A fractional CTO who ships code, carries compliance, and aligns engineering with the business.
For crypto-native finance, healthcare, AI infrastructure, and cloud-native scale-ups. Seventeen years of senior engineering leadership across four industries.
Recent outcomes: an insurance product taken from a monolithic codebase to 430,000 users in eight months; a crypto hedge fund moved from spreadsheets to automated delta hedging within twelve months.
I work alongside your team, not above it. Code lands, decisions get made, the board gets a straight answer.
Engagement modes
- Hands-on build lead Senior engineering capacity that ships code alongside the in-house team, taking ownership of architecture, infrastructure, and the hard parts of the codebase.
- 0→1 architecture and stack selection Greenfield system design, build-versus-buy assessment, and technology selection that holds up under investor and regulatory scrutiny.
- AI integration and development Embedding LangChain-based agents, retrieval pipelines, and inference layers into existing products; greenfield agentic systems where the agent is the product. Practical experience with LangChain, TensorFlow, and the integration layer between AI capabilities and regulated production systems.
- Compliance-first system design GDPR, DORA, MiCA, and EU AI Act-aligned architecture with audit trails, data residency, and breach posture designed in from day one. See the regulatory compliance page for article-level deliverables.
Who I work with
Seed-stage teams without a CTO yet. Series A companies between full-time hires. Later-stage scale-ups bringing in a specialist for a known problem. Enterprises absorbing a new technical capability. The common thread is a technical decision that needs to be right the first time.
Sectors I know deeply: crypto-native finance (funds, OTC desks, exchanges, DeFi protocols), healthcare (clinical platforms, data-sensitive integrations), AI and agent infrastructure (LangChain-based systems, agentic architectures, integration layers), and cloud-native strategy and implementation (AWS, Google Cloud, Kubernetes, real-time data pipelines). Engagements move fastest where two or more of these overlap.
Frequently asked
- What is a fractional CTO?
- A fractional Chief Technology Officer is a senior engineering leader engaged on a part-time, ongoing basis — typically one to three days per week — rather than as a full-time hire. The role covers architecture, technical decision-making, hiring, board-level technical communication, and, in hands-on engagements, direct contribution to the codebase.
- Which industries do you work with?
- Cuko Ltd serves four primary sectors: crypto-native finance (funds, OTC desks, exchanges, DeFi protocols), healthcare (clinical platforms and data-sensitive integrations), AI and agent infrastructure (LangChain-based systems and agentic architectures), and cloud-native strategy and implementation (AWS, Google Cloud, Kubernetes, real-time data pipelines).
- What is your minimum engagement?
- One day per week. Engagements run from a single discovery sprint to multi-quarter build leadership. Day-rate, weekly retainer, and monthly retainer options are available.
- Are you based in the United Kingdom?
- Yes. Samuel Ventimiglia is based in London, United Kingdom. Cuko Ltd is registered in England and Wales (Company no. 14989953) with its registered office in West London.
- Are you happy to work across different time zones?
- Yes. Engagements with clients in North America, EMEA, and Asia are routine. Working hours are agreed at engagement start to ensure overlap with the client team.
- Do you handle compliance for regulated industries?
- Yes. Compliance-first system design is one of the core engagement modes. Practical experience covers GDPR, DORA, MiCA, and EU AI Act-aligned architecture, including audit trails, data residency, and incident response. Three production data-breach incidents have been handled end-to-end.
- What technology stack do you use?
- Day-to-day stack: Go, Python, SQL and NoSQL databases, Apache Kafka, NATS JetStream, Nginx, Docker, Kubernetes. Cloud: AWS and Google Cloud. AI tooling: LangChain, TensorFlow. Certifications include AWS and LangChain.
Start a conversation
Discovery calls run thirty minutes, no obligation. The fastest route is email.