Fractional CTO · Durham
Fractional CTO in Durham
Senior technical leadership for a Durham business a day or two a week. It suits companies with developers but nobody deciding architecture, or founders making commitments to investors and customers about a product they are not themselves able to assess technically.
Why this comes up
The problem
The team is delivering features and nobody senior is deciding direction. Architecture decisions get made by whoever is closest to the code, and the consequences arrive two years later as a system nobody can change safely.
What you get
What we deliver
- Technical direction set and defended, including saying no to reasonable-sounding requests
- Architecture decisions made deliberately rather than accumulated by default
- Hiring supported — writing the role, sitting the technical interview, assessing candidates
- A translation layer between the board and the engineering team, in both directions
- Delivery process and estimates challenged, so commitments are made on evidence
- Succession planned, since the point is building capability rather than dependency
Want this scoped for your business in Durham?
Thirty minutes, no charge, no sales script. You leave with a written summary of what fractional cto would actually involve — whether or not you use us.
Working in Durham
North East
Durham's economy is dominated by its university and cathedral, so the commercial base is small and much of the local demand comes from spinouts and suppliers attached to the institutions rather than from independent industry.
Research spinout software and visitor systems, usually on institutional procurement timelines rather than commercial ones.
Sectors we work with in Durham
- Higher Education
- Tourism & Heritage
- Public Sector
- Retail
- Research
Who we work with
Industries we serve
- Startups and scale-ups
- SaaS platforms
- Ecommerce
- Professional services
- Manufacturing
Why us
Why Durham businesses choose Asionis
- Projects typically launched within 4–8 weeks
- No long-term contracts required
- All team members UK-based
- Dedicated account manager and development team
- Transparent reporting with monthly performance metrics
- Scalable from startup to enterprise
How we work
- Step 1
Free consultation
A 30-minute call to understand the problem. You keep the written summary either way.
- Step 2
Proposal
Scope, timeline and a fixed price, in writing, before anything starts.
- Step 3
Build
Short cycles with regular check-ins, so you see progress rather than hear about it.
- Step 4
Launch and support
We handle the go-live and stay available afterwards.
Other services in Durham
Looking for the full picture? See our Fractional CTO services, everything we do in Durham or browse everything we do.
Fractional CTO in Durham — common questions
- How is this different from a virtual CIO?
- A CTO is product and engineering — what you build and how. A CIO is internal systems and operations — what you run. A software company usually needs the former; a business using technology to operate usually needs the latter. Some need both, and rarely from one person.
- How much time is enough?
- One to two days a week suits most. Below a day, you get advice without context; above two, the honest question is whether a permanent hire would serve you better and cost less.
- Will our developers accept an outsider?
- If they arrive to listen first, generally yes. Engineers usually welcome someone who can defend technical decisions to the board. Resistance comes when the person arrives with conclusions already formed.
- What happens when we outgrow the arrangement?
- You hire permanently and we help find and onboard them. That is the intended ending rather than a failure — an arrangement structured to be indefinite is serving the supplier rather than the business.
- Do you work with businesses across County Durham?
- Yes. We are based in Leicester, United Kingdom and work with clients throughout North East, including Durham and the surrounding County Durham area. Most collaboration happens remotely, and we travel for kick-offs and key milestones.
- What kind of Durham businesses do you usually work with?
- Research spinout software and visitor systems, usually on institutional procurement timelines rather than commercial ones. Beyond that we work across Higher Education, Tourism & Heritage, Public Sector, Retail and Research.
- Do you cover the areas around Durham?
- Yes — we work throughout North East, including Newcastle, Sunderland, York. Durham is an urban area of roughly 70,000+, and we take on work across the wider County Durham region rather than the city boundary alone.
Talk to us about Fractional CTO in Durham
A 30-minute call with someone who would actually work on it. No sales script, no obligation.
- Projects typically launched within 4–8 weeks
- No long-term contracts required
- All team members UK-based
- Dedicated account manager and development team
- Transparent reporting with monthly performance metrics
- Scalable from startup to enterprise