Fractional CTO Leadership
Jack Rostron - technology leadership for startups building ambitious software.
I'm a Fractional CTO and technology leader who helps startups and growing businesses turn ambitious ideas into successful software products.
TRUSTED BY TEAMS WORKING WITH
// 01 - ABOUT
15 years bridging engineering, product and commercial leadership.
Over my career I've worked across engineering, product and commercial leadership, giving me a perspective that goes beyond writing code. I've built products from the ground up, scaled engineering teams, led product strategy, supported investment discussions and worked directly with enterprise customers including Barclays, British Airways, Virgin Atlantic and Lloyds Banking Group.
I've been fortunate to wear many hats throughout my career - Software Engineer, Principal Engineer, Head of Engineering, Product Owner, Product Leader, Commercial Lead and CTO. That breadth of experience allows me to bridge the gap between founders, engineers, designers and investors, translating complex technical decisions into clear commercial outcomes.
Today, through touchtap, I work with founders who need experienced technical leadership without the commitment of hiring a full-time CTO.
// THE ARC
My career hasn't been a straight climb up an engineering ladder. It's moved through software engineering, engineering leadership, product ownership and product marketing, and now CTO and founder work - giving me a view of the whole journey, from whether something should be built, to how it becomes a business.
// 02 - SERVICES
Typical engagements
// 03 - SELECTED WORK
Case studies
Led the engineering effort behind onboarding two of the UK's largest banks onto Bink's payment-linked loyalty platform, working directly with enterprise bank stakeholders to integrate card-linking technology within strict security and compliance requirements.
Enabled enterprise-scale card-linked loyalty for Barclays and Lloyds Banking Group.
Read case study →Owned the product strategy behind Bink's MID management project, moving loyalty transaction matching from a multi-day batch process to near real-time using payment token technology across the Visa and Mastercard networks.
Cut loyalty processing time from several days to near real-time.
Read case study →Joined i6 as its first dedicated iOS engineer and rewrote an early proof-of-concept for the cockpit in around two to three weeks ahead of Virgin Atlantic's launch as eHandshake's first live customer, redesigning it for landscape iPad use. Went on to build eHandshake, letting pilots request and modify fuel uplifts in real time, and later ported the underlying in2plane refuelling app from Android to iOS for an additional airline partner - integrating with fuel-pump hardware over Bluetooth Low Energy and designing resilient real-time communication with PubNub and an Ably fallback.
Deployed across British Airways and Virgin Atlantic, becoming the platform every flight leaving Heathrow was refuelled through.
Read case study →Advising an FCA-regulated investment business on the technical foundations, engineering governance and development processes needed alongside an outsourced engineering team - covering architecture, SDLC, access controls, environments, deployment, rollback and incident management.
Translating regulatory expectations into practical engineering controls, without unnecessary bureaucracy.
Read case study →// 04 - CONTACT
Let's build something worth building.
I enjoy working with founders who have ambitious ideas but need a trusted technical partner to help make the right decisions, avoid expensive mistakes and build software that's designed to scale.
Whether you need strategic guidance a few days each month, someone to lead an engineering team through a critical period, or a hands-on technical partner to help build your next product, I'd love to connect.