Tomek Grzechowski
Fractional CTO · Principal Engineer · Trusted Strategic Advisor
CTO-level execution for products that must ship

30 years of software engineering — distilled into clarity, delivery, and reliability.

I work with founders and teams as a fractional CTO and principal engineer. My career started with selling my first production software ~30 years ago; since then I’ve been building, modernizing, and operating complex systems across multiple markets and technology cycles.

  • CTO advisory: prioritization, hiring, org design, execution cadence, and risk control.
  • SaaS MVPs, platform scaling, and “get it stable” rescue work (architecture + delivery).
  • Legacy modernization: monoliths → modular, cloud-ready, observable systems.
  • Code review at scale: PR standards, maintainability upgrades, security-focused feedback loops.
  • QA and release confidence: test strategy, automation, CI gates, and reliable rollout/rollback.
  • Refactoring programs: roadmap, safe incremental steps, plus automation (codemods, linters, formatters, migration scripts).

Strategic focus

What I’m building as a founder — and why it matters.

Engagement models

Best-fit for founders, CEOs, product owners, and engineering leaders who need high-leverage senior support without the overhead of a full-time hire.

  • Fractional CTO (ongoing): prioritization, hiring support, execution cadence, delivery oversight
  • Technical due diligence (time-boxed): codebase review, architecture risks, roadmap & cost/risk profile
  • Stabilization / Rescue sprint (2–6 weeks): stop the bleeding, unblock delivery, ship safely
  • MVP build & launch (time-boxed): fast iteration with strong foundations and clean handover
Clear priorities Delivery momentum Risk & quality control Code review & refactoring QA strategy & test automation CI/CD & reliability
Lead Founder & CEO — Druids.Me

Druids.Me is a governance-first initiative focused on rebuilding a trust stack for the internet: governance and collective decision-making, privacy-preserving identity, auditable voting and legal processes, and truthful communication.

The core idea is simple: if we can’t verify who spoke, we can’t trust what was said. Druids.Me aims to make verification possible when needed and anonymity protected when necessary.

The “Druid” metaphor is intentional: a modern steward of knowledge who values evidence, accountability, and long-term incentives over short-term noise.



What I deliver

Executive-level clarity with engineering-grade implementation detail — so the plan survives contact with reality.

Fractional CTO · Execution & Alignment

Bring focus to complex initiatives and remove ambiguity across product, engineering, and operations.

  • Prioritization, roadmaps, and delivery cadence
  • Hiring strategy, team structure, and “bar raising”
  • Risk management, stakeholder comms, and decision logs

Architecture · Modernization · Rescue

Transform legacy codebases into systems that can be shipped and operated with confidence.

  • Architecture reviews, refactor strategy, and migration plans
  • Monolith & microservice patterns (pragmatically applied)
  • Performance, cost, and maintainability optimization

Reliability · DevOps · SRE Strategy

Stability is a product feature. I help teams operationalize it without bureaucracy.

  • CI/CD, environments, and release safety (rollbacks, flags)
  • Observability, incident response, and operational runbooks
  • Security hygiene (secrets, access, audit trails)

Core technologies

A pragmatic toolkit — chosen for reliability, speed of delivery, and long-term maintainability.

PHP · Laravel · Symfony Node.js Vue React Angular MySQL · PostgreSQL Docker · Compose AWS · OVH CI/CD Observability Ethereum · Foundry AI 🔗 and ☀️ 300 more 🦷 🍎 skills

For sensitive or regulated contexts: secure configuration, credential hygiene, auditability, and operational guardrails are part of the deliverable — not an afterthought.



Engagement options

Six fixed-scope starting points — from rapid technical due diligence to multi-stage stabilization delivery.

P01 Recommendation Report
From £8k gross

CTO Quick Peek

Rapid technical due diligence to surface top risks, likely failure modes, and the fastest next steps.

Calendar 1–3 weeks

Best for: investor / acquisition diligence, rapid risk assessment, or a “where are we really?” health check.

Inquire about P01
P02 1–3 stages plan
From £24k gross

CTO Stabilization Blueprint (Small/Mid)

Executive-ready stabilization blueprint: P0/P1 priorities, test checklist, rollout/rollback plan, and roadmap.

Calendar 1–2 months

Best for: small–mid teams that need a clear P0/P1 plan before investing in implementation.

Inquire about P02
P03 1–3 stages plan
From £40k gross

CTO Stabilization Blueprint (Mid/Max)

Deeper blueprint for complex systems: integrations, multi-tenant drift, security, infrastructure, and operational reality-check.

Calendar 2–3 months

Best for: complex legacy and multi-tenant environments where hidden integrations and drift drive incidents.

Inquire about P03
P04 Phased execution
From £64k gross

Stabilization Delivery (Minimum)

Implementation-focused stabilization delivery: ship the plan end-to-end, reduce incidents, harden deploys, add guardrails.

Calendar 2–4 months

Best for: teams that need stabilization shipped — not just a document — within a tight window.

Inquire about P04
P05 Phased execution
From £128k gross

Stabilization Delivery (Mid)

Stabilization plus operational maturity: CI/CD, observability, alerting, incident workflow, and reliability baselines.

Calendar 4–6 months

Best for: mid-size systems requiring stabilization + operational discipline to scale safely.

Inquire about P05
P06 Multi-stage program
From £360k gross

Stabilization Delivery (Big)

Multi-stage enterprise program: reliability, security, platform modernization (full refactoring plan and directions for several years of technical debt), governance, and coaching over 12–24 months.

Calendar 12–24 months

Best for: enterprise programs with long-term modernization and reliability goals.

Inquire about P06

Pricing is indicative (gross including all taxes, may vary depending on VAT). Final scope and timeline are confirmed after a short discovery call. These packages are also indicative, it is often best to choose the first one to determine the best solution plan.



Testimonials

“With Tomasz in the team there is no technical issue that can not be resolved. As a leader he is resolving any personal conflicts easily, but his biggest differentiator is keeping work quality at the top level. Working with Tomasz is always inspirational and instructive.”

Piotr Kulas
Co-founder, SurveyLab

“I've worked with Tomasz for over a year and I have to say he is always able to explain options and direct towards one ultimate solution. He's a good team leader, mentor and experienced software developer that is willing and able to share his knowledge.”

Artur Giera
Co-founder & Senior Application Engineer, SurveyLab

“Tomasz is a fantastic person to work with, and is not only a multi-skilled and insightful colleague, but also an inspiring strategist. Great engineer with very strong problem solving skills. With Tomasz, every problem has a solution.”

Jose Ferreiro
Chief Technology Officer, LunaJets

“Tomasz and his team deliver quality code in time. He understands our problem and proposes solutions to solve it. It's always a pleasure to work with him.”

Olivier Jaillet
Head of Information Technology, LunaJets

“Tomek joined us midway through a development project that was struggling to make progress. He knew the right questions to ask to integrate himself into the project and acquire the proper access and tools needed to work effectively. Within just a matter of weeks, he had taken ownership of development activities and almost single-handedly gotten the project back on track...”

Kyle Jacobsen
Business Analyst, Des Moines University

“... Within just a matter of weeks, he had taken ownership of development activities and almost single-handedly gotten the project back on track. He brought a wealth of knowledge and best practices to our implementation and frequently shared his insights on how and why he was making certain decisions. Though our partnership was short, Tomek was able to put us in a very favorable position and make our stakeholders happy. I wish him the best of luck in his future engagements.”

Kyle Jacobsen
Business Analyst, Des Moines University

“I worked with Tomek on a complex software development project recently. He was always timely with updates about the work he was doing, and did a great job with writing tests and documentation. I definitely recommend him for any software development project!”

James Bartlett
Senior Business Intelligence Analyst, Des Moines University

“I appreciate Tomasz for being not only great in analytics which he is but first of all for being very intuitive. He does not count time when helping others and he takes real interest in other people talents and their growth. With Tomasz leading the team people believe they can achieve anything and what is most important Tomasz is open for other people ideas, appreciates these ideas and praises them.”

Rafał Rząca
CEO, Sonic Smell

“I would like to thank you for your dedication and exceptional work on this project. You have truly made working on this project easy and I would not hesitate to reach out to you again for any future projects.”

Alex Cresswell
Mind's Eye Society

“While working with Tomek I was fascinated not only his technical expertise and knowledge, but by his excellent communication and leadership skills as well. Tomek was always there when help or advice was needed — swift and friendly, professional and efficient.”

Balys Narbutas
Creative Project Executive, Fabula Rud Pedersen Group

“I have worked with Tomasz on several projects and it was fun, pleasure and hard work at the same time. Tomasz is a team player, a lead engineer focused on sharing knowledge and growing the team — and he understands what is really important in building quality software.”

Daniel Markiewicz
Software Engineer

“I’ve worked with Tomasz for almost a year. It was a great experience. He is oriented on solving problems, and thanks to his knowledge he was always able to solve all issues. Tomasz also has a good contact with the team, which can always rely on his support.”

Agata Janczak
Digital Project Manager, Hill+Knowlton Strategies Poland

“I've worked for Tomasz on several projects and worked with him on several others when he was a team leader. Tomasz presents great management and coaching skills — not to mention technical experience. If I ever need a job or a partner for my own project, I'll ask Tomasz first.”

Maciej Świętochowski
Software Developer · SRE · DevOps

Contact

If you’re building something serious (or something broke in production), reach out. I respond fastest via email+SMS or phone.

Let’s talk

Share your context and constraints (deadline, budget range, current stack, top risks). I’ll reply with a quick triage plan.

Based in Kielce, Poland (Europe/Warsaw). Working globally · remote-first.

Fast context (for first message)

  • What are you building (1–2 sentences)?
  • What’s currently blocking delivery or stability?
  • Target timeline and non-negotiables
  • Team size, stack, and deployment environment
  • If you already know the engagement option, mention the package ID (P01–P06).

If you prefer a marketplace engagement: I’m member of Toptalthe #1 most reliable professional services company in USA.