Interim CTO: when to bring one in, assignments and handover

An interim CTO is an experienced technical director who takes over the technical leadership of a company for a limited period: long enough to replace a departed CTO, lead a transformation or turn a situation around. This guide explains when to bring one in, what they do during the assignment, how they differ from a fractional CTO and how to make the handover work.

It is aimed at executives and founders whose technical leadership is vacant, weakened or about to change. The interim is one of the forms that outsourced technical leadership can take: it is chosen according to urgency, duration and the degree of presence the company needs.

Interim CTO and interim management: definition

The interim CTO, or interim technical director, is a technical executive from outside the company who holds the position for a limited period. The term “transition CTO” is also used. They do not come to hand in a report: they make the decisions of the post, lead the team and report to general management.

It is interim management applied to technical leadership. The federation France Transition defines interim management as “the use by an organisation (private, public or voluntary) of external operational management skills”, and specifies that an assignment “always has a precise objective and, by definition, a start and an end”. It distinguishes it from consulting, recruitment and headhunting.

A word of caution on the acronym: in French, “CTO” sometimes stands for Chief Transformation Officer, in charge of leading a company’s transformation. Here it means Chief Technology Officer, the technical director.

In which situations to call on an interim CTO

Five situations come up again and again. They have one thing in common: technical leadership cannot remain without a holder, and the right person for the long term is not there yet.

• The technical director is leaving. Resignation, negotiated departure, long absence: architecture decisions, trade-offs and team management cannot wait for a recruitment to finish.
• The position has never existed. The team has grown without a technical director, and nobody any longer makes the calls or represents the technical side to management.
• A major transformation is starting. Overhaul, migration, change of organisation or providers: the project needs a pilot at full capacity, for a given time.
• The situation has deteriorated. Delays piling up, repeated incidents, departures from the team: a quick diagnosis and decisions are needed.
• A transaction affecting the capital is approaching. Fundraising, sale, acquisition: the investors or the acquirer will examine the technology, and someone has to carry that file.

In the first two cases, the interim covers the time of a recruitment, which is counted in months: defining the post, searching, interviews, a possible notice period for the chosen candidate, then a probationary period. For an executive on a permanent contract (CDI), this can last up to four months, and eight months including renewal when the conditions are met, as Service-Public, the French government’s official website, points out. Throughout that time, the company needs someone who decides.

What an interim CTO does: the three phases of the assignment

An interim assignment is not like a standard start in a new role: it is short, and it prepares its own end. It unfolds in three phases.

The first phase can take the form of a technical audit when the company wants an opinion before committing to the assignment. The third is the one most often neglected, even though it is what gives the interim its value.

Interim CTO, fractional CTO, employed CTO: the differences

The three options meet different needs. They can also follow one another: an interim, then an employed CTO; or an interim, then a fractional CTO if the company does not need a full-time role.

These reference points describe the most common uses; each assignment is settled case by case. At iones, CTO as a Service covers the first two options: a few days a month, reinforced support during a transformation, or an interim assignment while an in-house technical director is recruited.

An interim CTO leads: they do not come to add extra hands to the team. If the need is to produce more, what you need is reinforcement from dedicated developers, not a technical director.

Framing the assignment: six points to write down before starting

• The objective and the end criterion. What must be true on the day the assignment stops: a successor in post, a migration completed, a team reorganised.
• Decision-making authority. What they decide alone, what they propose, what goes up to management: budget, recruitment, choice of providers.
• The reporting line. Whom they report to, and their place in the management bodies.
• Access. Code repositories, hosting, third-party service accounts: opened in the company’s name, never in the individual’s name.
• Reporting. A regular check-in with management, and a written record of the decisions taken.
• The exit. The length of the overlap with the successor, the content of the handover file, the conditions for an extension.

The contractual framework matters too. For the client company, the assignment most often takes the form of a service contract concluded with a firm or a consulting company; the exact arrangement should be checked with your legal adviser. If the assignment leads to choosing or changing providers, the same precautions apply as for any outsourcing: we detail them in our guide to outsourcing application maintenance.

Making the handover work

An interim CTO succeeds when the company no longer needs them. Three things are prepared from the start.

• Recruiting the successor. They help define the post, assess candidates on technical substance and welcome the person chosen. The hiring decision remains management’s.
• The overlap. A period during which the two work together: the successor takes over the files one by one, with their history.
• The handover file. The decisions taken and the reasons for them, the architecture, open risks, current contracts, the list of access rights.

When the interim does not lead to a recruitment, because the company does not need a full-time technical director, the baton can pass to a fractional CTO. The handover file stays the same.

Frequently asked questions

Interim CTO: an assignment judged on its exit

The interim CTO is for a specific moment: technical leadership cannot remain vacant, and the lasting solution is not yet in place. The assignment comes down to three written commitments: an objective, decision-making authority, an exit date.

The iones team carries out outsourced technical leadership assignments, from interim to fractional, with its CTO as a Service offer. You can write to us for a first discussion.