Remote
Available for
an initial discussion.
Available from
May 2025
  • Board Advisor
  • vCPO
  • vCTO
  • vCOO
  • vCISO
Photo of Jamie Baddeley

Jamie Baddeley

With 30 years in technology businesses, and 20 years in executive/commercial roles, I'm an experienced senior executive with exposure to energy, information technology, software development, telecommunications and internet services. I also have 15 years of governance experience.

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Works in
Wellington, Remote
Available for
1-2 Days per week
Available from
May 2025
  • vCTO
  • vCOO
  • vCEO
  • vCRO
  • vCPO
  • vCPTO
  • vCCO
  • Board Advisor
Photo of Jamie McKean

Jamie McKean

Experienced virtual CxO. Supporting clients in NZ and the US for the past 15 years. Ability to support founders and businesses, by structuring and systemising the Marketing, Sales and Delivery aspects of your business. Able to draw on networks for anything not in my wheelhouse.

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Works in
Auckland, Remote, Hamilton
Available from
May 2025
  • vCOO
  • vCTO
  • vCMO
  • vCRO
Photo of Jason Low

Jason Low

I work with ambitious founders and executives to turn bold ideas into scalable, beautifully executed realities - faster. From deep user insight to rapid delivery, I bring a rare mix of design thinking, manufacturing knowledge and innovation strategy to the table. Whether you're building your next big thing or accelerating what you've already started, I’ll help you get there smarter, sooner, and with fewer wrong turns. Let's connect to explore if my skills, experience and network will help accelerate your business.

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Works in
Hybrid in-person & remote, Remote
Available for
2-4 days per week
Available from
May 2025
  • vCOO
  • vCTO
  • vCPO
  • Board Advisor
Photo of Martin White

Martin White

With over 20 years in software development, leadership, strategy and product I can help your organisation succeed in many ways, whether in the early stages of getting a product off the ground and getting investment, or when scaling your team and customer base. I work effectively with anyone from developers to board members.

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Works in
Wellington, Remote
Available from
May 2025
  • vCTO
  • vCPO
Photo of Matthias Risse

Matthias Risse

I believe firmly in the power of simplicity - simple is hard.

EmailLinkedin
Works in
Remote, Nelson
Available for
1-2 days, Casual or Retainer
Available from
May 2025
  • vCTO
  • vCPO
  • vCPTO
Photo of Noah Cantor

Noah Cantor

Technology Leader with 20+ years experience. I see in systems - people and their interactions - and understand that getting great results comes from creating the right environment and letting people give their best. I focus on building amazing, continually improving, places to work, which leads to great results and happy customers.

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Works in
Remote, Hawke's Bay, Auckland, Wellington
Available for
1-3 days/week
Available from
May 2025
  • vCTO
  • vCPTO
Photo of Sam Minnée

Sam Minnée

Experienced technology CTO and CEO, originally as co-founder of Silverstripe. Can establish & lead engineering & design teams, and own architecture, security, and technical operations. Works effectively at the intersection of technology & business.

EmailLinkedin
Works in
Wellington, Remote
Available for
1–2 days / week
Available from
May 2025
  • vCTO
Photo of Santiago Bernhardt

Santiago Bernhardt

I am a fractional Platform Automation and Security Lead helping businesses to securely and reliably build, understand, deploy and maintain complex technology systems.

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Works in
Wellington, Remote
Available for
Negotiable
Available from
May 2025
  • Compliance Officer
  • Risk Officer
  • Privacy Officer
  • vCISO
  • vCTO
  • vCDO
Photo of Shane Gibson

Shane Gibson

I help organisations that want to improve their data capabilities, but do not want to hire a permanent team of experts to deliver it.

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Works in
Remote, Wellington
Available from
May 2025
  • vCPO
  • vCTO
Photo of Stephen Ross

Stephen Ross

Experienced technology leader with a proven track record in architecting scalable systems, building high-performing teams, and driving growth in startups across New York, London, and New Zealand. Skilled in designing resilient architectures and executing strategies to scale businesses and align technology with market needs.

EmailPhoneLinkedin
Works in
Auckland, Remote
Available for
1-3 days / week
Available from
May 2025
  • vCTO
Photo of Steven Dove

Steven Dove

If you'd like a hand steering your team towards high performance let's talk.

EmailLinkedin
Works in
Auckland, Remote
Available for
2-3 days / week
Available from
May 2025
  • vCTO
Photo of Vishal Nath

Vishal Nath

Experienced and driven IT executive with a strong track record of success, with over 15 years of expertise in development and technical leadership. Demonstrates extensive proficiency in SaaS business models and tech startups.

EmailLinkedin
Works in
Auckland, Remote
Available from
May 2025
  • vCOO
  • vCTO
  • vCPO

What can a Virtual CTO do?

Very often, the first version of a product to get built by a single engineer under the direction of a founder. This can be a great way of getting something up & running cost-effectively, but the lack of experienced engineering management can lead to troubles down the line: the prototype product can struggle to support growth as more features & customers are added, and technical debt spirals.

A virtual CTO can support 1 or more engineers & designers to help ensure that the product is being built with the start-up's future in mind. Specifically, they can help in the following ways:

Technical team leadership

Provide coaching, mentoring, and line-management to engineers & designers on the team. As well as giving more role-specific support, this can take a load off the founder!

Architecture

Guide the team on choosing best technical approach to building the product appropriate for the stage the start-up is in. Is it better to iterate on a proof-of-concept or "build it right" this time? To use something off the shelf or build exactly what we need?

Information security

Increasingly, customers have high expectations on information security, not all of which will be practical for an early start-up. The virtual CTO can right-size the response to information security requests, and help find a way to manage customers' risks & concerns.

Supporting product management

In the early days, a founder will typically lead high-level product management, bringing deep knowledge of the problem space and a clear vision for the solution. The virtual CTO can support this by giving more detailed direction to the engineering & design team and framing things in ways that most effectively supports their work. They can keep technical debt, QA, and performance in mind alongside features.

Representing technology with board & investors

Conversations with key stakeholder will sometimes need a technology voice that the engineers building the product aren't able to provide. A virtual CTO can provide the necessary context to those making governance decisions, or give potential investors confidence in the company.