Ken Armitt
Founder & Principal CTO, Fractional CTOs
Based in Australia · 30+ years experience
Summary
Fractional and interim CTO with 30 years in IT. I lead every engagement personally: strategy, due diligence, security and AI. Month to month from A$1,000. Sydney-based, remote-first.
About
I'm Ken Armitt, founder and principal CTO of Fractional CTOs (fractionalctos.com.au). I've spent 30 years in IT, more than 27 of them running my own practice, and I lead every engagement personally. No juniors, no subcontracted CTOs and no vendor referral fees.
Boards, founders and investors bring me in when a technology decision carries real money or risk: a CTO has resigned, a build or agency is failing, an investor needs technical due diligence, or the business needs a strategy and roadmap the board can act on. I've worked with ASX, NYSE and LSE-listed companies, private and PE-backed businesses, startups and government departments, across finance and payments, telecommunications, utilities, government, manufacturing, healthcare and NDIS, insurance, education, property, the motor industry and SaaS.
What I do. Fractional CTO leadership: architecture and build-vs-buy decisions, product roadmap, engineering and vendor oversight, hiring, and board and investor reporting. Interim CTO cover when a CTO leaves. Technical due diligence for investors and acquirers. Independent code, architecture and security reviews, including security audits before a cyber insurance renewal. Project and vendor rescue, AI strategy and offshore developer oversight. In 30 years, no business under my technology leadership has suffered a data breach or a ransomware incident.
A recent example. The owner of a five-year-old B2B SaaS platform hosted on Azure commissioned an independent audit. I assessed codebase health, technical debt, security posture, engineering process and scalability, and reported to the board with a prioritised remediation roadmap. (2026, client under NDA.)
How engagements work. Plans run month to month with no lock-in, from 2 hours a month (A$1,000) to 40 hours a month (A$22,000) for a full interim CTO function. The most popular plan is 20 hours a month, about 2.7 days. One-off work is quoted at a fixed fee after a free call: from A$2,200 for a strategy day, A$3,500 for a technology or cyber insurance audit, and A$7,500 for technical due diligence. I work remote-first from Sydney, with on-site days on the Embedded plan, and with clients in New Zealand, the US and the UK.
Every engagement starts with a free 30-minute call.
Skills
Software Architecture, Cloud & Infrastructure, M&A / Due Diligence, Platform Modernisation, Cybersecurity, Engineering Leadership, Vendor Management, Governance & Risk, Data & AI
Regions covered
Industry experience
Not-for-profit, Government, Fintech, Professional Services, Manufacturing, Retail, SaaS, Education, Healthcare
At a glance
Ken brings hands-on experience across Software Architecture, Cloud & Infrastructure, M&A / Due Diligence, Platform Modernisation, Cybersecurity, Engineering Leadership and 3 other areas. Available for engagements across New Zealand, United Kingdom, Australia, United States. Industry experience includes Not-for-profit, Government, Fintech, Professional Services, Manufacturing and 4 more.
How fractional CTO engagements with Ken work
Ken works on a fractional basis — typically one to three days a week for an agreed engagement length — so you get senior technical leadership without the cost or commitment of a full-time hire. Engagements commonly include technical due diligence, board reporting, engineering team leadership, technology strategy, architecture reviews, hiring support, and stepping in as interim CTO during a transition.