Services
Practical, security-first engineering and leadership, sized to how hands-on, how ongoing and how urgent the work actually is.
Contract Engineering
Senior hands-on capability for security, platform or delivery work, without a permanent hire. I join your team, own the work end to end, and leave it documented.
Security engineering: SIEM and detection tuning, identity hardening, vulnerability remediation, and audit and compliance evidence.
DevSecOps: secure CI/CD pipelines, secrets management, dependency and container scanning, and policy as code.
Platform & infrastructure: infrastructure as code, cloud and hybrid builds, migrations, and production container platforms.
Handover: documentation and runbooks so your team can run it confidently after I leave.
Fractional CTO / CSO
Continuous leadership for teams that need a steady hand on architecture, security, and delivery — typically half a day to two days a week, for as long as it's useful. Engaged as CTO, as CSO, or simply as an ongoing technical advisor, depending on what your org chart is missing.
Architecture direction & guardrails — the decisions that keep the team from rebuilding later.
Roadmap ownership & prioritisation — an honest backlog, focused on what actually moves the needle.
Security posture & operational maturity — steady improvement, not a one-off audit.
Delivery support — DevOps, observability, and resilience work, hands-on when it's needed.
Mentoring & hiring guidance — building judgement into the team, not just into me.
Architecture & Security Review
A fast, high-signal look at where things actually stand, with a concrete written plan for where they should go next.
Current-state assessment — what you're actually running, and where the real risk sits.
Target architecture — a recommended direction, not just a list of problems.
90-day roadmap — prioritised, sequenced actions your team can start on immediately.
Stabilisation & Advisory
For when production is fragile or the team's under real pressure — hands-on help to steady things, plus a plan so it doesn't happen again.
Production stabilisation & incident support — steady hands while things are actively on fire.
Risk reduction & hardening — closing the gaps that caused the instability in the first place.
Prevention plan — so this doesn't become a quarterly event.
Common questions
The short version of what people usually want to know before reaching out.
Do you take hands-on contract roles?+
Yes, and it's most of what I do. I take day-rate contracts for security engineering, DevSecOps and platform work, usually for 3–12 months, either directly or through an agency.
Contract engineer, fractional CTO/CSO, or consultant: what's the difference?+
As a contract engineer I'm doing the hands-on work inside your team. The day-to-day looks similar either way: setting direction, making the calls that matter, and keeping delivery on track. The title just reflects what's missing from your org chart — CTO for technical leadership, CSO for security leadership, consultant if you just want a second opinion.
What's your background?+
I've spent 15+ years in infrastructure, systems and cybersecurity engineering, most recently as an Enterprise Cybersecurity Engineer at New Zealand Trade and Enterprise, and as a DevSecOps Security Engineer and Senior Infrastructure Engineer at 9 Spokes. I'm CompTIA-certified across Linux and networking, with hands-on depth in Active Directory, SIEM, and cloud/on-prem infrastructure.
What do you charge?+
Contract work is on a day rate. Reviews are fixed-price, and fractional retainers depend on cadence. Send a short note on what you need and you'll get a straight answer on fit and cost before anything's agreed.
How is this different from hiring a full-time CTO or CSO?+
You get senior judgement on architecture, security, and delivery without the cost, timeline, or risk of a full executive hire — useful when the decisions need to be made well, but not forty hours a week of them.
Where are you based, and who do you work with?+
I'm based in Auckland, New Zealand. Over 15+ years I've worked across public sector, fintech-adjacent SaaS and high-growth tech organisations, including New Zealand Trade and Enterprise and 9 Spokes.
What happens after I send an enquiry?+
A proper read of what you've sent, then a direct reply on whether it's a fit and what the next step looks like — no discovery-call runaround.
Not sure which one fits?
Tell me what's going on, whether that's a contract role, a review or ongoing leadership, and I'll suggest the right starting point.