Forging high-performing engineering into a predictable growth engine — backed by 20+ years building, turning around, and scaling global R&D organisations across the US, Europe, and Asia.
Through CTOForge, I work directly with founders, CEOs, owners and managing partners on technology leadership and technical advisory: fixing stalled delivery, scaling CEE engineering hubs, reaching ISO 27001 / SOC 2 compliance, and introducing AI pragmatically.
Fixed-scope 2–4 week diagnostic, fractional (2–4 days a week), full-time interim (3–12 months), or advisory. Prefer email? Write to Contact@CTOForge.com.
Most ambitious companies don’t stall from a shortage of code — they stall when business ambition outpaces technical structure, ownership, and predictable execution.
Your engineers work hard every sprint, yet deadlines slip by months, regressions reach customers, and the leadership team has no reliable forecast of when key initiatives will ship.
The Fix: Data-driven delivery governance, clear release cadences, and automated quality gates.
External agencies or early prototypes got you to initial traction, but fragmented ownership, rising costs, and architectural bottlenecks are now slowing down product evolution.
The Fix: Smooth transition to high-ownership internal teams and scalable SaaS architecture.
Larger B2B customers demand ISO 27001, SOC 2 Type II, GDPR/HIPAA compliance, and strict SLAs — and your current R&D processes aren’t ready to pass enterprise scrutiny.
The Fix: Pragmatic Secure SDLC, risk policies, and end-to-end audit readiness without freezing velocity.
Whether rationalising a sprawling stack, adopting AI for real productivity, or integrating an acquired product and team, you need seasoned CTO judgment now — without a 6-month executive search or the cost of a full-time CTO.
The Fix: Immediate C-level technical leadership aligned directly with your business outcomes and board priorities.
Comprehensive Fractional CTO leadership covering strategy, architecture, people, delivery, security, and post-acquisition integration.
Translating commercial objectives into clear, multi-quarter technology roadmaps, R&D budgets, and build-vs-buy decisions that protect runway and maximise ROI.
Structuring and scaling distributed teams up to 100+ engineers, setting up nearshore CEE/Bulgaria hubs, mentoring Engineering Managers and Tech Leads, and building a culture of ownership.
Accelerating release cadences and eliminating regressions through metrics-driven agile execution, quarterly chartering, test automation, and "shift-left" quality governance.
Designing resilient SaaS, on-premise and hybrid enterprise architectures, rationalising bloated tech stacks to cut overhead, and deploying AI development workflows focused on measured ROI — not hype.
Preparing technology organisations and products for enterprise deals across regulated industries with practical security policies, Secure SDLC, and audit readiness.
Vendor and partner assessments – architecture scalability, cyber risk, technical debt and organisational maturity – plus hands-on integration of acquired products and teams, including the transition from external contractors to in-house ownership.
Selected mandates from my Fractional CTO practice and previous executive roles (Director of R&D, Acting CTO, and Senior Engineering Manager).
Business-critical for its customers, yet annual releases ran up to 7 months late, with heavy manual testing effort and customer-reported regression defects.
Moved to on-time quarterly and monthly releases and raised release predictability from 65% to 95%, cut manual testing by 85% via shift-left automation at scale, and eliminated customer-reported regression defects across multiple release cycles, while growing the QA organisation from 10 to 35, setting up dedicated test automation, performance testing and DevOps units, and implementing ISO 27001.
Newly acquired SaaS product, 100% developed by external contractors, with fragmented technical ownership and ~60% roadmap delivery predictability.
Following the acquisition, moved end-to-end delivery to Sofia and transitioned the product to full in-house ownership within a 100+ engineer global organisation (Sofia R&D hub grew 5 → 50+ in 12 months and 80+ in 24 months with sub-5% attrition), raised roadmap predictability to 80%, implemented ISO 27001 with Secure SDLC practices, and supported SOC 2 Type II compliance.
Low delivery cadence (6 production deliveries a month), customer-impacting defects, sprawling technology stack, and low IT/operations SLA adherence.
Increased production deliveries from 6 to 16 a month, raised delivery predictability from 35% to 85%, reduced customer-impacting defects by ~25%, consolidated the core technology stack from 12 to 10 technologies, piloted AI coding assistants with a ~10% productivity uplift, and led technical readiness for ISO 27001:2022.
Working directly with the company owner to set up and streamline the R&D organisation, evaluate architecture and AI vendor-versus-in-house options, and represent the technology in prospective customer meetings.
Led a technical audit of the product and engineering function with growth-oriented recommendations, drove an architecture project that delivered 50%+ faster service speed and lower memory consumption, and acts as the company’s technical representative in meetings with prospective customers.
Contracting as an EU-based independent professional (B2B invoicing), trading as CTOForge — from a focused 2–4 week diagnostic to fractional or full-time interim CTO/CIO leadership.
Best for founders, CEOs or owners seeking rapid clarity and an actionable transformation plan.
Best for startups and scale-ups needing continuous C-level direction without full-time overhead.
Best for executive transitions, stalled delivery turnarounds, hub scaling, or post-acquisition integration.
I’m Dimitar Dimitrov — founder of CTOForge and an Interim & Fractional CTO / CIO. Over the past two decades, I have built, turned around, and scaled distributed R&D organisations of up to 100+ engineers across the US, Europe, and Asia — working directly with founders, CEOs, owners and managing partners across B2B scale-ups and global enterprise software leaders.
Combining a Master of Engineering (M.Eng.) in Software Technologies and in Computer Solutions and Networks from the Technical University of Varna with 20+ years of technology leadership and budget management ($3M+), I bridge the gap that stalls growing tech companies. I engage across every layer — from cloud architecture, Secure SDLC, and pragmatic AI adoption with your engineering teams to R&D budgets, risk governance, and commercial alignment with your CEO, owners and managing partners.
Intuition doesn’t scale. Transparent delivery, quality, and velocity metrics create calm, accountable engineering cultures.
When change is hard to drive from within, an experienced external leader breaks organisational inertia in the first 30–90 days.
Every architectural, hiring, or AI investment must pay off in faster time-to-market, stronger margins, or enterprise customer trust.
Agencies sell developer hours; consultants often hand over slide decks and walk away. As your Fractional CTO, I sit on your side of the table as an embedded member of your leadership team — owning technical outcomes, protecting your budget, evaluating vendors objectively, and building long-term capability inside your company.
I don’t replace your strong technical talent — I amplify them. Many promising startups overload their best senior developer with budgeting, compliance, hiring, and executive alignment. I mentor your internal leads, establish clear organisational structure, and free them to excel while coaching them toward future VP/CTO roles.
Engagements flex with your stage and urgency – from strategic advisory (a few hours per week) to Fractional CTO retainers (typically 2–4 days a week), full-time interim leadership (typically 3–12 months) or fixed-scope diagnostics. As your needs evolve or you are ready for a full-time CTO, I can also help recruit and onboard my successor.
Based in Sofia, Bulgaria (EU), UK time +2h / CET +1h. As an EU citizen I am open to on-site or hybrid mandates across the EU. For UK clients I work remotely, with in-person visits for meetings and workshops. I also work with distributed teams across Europe and the US.
Book a confidential 30-minute discovery call directly on my calendar, or reach out via email to discuss your technology roadmap, R&D challenges, compliance goals, or an upcoming post-acquisition integration.
Contact@CTOForge.com