Fractional eCommerce Tech Lead for Australian Shopify Brands
For growing Shopify and Shopify Plus stores without a senior technical owner. Get roadmap, architecture, vendor management and governance, a few days a month, not a full-time salary.
When there's no senior technical owner, the store drifts
You're growing, but every technical call lands on someone who shouldn't be making it, or nobody at all.
No one owns the roadmap
Decisions get made app-by-app and ticket-by-ticket, with no one holding the technical direction against your commercial goals.
Vendor sprawl
Two or three freelancers and agencies, none accountable for the whole. You've become the integration layer between them.
App bloat and creep
Every request becomes another app and another monthly fee, slowing the store and muddying the stack over time.
Big calls stall or go badly
Replatform, a Plus upgrade, going headless: high-stakes decisions with no senior voice to pressure-test them first.
A full-time lead is premature
You need senior judgement, not a $200k+ salary and the risk of the wrong hire twelve months too early.
Governance is ad hoc
Access, code review, deploy process and security are handled case by case. Risk builds quietly until something breaks.
Where the lines sit
Clear ownership from day one, so nothing falls between you, your team and your suppliers.
| Your tech lead | What stays with you | Not included here | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Technical roadmap | Owns, sequences and maintains it | Shares goals, budget and constraints | , |
| Vendor management | Selects, briefs and holds them accountable | Approves budgets and major spend | , |
| Hands-on build | Reviews, directs and signs off | , | Delivered via a Development Retainer |
| Architecture calls | Makes and documents them as ADRs | Signs off major decisions | , |
| Store operations | Advises and unblocks | Runs merchandising, content and promotions | , |
Is a fractional tech lead the right fit
A good fit if
- You run a growing Shopify or Shopify Plus store with no senior technical owner
- You manage two or more vendors and want one accountable technical voice
- You're weighing a big call, replatform, Plus, headless, and need it pressure-tested
- You want senior direction a few days a month, not a full-time salary and the hiring risk
Not the right fit if
- You need hands-on build hours every week, that's our Development Retainer
- You're pre-launch with no store to lead yet
- You're on another platform; we're Shopify-only
- You want someone to rubber-stamp decisions rather than challenge them
What your fractional tech lead does
A senior Shopify operator embedded into your business, owning the technical direction so you don't have to.
What your tech lead owns
- Technical roadmap and quarterly planning tied to commercial goals
- Architecture and stack decisions, recorded and owned by you
- Build vs buy vs app calls, with the cost case behind each
- Backlog triage and prioritisation across every workstream
- Stakeholder and board-level technical reporting in plain English
Vendor & team governance
- Vendor selection, briefing and day-to-day management
- Code review standards and a repeatable deploy process
- Access, permissions and security reviewed each quarter
- SLA and quality oversight across all suppliers
- Documentation and knowledge handover into your workspace
Technology & integrations
- Shopify Plus, checkout extensibility and Functions
- ERP, PIM, 3PL/OMS and subscription integrations
- Analytics, tracking and data governance
- Performance, Core Web Vitals and Lighthouse oversight
- Headless and Hydrogen evaluation, only where it earns its place
How the engagement runs
Structured onboarding, then a steady leadership cadence you can rely on.
Discovery & access
Week 1. We review your stack, vendors, backlog, analytics and roadmap gaps, and get read access to what we need.
Technical audit & risk map
Week 2. Findings, quick wins and a risk register covering security, performance and single points of failure.
Roadmap & priorities
A costed, sequenced technical roadmap tied to your commercial goals, agreed with you before anything moves.
Embed & govern
Your lead joins standups, takes over vendor comms and sets the deploy, review and access process.
Steering cadence
Fortnightly steering, monthly reporting and a clear line for the calls that can't wait.
Quarterly review & reset
A quarterly business review to re-prioritise, adjust scope and re-cost the roadmap as the business shifts.
Governance and controls
Senior leadership with the guardrails to match.
- A named senior lead, with a documented backup so nothing stalls
- Every architecture decision recorded as an ADR and owned by you
- Vendor work reviewed against agreed standards before sign-off
- Access and security reviewed each quarter, with findings logged
- All roadmaps, docs and decisions kept in your workspace, not ours
Investment
Priced by days of senior time per month. Typical bands below, scoped after discovery.
Advisory
~2 days a month. Roadmap, steering and a monthly review.
Embedded
~4–6 days a month. Active vendor management and governance.
Fractional CTO
Board-level leadership across multi-vendor programmes and Plus complexity.
Common questions
Related services
Get a senior technical owner without the full-time hire
Book a call and we'll map your stack, vendors and roadmap gaps, then show where a fractional tech lead moves the needle first.
Book a call
