Embedded leadership, written down.
What this is.
Part-time technical leadership for founders without a CTO, or for existing teams that need a senior layer between engineering and the founder.
Architecture, hiring, vendor evaluation, technical roadmap. One day a week. Two days a week. On-call to a board for a quarter. The cadence is negotiable. The role is not.
This is the role companies hire when they need senior judgment now but don't yet have the revenue, the headcount, or the cap-table room to bring on a full-time CTO. It's also the role companies hire when they have a senior engineer who is excellent in code but not yet ready to be the technical voice in a board meeting.
How it runs.
Weekly cadence, async-first. Direct access to Rami — not a junior, not a delegate. Most meetings are 30 minutes; most decisions happen in writing.
Not a coach. Not an advisor. Embedded leadership with decision authority where the founder grants it, and clear handoff back when the engagement ends.
What you get.
Architectural clarity. A vendor list with real reasoning attached. Better hires — the kind of senior engineer who chooses you over a series-B competitor. A technical roadmap that survives Q3 and Q4 without being rewritten.
And documentation. The kind that lets the next CTO walk in and pick up the thread.
Scope.
In scope: architectural decisions, hiring loops (interview design, candidate evaluation, offer conversations), vendor and tooling evaluation, technical roadmap, engineering-org structure, board-level technical communication, post-mortem facilitation, technical due-diligence on partnerships and acquisitions.
Out of scope: day-to-day code reviews of every PR, hands-on shipping as an individual contributor, replacement of an existing CTO's authority while they're still in seat, fractional engagements under one full quarter.
Engagement.
One-quarter minimum. Six-month standard. Cadence options:
- One day a week
- weekly call + async work, suited to seed-stage teams making one or two big technical decisions per month.
- Two days a week
- weekly call + drop-in availability, suited to Series-A teams in active hiring or architecture phases.
- On-call to a board
- quarterly retainer for board-facing technical communication, due diligence, and quarterly review.
Flat monthly retainer, scoped per cadence and engagement length. Clear handoff at engagement end, documented for the incoming CTO.