Interim CTO Services
When the CTO seat empties, engineering keeps making decisions — just slower, and without anyone accountable for them. I step in full-time, hold the function together, and hand it to the permanent hire with the reasoning written down.
An interim CTO holds the technical leadership seat full-time for a defined period — usually to cover a departure, keep the function running during a permanent search, or stabilize engineering around a transaction. That makes it different from a fractional CTO, who works part-time on an ongoing basis with no end date. Oleg Sotnikov has led engineering organizations for over 25 years and takes a limited number of interim engagements alongside his fractional work; UK clients typically scope these as a day rate, US clients as a monthly fee.
When Companies Bring In an Interim CTO
Six situations that put a full-time technical leader in the seat on short notice.
Sudden CTO departure
Your CTO resigned, was let go, or is out on leave. Within weeks releases slip, the team starts guessing at priorities, and unmade decisions pile up. Someone has to own delivery, incidents, and the people while the board works out what comes next.
Before or after an acquisition
A deal is in motion or has just closed. Diligence findings need owners, systems have to merge or separate, and the acquirer wants an engineering story that survives scrutiny. I run technical due diligence as its own service, so I know what the other side of the table reads first.
Scaling crisis, delivery stalled
Traffic, headcount, or scope outgrew the architecture and the process. Dates slip without a clear cause, the same incidents come back, and every fix takes longer than the one before it. That needs decisions this week, not a roadmap workshop next quarter.
Bridge while you hire a permanent CTO
A good CTO search takes months. I keep the function running through it and, if you want, run the search itself: role definition, sourcing brief, and technical vetting of the shortlist so candidates are judged on substance rather than on how well they present.
Investor-mandated cleanup
Your board or a new lead investor wants security, reliability, and delivery brought to a standard before the next round or the next audit. For a stretch that is a full-time job, and it has to produce evidence the investors accept rather than assurances.
Founder stepping back from the seat
The technical founder wants to move to product, sales, or the board, and the company needs an experienced hand in the seat before that change becomes permanent. I take the operational load first; the founder keeps the decision about who holds it next.
How an Interim Engagement Runs
First two weeks: assess and stabilize
I meet the team one by one, read the backlog, the incident history, and the last few months of delivery, and find what is actually blocking shipping. Anything on fire gets triaged immediately; everything else goes into a short written assessment for you and the board.
Run the function
I hold the seat: roadmap and delivery, hiring and performance conversations, architecture and vendor decisions, incident response, and the reporting line to the board or investors. I make the calls and write down the reasoning behind them, so what the company keeps afterwards is a record rather than folklore.
Hand over
The engagement ends on a date, not by fading out. The permanent CTO — often someone I helped select — receives documented architecture, open questions with their context, team assessments, hiring pipeline, and the roadmap, with a few weeks of overlap where the calendar allows.
Why Me
- 25+ years in IT, with engineering organizations under me ranging from 2 people to 25+
- AppMaster — a platform I built and still run: 99.99% uptime, users in 190+ countries
- I have taken over projects that were already in trouble: stalled delivery, an absent lead, a rewrite that went sideways
- Based in the SF Bay Area, working US Pacific hours and async-first, in English and Russian
Where to Go Next
Adjacent work that interim engagements usually touch.
Frequently Asked Questions
What does an interim CTO do?
An interim CTO holds the technical leadership seat full-time for a defined period: roadmap and delivery, hiring and performance, architecture and vendor decisions, incidents, security, and the reporting line to the board. What separates it from consulting is accountability — the decisions are mine to make and defend, not to recommend and leave. What separates it from a permanent CTO is that the end and the handover are agreed at the start.
Interim CTO vs fractional CTO: what is the difference?
An interim CTO is full-time and temporary — one person in the seat, effectively five days a week, with a start date and an end date, usually because the seat is vacant. A fractional CTO is part-time and ongoing — a few days a week, no end date built in, for a company that needs senior technical ownership but not a full-time salary. Take interim when the seat is empty and cannot wait for a hire; take fractional when the company runs but has no senior technical voice.
What is a typical interim CTO day rate?
There is no single number, and anyone quoting one before seeing the situation is guessing. UK engagements are conventionally quoted as a day rate and US engagements as a monthly fee; the figure moves with team size, how much is on fire, and how many days a week the seat actually needs. My interim scopes are priced per engagement after the intro call, and the published rates for fractional and advisory work are on the pricing page.
How long does an interim CTO engagement last?
Long enough to stabilize the function and hand it over cleanly, which in practice means months rather than weeks. An engagement covering a search runs as long as the search plus a handover overlap; a stabilization engagement ends once the problems it was hired for stop recurring. The shape, the review points, and the exit are agreed before I start rather than left open.
How does handover to a permanent CTO work?
I document while I am in the seat, so handover transfers a working record instead of consuming a week of meetings: architecture and its open questions, decisions with the reasoning behind them, team assessments, hiring pipeline, vendor contracts, and the roadmap with its risks. If I ran the search, I already know the incoming CTO's strengths and where they will want support. Where timing allows we overlap for a few weeks, so context arrives in person rather than only in writing.
Talk Through the Engagement
Thirty minutes: what happened, what the seat has to cover, and how long you need it covered. If interim is the wrong shape for your situation, I will tell you on the call.
I take a limited number of interim engagements alongside my fractional work.
Related reading
Engineering leadership, delivery under pressure, and handing a function over.
