Experienced executive tech leadership for hire

Calm leadership for high-stakes software

We help organizations start, scale, and transform high-stakes digital systems—especially in regulated and operationally critical environments

Let's talk See how we help

Fractional CTO • Architecture • DevSecOps • Transformation

Where we help

Start-ups: stack decisions, security posture, delivery cadence
Scale-ups: reliability, observability, cost control, velocity
Regulated teams: HIPAA/SOC 2/FedRAMP-aligned engineering

Typical outcomes

Clear architecture, faster delivery, fewer surprises

Decades of experience

60+ years

Across infrastructure, product, and compliance

High-compliance domains

HIPAA / SOC 2 / FedRAMP

Security posture with pragmatism

Engagement style

Fractional or embedded

Leadership + execution

How we engage

Support for every stage of the journey

Whether you're finding product-market fit, scaling a working product, or modernizing a legacy platform, we bring calm leadership and hands-on delivery

Start-Up

Make the right early calls

Roles

• Fractional CTO
• VP Technology
• Dev Team Lead

Tech

• Choose stack and architecture patterns
• Set security + compliance posture early
• Build an execution plan your team can sustain

Team

• Recruit and select key hires
• Align leadership roles to outcomes
• Build a delivery culture that scales

Process

• Lightweight processes that preserve context
• Guardrails that make AI assistance reliable
• Clear docs, simple decision logs

Strategy

• Control burn and protect optionality
• Ship value quickly without accruing chaos

Scale

Increase reliability and velocity

Roles

• Software Architect
• Solutions Architect
• Senior Dev
• DevSecOps Lead
• SRE
• ISSO / Compliance Lead

Tech

• Implement critical features and fixes
• Scale infrastructure and observability
• Continuously monitor security posture
• Automate the repeatable parts

Team

• Work in tandem with full-time teams
• Consult on strategic hiring
• Raise the bar via example + reviews

Process

• Refine delivery processes in place
• Operationalize incident response
• Balance AI speed with human oversight

Strategy

• Optimize for reliability, repeatability, growth
• Make hard tradeoffs explicit

Transformation

Modernize systems and operations

Roles

• Digital Transformation Lead
• Business Process Consultant
• Systems Architect

Tech

• Modernize stack and infrastructure
• Refactor where possible, re-architect when necessary
• Reduce operational risk and vendor lock-in

Team

• Coordinate leadership objectives and KPIs
• Train teams to support new stacks
• Lead by example during the transition

Process

• Streamline business + development workflows
• Improve clarity and compliance evidence
• Evolve AI posture with guardrails

Strategy

• Deliver measurable improvements
• Establish patterns that last

Proof

Selected clients

We partner with a carefully curated set of organizations. Many engagements last for years—sometimes more than a decade

The Freddie Awards

Since 2011

• Operate and evolve a high-traffic voting platform
• Touchpoint with the global travel industry
• Ongoing scale and cost-control challenges

scale

Aidin Health, Inc.

Since 2018

• Strategic partnership across product and engineering
• Development outsourcing during startup phase
• Supported compliance initiatives including FedRAMP and SOC 2
• Cross-functional work alongside leadership and dev teams through growth

startupscale

Pan Am Flight Academy

Since 2018

• Built bespoke capabilities for existing operational systems
• Migrated key systems in-house and on-prem after a SaaS failure
• Developed integrations between operational and accounting systems
• Led transformation to self-service apps and kiosks

transformation

Trax (AAR Corporation)

Since 2024

• Facilitated electronic log book transformation for airline customers
• Augmented development staff for delivery and reliability
• Supported complex DevOps initiatives
• Worked alongside other consultants to establish new architectures

transformation

See more work →

Who you get

A select senior team

We stay intentionally lean: you get principal-level focus, fast decisions, and direct communication

Alison Heittman

CEO

Alison specializes in the nexus between technology and users. She helps leadership and teams understand the real work being done, translate it into compliant and usable systems, and measure adoption and success. With over two decades of experience leading and consulting businesses, she can step into virtually any leadership challenge where clarity and outcomes matter.

Fractional roles

Front-end Team Lead · UX Lead · Business Process Re-engineering Lead · Information System Security Officer …

Rob Heittman

CTO

Rob is a systems architect with encyclopedic infrastructure and stack experience, operating and consulting across dozens of organizations over three decades. He's focused on building modern stacks with the right seams and guardrails for agentic AI—without sacrificing reliability or compliance. He has led delivery in high-compliance environments including HIPAA, SOC 2, and FedRAMP.

Fractional roles

CTO · VP Technology · Senior Systems Architect · Senior Solutions Architect …

Sam Graham

Principal Software Engineer

Sam's focus is the efficient production of complete, correct, and compliant software. He establishes standards across the SDLC—from AI guardrails and issue templates to code review, QA, and remediation—then drives outcomes as a prolific individual contributor.

Fractional roles

Principal Software Engineer · Field Software Engineer · Senior Software Developer · Process Lead …

Meet the team →

Capabilities

These are a few of our favorite things

We're pragmatic about tools. We pick what's appropriate for the organization, risk posture, and long-term maintainability

Cloud

• AWS (ECS, RDS/Aurora, ElastiCache, VPC/EC2, IAM, Lambda, Bedrock)
• Google Cloud (App Engine, Compute Engine)

Languages

• TypeScript
• Java
• C# / .NET
• Go
• Ruby

Frameworks & Libraries

• React
• Tailwind CSS
• TanStack Query
• Next.js
• Quarkus
• Recoil
• Redux
• Ruby on Rails

AI Tooling

• VS Code + Copilot
Guardrails and instruction tuning
• Devin.ai
Monolith-scale context management
• AWS Bedrock
Cost and compliance controls for LLM adoption

Let’s talk

If you're dealing with a hard technical decision, compliance pressure, or a system that must not fail, we can help!

Let's talk