Turn Engineering Into a Competitive Advantage
Fractional CTO leadership for companies entering their next stage of growth. Scaling platforms, improving shipping velocity, and optimizing tech operations without hiring a full-time CTO.
Meet Jader Correa
Former CTO at APOIA.se and Árvore. Former Staff Engineer at Code Climate.
Currently building Zapfy, an AI-native operating system for commerce focused on autonomous operations, fiscal compliance, and business automation.
Over 20 years building and scaling SaaS, FinTech, and EdTech products across Brazil, North America, and Europe.
Why Founders Hire Me
Battle-tested technology leadership that aligns engineering velocity with business value.
Proven CTO Pedigree
Former CTO at APOIA.se and Árvore, directing core architectures and scaling product lines serving millions of active users.
SaaS Scaling Expertise
Former Staff Engineer at Code Climate, designing advanced data pipeline analytics to measure and optimize developer shipping velocity.
Exits & Due Diligence
Veteran of startup acquisitions, technological turnarounds, and compliance audits preparing codebases for institutional contracts.
Global Team Coaching
Managed and coached cross-functional developers, compliance, and DevOps squads across Brazil, North America, and Europe.
High-Impact Leadership, Zero Overhead
Why hire a full-time CTO when you need strategic direction, not full-time cost?
Full-Time CTO
- USD 250k - 400k+ base salary plus equity
- 6+ months recruitment and onboarding delay
- Expensive severance packages and exit risk
- Bias toward building massive, complex systems
Fractional CTO
- Pay only for exact hours and strategic focus required
- Onboards immediately to tackle high-risk priorities
- Flexible monthly adjustments as your business scales
- Unbiased, business-first execution and trade-offs
Consultant
- Deliver slides, recommendations but no hands-on execution
- Detached from company culture and developer coaching
- No long-term ownership of alignment or code quality
- Expensive hourly overrides outside predefined scope
Core Specializations & Outcomes
Tactical tech execution focused on moving business needles, not writing abstract code.
Tech Turnarounds & Rescue
Diagnose systemic architecture risks, optimize team alignments, rebuild developer morale, and rescue failing SaaS product lines before they impact churn.
Strategic Architectures
Design modern, event-driven architectures and DevOps automation (AWS, Terraform, CI/CD) that allow startups to scale gracefully to millions of users.
GTM Alignment & Growth
Establish strict product release governance that cuts time-to-market. Align Engineering, Compliance, and Finance for strategic B2B market expansion.
Cost & Cloud Optimization
Slash infrastructure overhead by modernizing container deployment, re-architecting data pipelines, and eliminating redundant SaaS licenses.
Typical Outcomes
Measurable, reliable performance improvements achieved inside tech organizations.
Streamlining release cycles, establishing agile sprint governance, and aligning engineering priorities with compliance targets.
Conducting detailed infrastructure audits, eliminating waste, optimizing databases, and rightsizing container orchestration.
Shifting culture from vanity activities to shipping throughput, tracking key engineering KPIs, and improving developer e-NPS.
Eradicating system bottlenecks, setting up robust recovery protocols, and preparing the technical structure for M&A audits.
Battle-Tested Case Studies
Real turnarounds. Real scalability. Real exits.
Restructuring release cycles & mitigating gateway risks
Release cycles were slowing product evolution and payment gateway instabilities threatened business continuity.
Implemented strict delivery loops, audit routines, and established governance protocols between engineering, finance, and compliance squads.
Achieved a 35% reduction in time-to-market and stabilized critical payment systems.
Unifying engineering priorities with compliance targets to eliminate delivery delays and process blocks.
Engineering alignment, OKRs & performance metrics
Engineering structure was disconnected from core GTM targets, reducing shipping predictability and developer morale.
Re-architected developer squads, set up Program OKRs and KPIs, and implemented e-NPS surveys to audit culture and align performance.
Established board-level tech transparency, aligned developers with GTM, and boosted team accountability.
Creating data-driven engineering roadmaps for DevOps, Product, and Engineering divisions.
Scaling architecture to 2M+ users & securing USD $5M contracts
Rapid growth demanded scaling engineering capacity and infrastructure to handle millions of active student users.
Expanded developer squads 3x, optimized database/backend architecture, and aligned systems with strict security audits.
Scaled platform to 2M+ active monthly users and secured compliance to win $5M+ in institutional enterprise deals.
Platform passed rigorous corporate security audits and uptime requirements, unlocking major contracts.
B2B product scaling, due diligence & successful acquisition
Needed to transition from a B2C model to high-ticket B2B offerings and prepare codebase architecture for M&A due diligence.
Structured scalable architectures for B2B API integrations, prepared complete technical diligence dossiers, and facilitated tech transitions.
Successful acquisition and integration into Arco Educação, with a smooth leadership handover.
Codebase and engineering strategies passed deep due diligence processes, ensuring a successful sale.
My Operating Principles
Strategic code and organizational beliefs that separate high-impact engineering from noise.
Technology exists to create business leverage.
Code is a liability, not an asset. Engineering decisions must serve commercial targets, speed up customer value, or reduce operating risks. If it doesn't solve a business problem, it shouldn't be built.
Teams should optimize for throughput, not activity.
Busy developers are not always productive developers. We focus on velocity metrics, cycle times, and eliminating deployment blockers rather than tracking raw commits or working hours.
Most startups do not need microservices.
Premature microservice migrations introduce networking complexity, deployment bottlenecks, and team friction. A modular, well-architected monolith can scale further than most founders realize.
Cloud spend should scale slower than revenue.
Infrastructure cost efficiency is an executive duty, not an afterthought. Consistent architecture audits, rightsizing, and cost-aware designs ensure healthy unit economics during growth.
Architecture decisions must support business goals.
We choose mature, battle-tested technology (like Ruby on Rails or Elixir/Phoenix) that maximizes developer shipping speed, system resilience, and compliance over shiny, unproven frameworks.
Available Models
Select the level of executive involvement your engineering organization requires.
Advisor
For founders needing strategic executive guidance.
- 4 hours per month of direct advisory
- High-level roadmap validation
- Strategic hiring guidance
- Monthly executive review session
Fractional CTO
For companies scaling engineering teams and delivery.
- 10 hours per week of integrated leadership
- Sprint governance, cycle auditing & e-NPS
- Hands-on architecture, database & DevOps roadmap
- CTO-level representation at board meetings
- Cross-functional alignment (Product/Finance/Sales)
Scale Builder
For turnarounds, acquisitions, and organizational restructuring.
- 20 hours per week of hands-on direction
- Full organizational restructure & team rebuilding
- Comprehensive cost cutting & DevOps pipeline rebuild
- Direct management of engineering managers & leads
- Due diligence & compliance audits for fundraising/M&A
When I'm Not the Right Fit
To protect both of our times, I selectively take on projects where I can guarantee maximum impact.
You want a hands-off consultant.
I do not deliver static slide decks and walk away. I integrate with your squad, rewrite codebases when needed, and direct operational execution.
You need an onsite, full-time VP of Engineering.
I operate on a remote-first, fractional model. I build asynchronous, scalable workflows rather than managing physical desk attendance.
You simply want validation for existing plans.
I bring objective, business-first analysis. If a tech roadmap creates business risks or inflates overhead, I will challenge it directly.
You are pre-product-market-fit.
If your startup is still testing value propositions and has no regular user baseline, hiring a Fractional CTO is premature. Focus on shipping a prototype first.
Get a CTO Assessment
Identify critical bottlenecks and scaling issues in a 45-minute working session. We will discover:
- Where software delivery is slowing down
- Where cloud spend is leaking
- Where architecture is creating scalability risks
- What to fix first to maximize business velocity