Fractional iOS Lead · European scale-ups
Stop carrying iOS-shaped risk on your own.
I embed into European scale-ups as their iOS lead for the months they actually need one. Stabilizing the team after a senior leaves, running the migration the roadmap keeps pushing, or holding the iOS leadership seat while you hire the permanent lead.
Trusted by
The promise
Mobile is no longer the line in the board deck you dread.
You sleep through release night.
If your senior iOS engineer left tomorrow, the team would be fine.
Predictability and continuity, not velocity or transformation. Three ways to get there.
Three ways to engage — and one place to start
Named, time-bounded engagements. Each with a clear trigger, scope, and price.
12 weeks · Stabilization
Your senior iOS engineer just left
Acting iOS lead for 12 weeks. Keep the lights on, support the hire, grow the next tech lead from inside.
€55k fixed
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3–6 months · Delivery lead
Ship the migration
Embedded lead for a stalled platform initiative: e.g. SwiftUI, modularization, Tuist, Swift Concurrency, Swift 6, CocoaPods.
€7.5k audit + €19k/month
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Ongoing · Retainer
Embedded iOS lead
Three days a week for scale-ups with an iOS team and no iOS leadership in place.
€14k/month
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Start here · 2 weeks
Not sure where the problem is? The iOS function audit: everything that's true about your iOS function, written down. €7.5k fixed, fully credited if we keep working together.
See the audit →
Past engagements
Regulated, premium-brand, and consumer-scale iOS work. The engagements that shaped how I lead today.
DAK Gesundheit
DAK Gesundheit App
Working inside the iOS app of one of Germany's largest statutory health insurers. A regulated environment with hard constraints on security, privacy, and accessibility.
Canyon
Canyon App
iOS app for one of the world's leading direct-to-consumer bicycle brands. Bike purchase, ownership details, maintenance guides and a surface for customer retention.
Audi Business Innovation
Audi stage
Rapid-prototyping testbed for new Audi digital services. Built so that anything proven could move into the myAudi app without a rebuild.
Carrying iOS alone?
Thirty minutes. No deck, no pitch. Just a conversation about what's actually on your plate.
Book a scoping callFrequently asked
The questions scale-up CTOs, VPs of Engineering, and Heads of Mobile ask most often. Answered straight.
What is a fractional iOS lead, and how is it different from a senior contractor? ↓
A senior contractor is hired to ship features. A fractional iOS lead is hired to run the iOS function: architecture decisions, technical roadmap, hiring support, the calls a permanent iOS lead would make if you had one. Code still ships, but the unit being bought is leadership, not hours. The shape suits scale-ups that need senior iOS direction for the next three to twelve months without taking on the cost or commitment of a permanent hire.
What does a typical engagement look like? ↓
Three productized shapes. A 12-week stabilization when a senior engineer has just left, focused on keeping the lights on, running hiring, and identifying the next internal lead. A 3–6 month delivery lead for a stalled migration (e.g. SwiftUI, modularization, Tuist, Swift Concurrency). Or an embedded retainer at around three days a week with a 3-month minimum, for teams that have no iOS leadership and won't hire one in the next year. Each is scoped and time-bounded up front. Not sure which fits? A two-week iOS function audit maps the situation first: written report, ranked risks, a sequenced 6-month plan.
Do you work alongside an existing CTO and iOS team? ↓
Yes, that's the default. I'm not a CTO replacement or an agency. The engagement reports to the existing CTO or VPE and works with the iOS team that's already in place. A large part of the value is being the connective tissue for the iOS team while a permanent lead is hired, and translating between iOS and the rest of the org along the way.
Who is this not a fit for? ↓
Pre-seed founders evaluating native development for the first time. Enterprise procurement cycles and rate sensitivity. The US market. And any company culture that uses pressure as a management tool.
How does the pricing work? ↓
One rate logic across all three shapes. The migration delivery lead is the anchor: €19k per month for three days a week, carrying a named deliverable and a deadline. The embedded retainer is €14k per month for the same cadence, lower because an ongoing, renewable engagement is predictable for both sides. The stabilization is €55k fixed, effectively three months at the delivery rate with the time front-loaded, priced against what it replaces: a slipped quarter, a panic hire, a recruiter fee. The entry point is the iOS function audit: €7.5k fixed for two weeks, fully credited against any engagement that starts within 60 days. And each of the three engagements starts with two weeks at half rate, so a bad fit costs little to discover.
Do you write code, or just advise? ↓
Both. This engagement is fundamentally about leadership, but leadership only earns its keep by making the product better and trust gets built through hands-on work, not just direction. Expect a mix of decisions, written direction, hands-on implementation in the places that matter most, and the unglamorous work of keeping the team's onboarding doc, ADRs, and release process honest.