Strategic Direction & Roadmapping
Define technology strategy aligned with business objectives. Create realistic roadmaps, prioritise initiatives, and ensure technical decisions support long-term growth rather than just short-term delivery.
Strategic Technology Leadership
Experienced technology leadership to bridge the gap between business goals and technical delivery
Close the technology leadership gap in your UK business without the cost of a full-time executive hire. Whether you need a CTO, Head of Technology, Technical Director, or Engineering Manager - get experienced strategic guidance that aligns technology with business objectives and drives delivery.
Signs you need strategic technology leadership
- Your technology initiatives lack clear direction or strategic alignment with business goals
- You're experiencing scope creep, technical debt, or declining platform performance
- Your development team needs upskilling, better practices, or experienced mentorship
- Project management gaps are creating friction between business and technology
- You're a non-technical founder building a technically complex product
- Your business is growing and you need help hiring, onboarding, and developing technical talent
- You need senior technical oversight but can't justify a full-time executive hire
- Technology decisions are being made reactively rather than strategically
- You've acquired a company and need help with technical integration
- Your current technical leadership is stretched too thin or lacks specific expertise
SoftWeb Development
How we can help
Many growing businesses reach a point where technology becomes a strategic concern, not just an operational one. You might be experiencing scope creep, accumulating technical debt, platform performance issues, or simply outgrowing your current team's capability. Perhaps you're a non-technical founder trying to navigate a technically complex project, or a scaling business that needs experienced guidance to hire, onboard, and develop your technical team.
These challenges don't always require a full-time CTO or VP of Engineering. What they require is experienced technology leadership - whether interim, part-time, or fractional - someone who can bridge the gap between business objectives and technical execution, bring structure to chaos, and provide the strategic oversight that transforms technology from a cost centre into a competitive advantage.
Drawing on 15+ years of hands-on technology leadership across PropTech, legal services, logistics, and SaaS, Strategic Technology Leadership provides senior-level technical guidance across the full spectrum of leadership roles - whether you need the strategic vision of a Chief Technology Officer, the engineering excellence of a VP of Engineering, the hands-on direction of a Head of Technology, or the architectural depth of a Technical Director.
Even experienced technical leaders benefit from this service - whether you need bandwidth for strategic thinking, specialist expertise in AI adoption or architecture decisions, or simply a trusted peer to pressure-test major decisions.
Strategic Technology Leadership spans the full range of senior technical guidance, adapting to your specific situation and needs. For clients with specific requirements, many of these capabilities are also available as focused services:
Technical Team Development
Build capability within your existing team through mentorship, upskilling, and establishing better engineering practices. Help hire the right people and onboard them effectively.
Architecture & Technical Oversight
Provide senior architectural guidance for complex systems, review critical technical decisions, and ensure your platform is built for scalability, maintainability, and performance.
Delivery & Project Governance
Bring structure and accountability to technical delivery. Bridge the gap between business stakeholders and development teams, ensuring projects ship reliably and stay aligned with objectives.
Technology-Business Translation
Act as the interface between technical and non-technical stakeholders. Translate complex technical concepts into business terms and ensure technology investments are understood and valued.
Scalable Support
Start with what you need now and scale up or down as your situation evolves. Whether you need intensive support for a critical period or ongoing light-touch oversight, the engagement adapts to your reality.
Our commitment
Why choose us
Strategic Technology Leadership isn't a single role - it's access to the full spectrum of senior technical leadership tailored to what your business actually needs. This might mean fractional CTO engagement for strategic direction, hands-on architecture advisory, project rescue for initiatives that have gone off track, or simply experienced oversight while your team executes.
The engagement flexes to match your situation: retained advisory, embedded team augmentation, or project-based delivery. You get the leadership your technology needs without the overhead of executive hiring.
Book a discovery call to discuss your situation.
Frequently asked questions
What's the difference between Strategic Technology Leadership and hiring a Fractional CTO?
Fractional CTO is one specific shape of Strategic Technology Leadership - it's the right choice when you specifically need C-level strategic direction and executive presence. But many businesses need technology leadership that doesn't fit neatly into a CTO role. You might need VP of Engineering-level focus on delivery excellence, Head of Technology hands-on guidance, or Technical Director architectural depth. Strategic Technology Leadership provides access to the full spectrum, and the engagement shapes itself to what you actually need.
What size of business is this suitable for?
This service works across a range of business sizes and stages. Startups with non-technical founders benefit from experienced guidance navigating technical complexity. Growing SMEs often need senior oversight as they scale beyond what their current team can manage. Even larger organisations engage when they need specific expertise or independent perspective that their existing leadership lacks. The common thread is a technology leadership gap that doesn't justify or can't wait for a full-time executive hire.
How does the engagement typically work?
Engagements are tailored to your situation. Some clients need ongoing retained support - a set number of days per month providing continuous strategic oversight. Others need intensive project-based engagement to address a specific challenge. Some start with an assessment phase to diagnose the real issues before defining the ongoing relationship. We'll discuss your situation and design an engagement model that makes sense for your needs and budget.
Can this help if we already have technical leadership but they're struggling?
Absolutely. Sometimes existing technical leaders are stretched too thin, lack specific expertise, or simply need experienced support to navigate a challenging period. Strategic Technology Leadership can complement your existing team - providing mentorship, additional capacity for strategic thinking, or specialist guidance in areas like architecture, AI adoption, or scaling practices.
What industries do you work with?
Technology leadership challenges are remarkably consistent across industries. I've worked with PropTech platforms, logistics companies, legal services, healthcare organisations, NGOs, and various SaaS businesses. The technical patterns - scaling, modernisation, team development, delivery improvement - translate across sectors. What matters is understanding your specific business context and adapting the technical approach accordingly.
How is this different from a traditional technology consultancy?
Traditional consultancies often deliver reports and recommendations, then leave you to implement them. Strategic Technology Leadership is hands-on and accountable. I work alongside your team, make decisions with you, and stay engaged through execution. It's leadership, not just advice - with the pragmatic focus on outcomes that comes from someone who's built and shipped real systems, not just advised on them.
What does Strategic Technology Leadership cost?
Day-rate engagements are typically £800-1,000/day, with total investment depending on scope and intensity. Retainer arrangements offer predictable monthly costs for ongoing support. A discovery call will help us understand your needs and provide accurate guidance on investment required.
How do I get started?
Book a discovery call to discuss your situation. There's no obligation - it's a conversation to understand your challenges, explore whether we're a good fit, and discuss potential approaches. If it makes sense to proceed, we'll scope an engagement that matches your needs and budget.
Strategic Technology Leadership in action
See how we've applied this service to help clients achieve their goals
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Transforming 15 WinForms Developers into Full-Stack Engineers
A 15-person WinForms team needed to transition to web development. Through seminars, pair programming, and custom patterns, we transformed them into confident full-stack engineers.
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Building a Component Architecture Before Components Existed
A professional services software provider needed modern web UI patterns without abandoning their established codebase. We designed a jQuery framework with component-like architecture that later enabled seamless React adoption.
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Scaling a Benefits Platform to Support Multiple Enterprise Clients
JLT Group's BenPal platform needed to serve multiple enterprise clients, each requiring bespoke branding and features. We designed a white-label architecture with dynamic CSS compilation and granular feature toggles.
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Working with Michael was an absolute pleasure. He was the border between the developers and the business and always managed to handle both sides' expectations and took the stress of the business on to himself to give the developers enough room to do amazing work. A great developer as well. Always a laugh, great personality, light hearted and I would definitely work with him again at a moment's notice.
Michael doesn't just tackle challenges; he approaches them with a no-nonsense attitude, cutting through complexities with a level of precision that's truly impressive. His ability to break down intricate problems and come up with elegant solutions is not only commendable but also a testament to his exceptional problem-solving skills.
Ready to get started with Strategic Technology Leadership?
Let's discuss how we can help your business.