Fractional CTO / Senior Full-Stack Technical Lead

# Fractional CTO / Senior Full-Stack Technical Lead — Project-Based

We are a newly established software development agency looking for a **Senior Full-Stack Developer / Fractional CTO / Technical Lead** to collaborate with us on client projects.

**Important:** This is NOT a full-time salaried position and there is currently no guaranteed weekly workload. We are an early-stage agency, so work will be assigned project by project, with compensation agreed before each project begins.

We are looking for someone who combines **strong hands-on development skills with technical leadership, architecture, client communication, and mentoring ability**.

## What You Will Do

Your responsibilities may include:

* Lead full-stack development on client projects
* Design software/system architecture from scratch
* Turn client business problems into practical software solutions
* Make and explain technical architecture decisions
* Evaluate technical feasibility of client requirements
* Build and review backend/frontend functionality
* Design APIs, database structures, integrations, authentication, etc.
* Identify security, scalability, performance, and maintainability issues
* Join client discovery and technical meetings when required
* Answer technical questions from clients
* Help estimate technical complexity and implementation approach
* Review code written by other developers
* Collaborate with junior/intermediate developers
* Review AI-assisted/vibe-coded implementations
* Mentor developers and explain how their implementations can be improved

Our team will handle areas such as:

* Lead generation
* Marketing
* Client outreach
* UI/UX design
* Business operations
* Initial project organization

We primarily need you for **technical leadership + architecture + hands-on full-stack development**.

## Technologies

Our projects may involve:

**Backend:**
Node.js, Express.js, TypeScript, Ts.ED, Django, Flask, Laravel, Ruby on Rails, Java/Spring Boot, C#/.NET

**Frontend:**
React, Next.js, JavaScript, TypeScript, jQuery, HTML/CSS

**Database/ORM:**
PostgreSQL, MySQL, MongoDB, Prisma

You **DO NOT need to know every technology listed above**.

Strong engineering fundamentals, architecture knowledge, problem-solving ability, and the ability to learn or understand unfamiliar technologies are more important.

## Leadership & Collaboration

This is particularly important to us.

You may work with junior developers, intermediate developers, designers, business-development members, and developers using AI-assisted/vibe-coding tools.

We want someone who can:

**Lead. Build. Teach. Explain. Review. Collaborate.**

We are NOT looking for someone who believes being senior means controlling everything or replacing another developer's work.

If a junior developer creates something that works but has poor architecture, we expect you to explain the problem, show them how it can be improved, and help the team produce a better implementation.

Technical ability without good collaboration is **not enough for this position**.

We value humility, reliability, communication, and leadership.

## Client Communication

You may participate in client meetings as our technical representative.

However, client relationships and commercial communication remain managed through the agency.

You must not independently solicit, negotiate with, accept work from, or attempt to bypass the agency to work directly with an agency client.

Technical discussions with clients should take place through the agreed project/agency communication process.

## Selection Process

We will NOT select someone simply because they have the biggest portfolio or longest CV.

Shortlisted candidates may be invited to complete a **small POC/practical technical exercise**.

We may evaluate:

* Problem-solving
* Architecture
* Code quality
* Technical reasoning
* Code-review ability
* Client communication
* Leadership
* Mentoring ability
* Collaboration
* AI-generated code review
* Responsiveness and reliability

The exact POC scope and compensation will be agreed before it begins.

## Compensation

This is currently **project-based work**.

There is no guaranteed full-time workload or monthly salary.

Compensation will be agreed separately for each client project based on the scope, responsibilities, expected involvement, and deliverables.

As our agency develops a more consistent client base, there may be opportunities for more regular collaboration.

## Before Bidding, Please Answer

Please don't send only a generic proposal.

Answer these questions:

1. How many years of professional software-development experience do you have?
2. Which backend technologies are you strongest in?
3. Which frontend technologies are you strongest in?
4. Have you worked as a Technical Lead, Lead Developer, Architect, or CTO?
5. Have you participated in client discovery/technical meetings?
6. Have you designed software architecture from scratch?
7. Have you mentored junior developers or reviewed their code?
8. Are you comfortable reviewing AI-assisted/vibe-coded implementations?
9. Are you comfortable with project-based work with no guaranteed weekly hours?
10. What country/time zone are you based in?
11. Please provide your GitHub, LinkedIn, or portfolio if available.

Finally, answer this scenario:

**A junior developer delivers a feature that works correctly, but you believe the architecture and code quality are poor. What would you do?**

We are looking for someone who can **lead, architect, build, solve client problems, teach, and collaborate — without ego.**