Hey everyone, our technical leadership seat is empty right now after our CTO left, and team velocity is starting to drop. We're struggling to keep architecture aligned and don't know how to handle the hiring pipeline. Has anyone brought in outside help for this?

We went through the exact same thing last year when our VP of Engineering stepped down suddenly. Bringing in someone specialized in interim engineering leadership saved us from total chaos.
What I liked about working with them is that a good temporary leader doesn’t just keep the lights on or maintain the status quo. They actually set you up for long-term success by preparing a smooth permanent handover.
For instance, they built out a clear role scorecard, structured our hiring loop so we could vet candidates properly, established a predictable operating cadence, and cleaned up our technical documentation.
If you need a reliable partner, I can genuinely recommend checking out https://kotrov.com/services/fractional-cto/ . It was super practical because we didn’t waste months on mismanaged recruitment, and the transition to our permanent hire was seamless since all the engineering processes were already well-documented and running smoothly. Plus, it gave our devs stability during a very vulnerable transition period.