Ongoing · 2–3 days per week
Fractional CPTO / CTO
Own product and technology together: strategy, architecture, platform roadmap, engineering organisation and delivery.
Fractional CPTO · UK · EU · USA
Shailendra Kumar
Product + technology leadership, on demand.
Part-time CPO + CTO leadership for Series A–E startups, PE-backed firms and established companies. Architecture, data, AI and engineering decisions tied directly to business outcomes.
Series A–EPE-backedMedium & large companiesRemote worldwide
Shailendra Kumar
Fractional CPTO / CTO
22+
Years from engineer to product executive
$3.5B+
Annual WhatsApp revenue
6×
Growth in WhatsApp monetisation
$8M+
ARR from SaaS productisation
$3.3M
Annual OPEX saved through automation
£6M
Saved consolidating legacy systems
12→60+
Product and engineering teams scaled
$5M+
Raised for video-calling startup
What I do
One accountable leader across product and technology
Senior judgement before you need—or while you search for—a full-time executive hire.
Focused · 4–6 weeks
Technology Diagnostic
An evidence-led review of architecture, delivery and organisation, ending in board-ready findings and a 90-day plan.
Assessment · 2–6 weeks
Data Platform & AI Readiness
Assess pipelines, models and governance against priority AI use cases, with a practical route from prototype to production.
Interim or advisory
Engineering Org & Delivery
Design squads, hiring, in-house and outsourced delivery, vendor oversight and the operating cadence needed to scale.
Build-out & hardening
AI Prototype to Production
Production architecture, evaluation, guardrails, human-in-the-loop controls and monitoring for AI and agentic products.
Founders & investors
Technical Due Diligence
Independent architecture, scalability, security and team assessment ahead of a raise, acquisition or CTO hire.
Selected work
Technology outcomes at enterprise and startup scale
A career spanning product, platform and engineering leadership in regulated and consumer environments.
Meta / WhatsApp
$3.5B+
Annual revenue, up 6×
Click-to-WhatsApp Ads signals & monetisation
Led Click-to-WhatsApp Ads signals and monetisation; a privacy-first framework across seven teams contributed to 6× growth to $3.5B+ annual revenue.
Measurable, delivered outcome
Meta / WhatsApp
$3.3M/yr savedIntegrity & business messaging at scale
Led four integrity squads against scraping, scripted attacks and scams; launched business messaging for 200M+ companies and automated ground-truth signals worth $3.3M in annual OPEX.
Measurable, delivered outcome
JP Morgan
$8M+ ARRFree legacy tool to SaaS platform
Led 50+ engineers and four PMs across API, AI search and data; won 12 enterprise clients in about 18 months.
Measurable, delivered outcome
UBS
12→60+ teamBig-data platform behind a #7 to #1 ranking
Set the architecture and build-vs-buy direction, scaling the product and engineering organisation from 12 to 60+.
Measurable, delivered outcome
Sapient
£6M savedLegacy consolidation for investment banking
Led a 25-person onshore/offshore team re-architecting and consolidating five commodity-trading platforms.
Measurable, delivered outcome
How I work
Decisions in the first 90 days
An engineer’s diagnosis with an executive’s bias for committed decisions and measurable delivery.
01
Diagnose
Architecture walkthroughs, delivery data, team interviews, cost and vendor review.
02
Decide
Clear calls on architecture, build-vs-buy, organisation design and priorities.
03
Deliver
A 90-day plan in motion, with accountable owners and meaningful measures.
04
Hand over
Documented standards, rituals and hiring plans that leave lasting capability.
Résumé
The full record, ready to share.
Read the complete career history online, download it, or print a clean copy for your board or investment team.
Fractional product & technology leadership
Let’s explore your next phase.
A 30-minute conversation on your product, architecture, data, AI or engineering challenge—and whether a fractional CPTO fits.