Fractional / Interim CIO

Fractional CIO for Melbourne, Sydney, and remote teams.

Part-time, executive-level IT leadership for Australian organisations that need strategic direction, vendor discipline, and delivery accountability, without a A$500k permanent hire. 25+ years running IT, three-time CIO 200 Global Champion, n8n Ambassador.

Years of senior IT leadership
25+
Countries operated in
4
ERP success rate
100%
Annual IT budgets managed
A$5M+
When to engage

You probably need a fractional CIO if…

  • Your IT function has no executive in the room when the board makes decisions, and it shows.
  • Your last three major vendor contracts were negotiated by vendors, not by you.
  • Cybersecurity posture is "we have an MSP" and you cannot answer a CPS 234 / Essential Eight question confidently.
  • Your ERP is either unfit or being oversold, and nobody on your team has implemented one at scale before.
  • A full-time Melbourne CIO is A$300k–A$500k + super and the search runs 4–6 months. You need leadership this quarter.
  • The CEO just said "we're going to be AI-first" and your infrastructure cannot carry it.
Honest boundary

When you probably don't need a fractional CIO.

Some of the time, a different role is the right call. I would rather send you somewhere better than take a misfit engagement.

  • You need an IT Manager. If the scope is day-to-day ops, ticket throughput, and team supervision, hire an IT Manager. A CIO is too strategic (and too expensive) for operational line management.
  • You need a CTO. If your product is the software and your engineering team is your main IT footprint, you need a CTO (often fractional too), not a CIO.
  • You need a CISO. If the mandate is purely security posture, compliance, and incident response, engage a fractional CISO. A CIO touches security but does not own it day-to-day at large enterprises.
What the engagement covers

The full CIO remit, delivered fractionally.

IT strategy & roadmap

Current-state audit, 12-month roadmap, annual budget, capability model, and quarterly board reporting. The strategy actually ties to the P&L.

Infrastructure & cloud

Cloud strategy (AWS, Azure, GCP, Oracle Cloud). Migration planning. Hosting-cost optimisation. Capacity and DR planning. Hybrid and on-prem where it still makes sense.

Cybersecurity posture

Essential Eight maturity, APRA CPS 234 alignment, ISO 27001 readiness, Zero Trust architecture. Third-party risk review. Incident response playbooks.

ERP & business systems

ERP strategy (Oracle, Dynamics, NetSuite, ERPNext). Vendor selection without vendor bias. Implementation oversight. 100% success rate across prior ERP rollouts.

Team & vendor leadership

Org design, hiring, capability uplift for existing staff. Vendor negotiation, SLA discipline, quarterly vendor reviews. Designed so the fractional role becomes unnecessary.

AI & digital transformation

Where the brief includes AI: roadmap, governance, production delivery, and honest framing. 55+ production AI agents shipped at 300% ROI. Full detail on the fractional CAIO page.

Engagement shapes

Three ways to run this.

Most common

Advisory cadence

from A$8,000/month

1–2 days per week. Strategy, vendor discipline, architecture review, security posture, board reporting. Retainer, 3-month minimum.

  • Weekly working session with the CEO or CFO
  • Monthly IT steering committee chair
  • Quarterly board report
  • On-call for vendor and architecture calls

Turnaround

90-day stabilisation

A$60,000 fixed

Embedded engagement for a stalled IT function. Audit, remediation, executive restructure of priorities, and a working 12-month roadmap at handover.

  • Full current-state audit (weeks 1–2)
  • Board briefing + 90-day plan (week 3)
  • Remediation execution (weeks 4–11)
  • Handover to in-house lead (week 12)

Project-shaped

Scoped engagement

from A$25,000

Bounded mandate: ERP vendor selection, cloud migration, cybersecurity uplift, AI readiness. 4–8 week fixed scope, one clear deliverable.

  • Clear mandate and scope
  • Weekly milestone reporting
  • Final report + executive briefing
  • Optional 90-day implementation oversight
Melbourne-based, Australia-wide

Why a Melbourne-based fractional CIO.

The practice is based in Melbourne. That is not incidental, it means on-site executive cadence is a short trip, not a flight. Sydney, Brisbane, Canberra, and Adelaide engagements run on a hybrid rhythm: remote delivery, on-site for board sessions and quarterly reviews.

The other reason Melbourne matters: the regulatory and compliance frame for Australian IT is distinct. APRA CPS 234 for financial services, the Privacy Act, state-specific data handling rules (Health Records Act in VIC), the Essential Eight baseline. A fractional CIO with prior Australian regulated-industry work carries that load without a 6-month ramp.

Remote-only engagements are available for global clients. Approximately 30% of current work is outside Australia (UAE, UK, New Zealand). The rest is Melbourne, Sydney, and the east coast.

Common questions

Before we talk.

What is the difference between a fractional CIO and a fractional CAIO?

A fractional CIO owns the full IT function: infrastructure, cloud, cybersecurity, ERP, digital delivery, vendor management. A fractional CAIO (Chief AI Officer) owns the AI function specifically: strategy, governance, production AI delivery. In smaller organisations one person can cover both; at enterprise scale they are distinct roles. If you want AI leadership specifically, see the fractional CAIO page.

How much does a fractional CIO cost in Melbourne?

A$8,000–A$25,000 per month depending on cadence. 1–2 day/week retainer is around A$8k/month; 90-day embedded stabilisation is A$50–60k; scoped engagements start at A$25k. A full-time Melbourne CIO package sits at A$300k–A$500k plus super, fractional pays for itself at any IT budget under roughly A$5M annually.

Do you work with regulated industries?

Yes. Prior regulated-industry experience across financial services, utilities, and healthcare. Familiar with APRA CPS 234, the Privacy Act, Essential Eight, ISO 27001, and the Health Records Act (VIC). Where the compliance load is heavy, we pair with a fractional CISO rather than trying to carry security ownership end-to-end inside the CIO mandate.

Can you do both the CIO and CAIO roles together?

Yes, for mid-market organisations where the AI P&L is under A$3M and the IT team is under 30 people. At that scale one fractional executive carrying both mandates is more coherent than splitting the role. Above that, splitting delivers better focus, I will tell you which side of the line you are on in the first conversation.

What does the first engagement look like?

30-minute discovery call (free). If there is fit, a 2-hour scoping session (A$500, credited against any engagement). From scoping, a proposal with a concrete 90-day plan and pricing. First week of the engagement is current-state audit; by week 3 you have a board briefing. No paid "strategy phases" that never land.

Can we start with a single project before committing to ongoing?

Yes, the scoped engagement (ERP selection, cloud migration, security uplift, AI readiness) is designed precisely for this. Many ongoing retainers start as scoped projects that proved out the fit.

Further reading

What the CIO role looks like in 2026, strategy, transformation, governance, and the discipline that keeps IT strategic rather than reactive.

See all insights
Book a discovery call

Let's talk about the mandate.

30-minute call. We'll cover the shape of your organisation, where IT has stalled or plateaued, and whether a fractional CIO is the right move, or whether a different role fits better. Honest answer at the end, even if it means sending you elsewhere.

Book a 30-minute call See fractional CAIO