Fractional CTO for Mobile Apps

A fractional CTO for mobile apps is a senior engineer who owns the technical decisions behind your iOS and Android product for a set number of days a month. I take that role for startups and companies that have an app, or are about to build one, and nobody senior on the mobile side to make the architecture calls, hire the developers, read the agency’s code or sign off a release.

I have 13+ years of mobile work. I am currently Staff Mobile Engineer at Albertsons, where I architected the configuration system that ships one Swift codebase as exactly 16 branded App Store apps. Before that, through NTT Data, I worked on the Citi Mobile app and led the redesign of its Linking, KYC and Registration modules. I am based in Dallas-Fort Worth and work onsite across DFW or remotely anywhere in the US.

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Who It Is For

Startups with a funded app idea and no technical co-founder on mobile
Companies whose app was built by an agency, with nobody internal to judge the work
Product teams with two or three mobile engineers and no senior lead
Corporate teams that own a customer app and need a technical counterpart for vendors and reviews
Founders about to hire their first iOS or Android engineer

What It Covers

Architecture and stack decisions
Hiring, interviewing and reviewing developers or agencies
Code review and the release process
App Store review and security reviews
Roadmap, milestones and estimates
Vendor and agency oversight
Backend and API decisions the app depends on

What the Role Covers in Practice

Architecture and stack decisions

Native Swift and Kotlin, or Flutter or React Native; how the app is structured as the team grows; where configuration and feature flags live; how offline data and sync work. I write each decision down as a short record with the options considered and the reason for the choice, so the answer to “why is it like this” still exists after I have gone. For a new product, the mobile MVP playbook shows how I scope the first release so the stack choice serves it.

Hiring and reviewing developers or agencies

Job descriptions pitched at the right level, a screening process that costs you an hour per candidate rather than a day, and technical interviews that test judgement. I give you a written recommendation on each candidate. When the work is going to an agency, I review the proposal and the estimate before you sign, and help you decide whether a full-time hire, a contractor or an agency suits the work you actually have.

Code review and release process

Regular pull request review with comments that explain the reasoning, so the team starts catching the same issues themselves. CI that builds and tests every pull request, TestFlight and Play internal tracks that do not depend on one person’s laptop, a release checklist, and crash reporting that someone reads after every release.

App Store and security reviews

I prepare the reviewer notes, the privacy details and the permission wording before submission, and handle the rejection when it comes, because it comes to every app eventually. For apps that face a security review or a pen test, I map the controls to OWASP MASVS ahead of time; the fintech and banking app development page covers that work for apps that move money.

Roadmap and estimates

Turning what the business wants into milestones engineering can commit to, with honest ranges in place of a single date, and saying early when a feature will cost more than it is worth.

Backend and API decisions

Most mobile problems that look like app bugs start in the API: tokens that never expire, endpoints that break older builds, sync that loses data on a bad connection. I review the API contract with your backend team or vendor and, where it helps, build it myself; that work is described under backend API development.

How an Engagement Works

The role is agreed as a set number of days per month, usually the equivalent of one or two days a week, and billed at my contract rate of $120–$180/hr. The rhythm matters more than the total: a fixed day for planning and review the team can count on, and a defined window for questions during the rest of the week.

A 30-minute call about the app, the team, and what is going wrong or about to start.
Read access and a first assessment: the repository, CI, crash reporting and any vendor contracts, with a short written assessment in the first week.
Days and priorities agreed: the monthly days, the fixed review day, and the first three months of priorities written down.
A three-month review to decide whether to continue, reduce or stop.

If you want the written assessment without the ongoing role, a mobile architecture audit is that first step on its own, and many fractional engagements start with one. If the decision is to replace an agency, I can take over the codebase while a hire is found, which is covered under iOS app development.

One Day a Week

Pull request review and architecture questions
A weekly planning session
Vendor check-ins and release sign-off
Suits teams whose engineers mostly need direction

Two Days a Week

Everything in one day, plus hands-on work
CI and release pipeline set up or repaired
Pairing with engineers on hard problems
Running a hiring round end to end

What a Fractional Mobile CTO Is Not

Not a full-time executive. I work a set number of days and do not replace a permanent CTO or VP of Engineering. If you need one, I will help you hire them.
Scoped to mobile. I own the iOS and Android apps and the parts of the backend they depend on. Company-wide infrastructure, data and IT stay with whoever owns them today.
Not a replacement for engineers. If nobody is writing features, a few days a month of my time will not ship your product. The role works when there is a team or a vendor to lead.
Not an agency. There is no bench behind me and no account manager in front of me, which is why it works for vendor oversight: my incentives line up with yours.

Where the Judgement Comes From

Fractional work is only worth paying for if the person has made these calls before, at scale. These are the roles where I made them:

Sincerely Health at Albertsons: as Staff Mobile Engineer I architected the configuration system that ships one Swift and SwiftUI codebase as exactly 16 Albertsons banner apps, written up in the Sincerely Health case study.
Citi Mobile, through NTT Data: led the redesign of the Linking, KYC and Registration modules, inside a bank’s security review and release governance.
Backstage, through Cognizant: an internal iOS logistics app used by Apple retail staff to manage item transportation between stores.
Duck Creek Technologies: Associate Manager on insurance platform mobile delivery, where I ran estimates and releases for people who are not engineers.
Resumify: a Flutter app for iOS and Android that I designed, built and shipped solo, including the architecture and both store deployments.

The full list of 18 shipped apps is on the work page.

Dallas-Fort Worth and Remote

I live in the Dallas-Fort Worth metro, so onsite planning days, design reviews and vendor meetings in Dallas, Plano, Frisco or Fort Worth are practical. Most of the work itself (review, CI and async decisions) runs remotely, and I work that way with teams across all US time zones. The Plano page describes how the role suits the corporate teams there, and the Dallas page covers hiring an independent iOS engineer more generally.

Frequently Asked Questions

What does a fractional CTO for a mobile app do?

I own the technical side of your mobile product for a set number of days each month: architecture and stack decisions, code review, the release process, App Store and security reviews, hiring or assessing developers and agencies, and the backend and API decisions the app depends on. You get senior judgement on the calls that are expensive to reverse, without hiring a full-time head of mobile.

How much time does a fractional engagement take?

Most teams need one or two days a week, agreed as a set number of days per month. One day covers review, planning and being available for decisions; two days adds hands-on work such as repairing the build pipeline or running a hiring round. Engagements should get lighter once the architecture is settled and the team reviews its own code well.

How is a fractional CTO engagement billed?

At my contract rate of $120–$180/hr, against the days agreed for the month. We review the arrangement at three months to decide whether to continue, reduce or stop.

Can you review an agency that is building our app?

Yes, and it is one of the most common reasons teams bring me in. I read the agency’s pull requests, estimates and architecture proposals, sit in on the technical calls, and give you a plain-language view of whether the work and the invoices are reasonable. The aim is a fair working relationship with the vendor, built on someone on your side being able to read the code.

Do you work onsite in Dallas or only remotely?

Both. I am based in the Dallas-Fort Worth area, so onsite days in Dallas, Plano, Frisco or Fort Worth are practical, and I work remotely with teams across all US time zones. A common shape is one onsite day a month for planning and review, with the rest handled remotely.