Álvaro
Data Scientist
“In a climate this uncertain, Shakers gives you a layer of reassurance and confidence. What I like most, without a doubt, is the flexibility and getting to work on top-tier projects.”
Join ShakersShakers for expert talent
Build your career as a Fractional CTO
Projects where the technology leadership is yours: which stack gets chosen, which team gets organised and what gets postponed until the data holds. Shakers connects you with startups and SMBs that arrive with a business problem, not a list of technologies.
The senior Spanish CTO who wants to fraction their career has no Spanish-language channel: today they learn in forums and videos, and the real platforms live in English. Meanwhile, the local market asks for fractional, as a service, externo and 'director tecnológico freelance'.
This is not a study route: it is what gets decided on a real engagement, what you must prove and where your territory ends.
- Higher-paying projects
- More continuity between projects
- Greater recognition for your experience
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Amelia
AI Agent Developer
“I have been building AI agents for years. Thanks to Shakers I stopped chasing clients and started genuinely choosing which projects I wanted to work on. I work with some of the best companies in Europe, at my own rate, and I focus on what I am good at and what I love: building.”
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Luz
Backend Developer & Data Engineer
“Shakers adds a lot of value because it connects you with sharper projects, already filtered and better defined. It saves you a big part of the upfront work of understanding the client, quoting and weighing up whether it is worth it, and that means that as a contractor you can go far more directly to the opportunities that genuinely fit you.”
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Rubén
Software Developer
“Life as a contractor has a lot going on and it is not always easy. We like to focus on what we are good at, but you also have to manage clients, invoicing and go looking for work. For me, Shakers has been key because it does that prospecting for me, it gives the client confidence from the very first moment, and it lets us be part of a community with real enthusiasm.”
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Alejandro
AI Developer
“Shakers was key to getting my company off the ground: it gave me the flexibility to keep contracting while I built my next chapter. Without Shakers, I would have had to raise funding or push the project back.”
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Toño
Product Designer
“With Shakers I have landed recurring projects that give me peace of mind and room to grow professionally. It is not just about reaching quality clients: it is feeling that you have a network behind you, one that connects you with real opportunities and helps you move forward as a freelancer.”
Join ShakersThe decisions a Fractional CTO makes every week
A Fractional CTO is the technology executive a company brings in part time and without adding them to payroll: they set the technical strategy, define the architecture, choose vendors and steer the development team. The Spanish market calls the role fractional CTO, CTO as a Service, CTO externo or 'director tecnológico freelance'. Their boundary: the CIO governs internal systems, the architect designs what the CTO decides and the code is written by the developers. The technical decision is theirs; the execution is not.
You decide which stack holds the business and which one waits, which vendor comes in and which one gets changed, and which technical debt gets paid before it charges interest. You also decide what does not get done: an architecture the team cannot maintain is a bad decision, and stopping it is part of the engagement. The technology belongs to the business; the judgement that orders it is yours.
Technology strategyTechnology roadmapCloud architecture (AWSAzureGCP)Applied AI (OpenAIAnthropic)MVP and product discoveryB2B SaaSPythonTypeScriptReactNext.jsGoPostgreSQLCI/CDSecurity and complianceDevelopment team managementVendor evaluationTechnical due diligence
Technology strategyRoadmapCloud architectureApplied AITechnical due diligenceTeam management
Free to join, no hidden fees
How Shakers works for talent
Create your profile
Tell us who you are, what you can do, the projects you want to work on and what your availability and rate are.
Get your certification
We certify your experience and your use of AI so companies understand and trust what you bring.
Match with projects
We connect you with well-paid projects that fit your expertise and your preferences.
Projects that live up to your expectations
Work on real projects, with teams that need your expertise, without wasting time looking for opportunities.
Projects that fit you
Work with companies that need your stack and experience to take their projects to production.
Opportunities that come to you
Our AI matching connects your profile with the projects that fit your preferences.
You build. Shakers handles the rest
Set your own terms based on your seniority. We manage contracts, payments and paperwork.
What a Fractional CTO delivers on a Shakers project
The engagement arrives with the problem
The MVP that will not start, the legacy system that brakes or the funding round that asks for due diligence: a business decision, not a list of technologies.
Decisions that hold up
Roadmap ordered by impact, stack chosen with its maintenance cost and vendors evaluated: what you deliver, the business holds up every quarter.
Judgement, not technology quota
Cloud from AWS to GCP, applied AI when it adds up, and PostgreSQL or Next.js where they suffice: the phase and the team decide, not fashion.
Counted decisions, not titles
Having decided stack and roadmap with real consequences and knowing how to tell it: what you chose, what you defended and what the mistake cost you.
What gets done and what does not
Choosing between standard and custom development by maintenance cost. Sometimes standard wins, and stopping the architecture of the moment is part of the job.
Where your engagement ends
You decide and you steer; you do not write production code or run internal systems. If the engagement asks for execution, you say so and their row joins.
Frequently asked questions
Any other questions? Write to us and we will reply.
What does a Fractional CTO do on a real project?
They decide the technology of a startup or SMB part time: strategy, architecture, vendors and development team. One week touches choosing the stack of an MVP, another auditing the technical legacy before the client invests more.
Can you make a living from fractional CTO work in Spain?
The demand exists and grows: fractional CTO search rises +50% year on year in Spain and the buyer already translates it, with 'CTO fraccional' showing up in queries (Shakers market analysis, September 2026). What was missing was the Spanish-language channel with certification: that is why this route exists.
How much should you charge as a Fractional CTO?
The mechanism marks it: weekly dedication, commitment format, seniority and the phase of the client. Public market references do not help: prices per project, per hour and per subscription that look nothing alike. At Shakers you agree the budget per engagement before accepting.
Fractional, as a service or interim?
Three names with shades of format: fractional is the senior person part time; as a service, the offering with a team behind it; interim, the temporary vacancy that covers a payroll. Knowing which one each engagement offers is the first decision of how you sell your craft.
What changes between an in-house CTO and a Fractional CTO?
The craft is the same; the commitment changes. In-house you steer one company full time; as fractional you steer several part time and choose engagement by engagement. Many make the step from the executive seat or from engineering management.
How do you join Shakers as a certified Fractional CTO?
You create your profile, pass the certification process and enter the collective: only 4 percent make it. Then you choose which projects get your technical judgement.
The daily shape of the craft
The stack decision of the week, the vendor that gets audited, the technical debt that gets paid before it charges interest and the committee you tell why not. Fewer presentations, more decisions the business holds up every quarter.
The market of the four names
Fractional CTO, CTO as a Service, CTO externo, 'director tecnológico freelance': four doors to the same engagement, and the one rising is fractional, +50% year on year in search in Spain (Shakers market analysis, September 2026). The formula of the classic technology consultant ages while this one grows.
How people get here
Almost nobody lands here without having led before: they come from the CTO or technical director seat on payroll, from the tech lead who already decided, or from the Engineering Manager who discovers that SMBs need their judgement part time. The step is fractioning the job: the craft is already brought.
What this role is not
You do not write production code: the developers do, and you decide what gets built and in which order. You do not run internal systems (that is the CIO's) and you do not sell consultancy hours: you sell decisions with scope and an owner.
Who you share a technical project with
A technology direction does not live alone: whoever designs the platform, writes the code, runs the system and builds the AI crosses your path.
Cloud Architect
You decide the technology, they design it: platform, services and the balance between standard and custom. When the engagement asks for architecture detail, the project goes through their row.
Backend Developer
Whoever turns your decisions into systems: APIs, data and server logic. You define what to build and why; they write the code, with their own row in the same project.
Full Stack Developer
The MVP you define needs someone to deliver it end to end: frontend, backend and deployment in the same person. In SMBs and small teams, your engagements cross every sprint.
DevOps Engineer
The operations of the stack you steer: CI/CD, infrastructure and observability. When the pain is the pipeline and not the strategy, the project moves to their repository.
AI Engineer
The execution face of the AI you decide: models, agents and integrations on OpenAI or Anthropic. You choose where AI enters; they build it and maintain it.
Boundaries between these roles are agreed per project: the job title doesn't set them.
Take the next step with Shakers
Want to decide technology that gets used?
Pass Shakers certification and choose which projects get your technical judgement.
