Fractional CTO and product ownership, pay as you go, no payroll

I do. All of it.

Nephelix Nova Ltd. is a one-person firm. The person who runs the discovery call writes the code and joins your standups.

That is deliberate. Product decisions and implementation stay in the same hands, with no handover between them.

As a tool, the way I use CI and code review.

It keeps routine work off the critical path: boilerplate, migrations, first drafts of tests. That leaves more time for the decisions that are expensive to get wrong.

It changes nothing about what you get billed for or who is accountable. I read, test and stand behind every line that ships, and you pay for the booked day, not for keystrokes. Where a tool cannot be used on your code — client policy, licence terms, confidentiality — I work without it.

Delivery pauses. There is nobody else to hand it to.

That is the trade-off of hiring one person instead of an agency, and you should hear it here rather than find out mid-sprint: an absence moves the dates by its own length.

What does not pause is your access to the work. Code, infrastructure and accounts are yours from day one, and I write architecture decisions, runbooks and the backlog as the work happens — so another developer can pick it up without me.

Planned absences we agree in advance. The Statement of Work sets the notice period, what happens to work in progress, and the written handover: architecture, open decisions and next steps.

Product ownership and engineering from one person, at an agreed cadence.

I work embedded in your team instead of filling a permanent position at that level. We agree scope, cadence and terms before the work begins.

You book days, not a salary: a standing monthly engagement, fixed days per week, or one defined project.

A booked day buys senior time and decisions, not a fixed result. When you want a fixed result for a fixed price, we define it as a separate project with its own acceptance criteria.

It depends on scope and cadence, and you get the figure before anything starts.

Three things move the number: how many days a month you book, how long the engagement runs, and whether it covers product ownership, engineering, or both.

The Statement of Work names the rate, the cadence and the invoicing terms before the first line of code. Travel is billed at cost and agreed in advance; nothing else is added later.

Ask in the call and you get a date, not a maybe.

I run a limited number of engagements at a time, so the honest answer depends on what is already booked. A defined piece of work can usually start sooner than a standing monthly engagement.

Whatever we agree, the Statement of Work is signed before the start date — and the start date is in it.

Then I work under them, not around them.

Not every engagement needs someone at the top. I add senior capacity to a team that already has direction. I can take one defined area off their hands, or give a second opinion on a single decision: architecture, build-vs-buy, a stack choice.

We agree who decides what before the work begins. Nobody has to guess who owns which call.

Yes.

With no team in place, I take the build end to end: architecture, implementation, infrastructure and releases. The engagement model stays the same.

Yes.

Inherited code, thin documentation and a developer who has already left are a normal starting point. I begin with a review of the code, the infrastructure and the release process.

Then you get three answers: what is worth keeping, what carries risk, and what a change would cost. A rewrite is a decision we take together, on evidence, not a default.

Yes.

You can book any of the four services on its own or in combination. Engineering capacity without the product ownership is a common arrangement: extra capacity for a few weeks, or a longer-term addition to your team.

A 15-minute call, no obligation.

That is enough for me to understand your product, your team and the current bottleneck. If it fits, the Statement of Work follows before any work starts.

In writing, within the notice period in the Statement of Work.

The notice period and any minimum term are agreed before you sign, not buried in terms you read afterwards. A standing engagement can be scaled down instead of ended, if that fits better.

You get the same handover you would get at a planned end: architecture, open decisions and next steps. Everything else already sits in your repository and your accounts.

Then the engagement has done its job.

Growing out of a fractional arrangement is the expected outcome, not a failure. I help write the role profile, and sit in on the technical interviews if you want me there.

I brief whoever you hire: architecture, open decisions, and the reasoning behind what is already built. The handover sits in the Statement of Work from the start.

I live and work in Malta, and Nephelix Nova Ltd. is incorporated there.

For business clients in the EU with a valid VAT ID that means an intra-EU invoice under the reverse-charge procedure; you can verify the VAT ID in the EU VIES register. For clients in the UK the supply falls outside EU VAT, and you account for it under UK rules.

You get a contract under German or Maltese law, by agreement. An NDA and a data processing agreement come on request. Full registration and tax details are in the imprint.

I work remotely by default, and travel when it's worth it.

The day-to-day runs through your project board, your repository and your standups, in Central European hours. For a kickoff, an architecture workshop or a difficult stakeholder session, I come to you.

We agree travel in advance and I bill it at cost. Malta is two to three hours by direct flight from most of Central Europe.

German and English, in Central European hours (CET/CEST).

That is a full working day on the continent, and all but the last hour of one in the UK. Calls outside that window can be arranged.

I usually answer within one business day, Monday to Saturday.