I’m Johnny Austin
I build and scale AI product and engineering teams that ship.
Fractional CTO | Interim Leadership | Scale & Operations | 20 Years
I step into VP and CTO roles—fractional or interim—for companies that need experienced engineering leadership without the full-time hire.
I've built and managed teams from 5 to 200, managed $20M budgets, and shipped AI products to production. I've scaled products serving millions of users across fintech, social media, logistics, and developer tools.
I help you ship faster, hire well, build better, and avoid the expensive mistakes I've already made.
I’ve worked with…
-
As Fractional CTO, I architected Spill's Overreactions feature and AI-enabled spam detection system while scaling their platform past $1M revenue. Strategic advisor on product, UX, and performance.
[Social Media, AI, Consumer]
-
VP of Engineering. Scaled release velocity 4x (one to four per week) and reduced application errors by 90%. Improved LLM accuracy from 78% to 95%. Built QA function and on-call incident response program.
[B2B SaaS, AI]
-
Head of Product & Engineering, Customer Engagement (following Till acquisition). Managed $20M budget and 200-person cross-functional organization. Teams generated $19.2M in revenue in 2024 serving 1M+ customers.
[Fintech, Consumer]
-
CTO. Scaled fintech platform from 250K to 7M+ units (28x growth) while achieving SOC 2 compliance. Led technical due diligence through acquisition by Best Egg.
[Fintech, Consumer]
-
Director of Engineering & Interim GM, Navigation. Pivoted product strategy, scaling revenue from $650K to $3.3M (5x growth) while leading 40-person globally distributed team.
[B2B, Developer tooling]
-
Tech Fellows Program. Consulted on Eno AI team's engineering operations and conducted acquisition due diligence for Paribus (price-tracking fintech, 700K+ users
[Fintech, Banking, Consumer]
When to call me.
Fractional CTO
You need strategic technical leadership but aren't ready for a full-time hire. I embed with your team 2-5 hours per week to provide guidance, make critical decisions, and keep engineering aligned with business goals.
Interim CTO/VP
You're between leaders, scaling fast, or restructuring. I step in full-time to stabilize operations, hire your permanent team (or help you hire temporary help), and set you up for long-term success.
Advisory
Your board or founding team needs technical expertise for strategic decisions. I advise on engineering leadership hiring, organizational scaling, technology strategy, and major architectural decisions without ongoing operational involvement.
Technical Due Diligence
You're acquiring a company or evaluating a technical partner. I assess architecture, team capabilities, security posture, and hidden risks so you know exactly what you're buying.
“Johnny is a transformative leader who rallies A-level talent together to accomplish the right work.”
— David Sullivan, Founder & CEO at Till“He’s an inspiring people manager…he brought out the best in me and our coworkers.”
— Tarani Duncan, AI Product at IBM
“Johnny definitely played a very large role in the biggest transformation our org has ever undergone.”
— Brian Conneen, CTO at Best Egg“Please don’t hire Johnny. I’d like him to join Spill as its full-time, permanent CTO.”
— Alphonzo Terrell, Founder & CEO at Spill
Ready to talk?
Free consultation to discuss potential scope and fit
