What is a fractional CTO, and do I need one?

A fractional CTO is a senior technical leader who works part-time across one or more companies, typically one to two days a week. You likely need one if your team is shipping software but has no senior engineering voice in the room — for hiring, architecture, security, roadmap and tough technical decisions.

How much does a website accessibility audit cost?

A small marketing-site WCAG 2.2 audit typically starts around £1,500, with larger product audits in the £4,000–£10,000 range depending on the number of templates, components and user journeys. Every engagement includes a prioritised issue list and a remediation plan you can hand directly to your developers.

What is WCAG 2.2 and does my site need to comply?

WCAG 2.2 is the current Web Content Accessibility Guidelines standard. In the UK, public-sector sites are legally required to meet WCAG 2.2 AA under the Public Sector Bodies Accessibility Regulations 2018. Private-sector sites are expected to be accessible under the Equality Act 2010 and increasingly under the European Accessibility Act from June 2025.

How long does a website performance audit take?

A typical performance audit takes one to two weeks: lab testing against Core Web Vitals, field-data review from real users, render-path analysis and a written report with prioritised fixes. Urgent engagements can be completed in a few days if the site is small and the issues are obvious.

Do you work with teams outside the UK?

Yes. chrimes.dev is remote-first and based in Leeds, UK, working across UK and European time zones. Most engagements happen over video calls, shared docs and pull requests. I travel to clients in person for kick-offs and workshops when it helps.

What technology stacks do you specialise in?

Modern web stacks — Next.js, React, TypeScript, Node.js, and headless content systems. I have deep experience with design systems (including the NHS and GOV.UK patterns), accessibility tooling and performance engineering. For audits I’m stack-agnostic.

How do engagements typically start?

A short free call to understand the problem, a written proposal with scope, price and timeline, and a signed agreement before any work begins. Audits are fixed-price; retainers and fractional CTO work are billed monthly.

Software Development

Strat7 user research platform

Long-running engagement with Strat7, a research agency running user research for some of the UK's biggest brands.

Client: Strat7
Role: Software Developer
Year: 2017
Duration: Ongoing since 2017

In short

A trusted-partner relationship running since 2017 — rare in a contracting context.
Software work for a research agency whose clients include some of the UK's biggest brands.
Quietly evolving a platform over years, not rewriting it every eighteen months.

The brief

Research agencies live and die by their tooling: the faster and cleaner they can run fieldwork and synthesis, the more time there is for the interesting analytical work their clients actually buy. Strat7's platform has had to evolve as research methodologies, client expectations and UK brand research itself have changed.

The brief isn't one thing — it's a running relationship. Some years it's a new capability; some years it's hardening or speeding up what's there; some years it's rescoping for a new client engagement.

Approach

Treating the platform as a living product, not a single project — each release evaluated on what it unlocked for the research team.

Working in small, short iterations, with tight feedback loops with the people actually running the research.

Keeping the codebase healthy — refactors, tests, dependency updates — so the platform can still move quickly after years of live use.

What I delivered

New research-workflow features and capabilities
Platform performance and reliability improvements
Ongoing technical maintenance and modernisation
Consultative technical input on research-platform decisions

Outcomes

A platform that's kept pace with the agency's growth over the better part of a decade
A low-friction way for Strat7 to access senior engineering judgement without carrying it in-house
A working example of what a properly long-running client relationship produces over time

Software DevelopmentKainos (for NHS England), 2026

NHS Online service

Helping build NHS Online — a new national digital hospital launching in England by 2027, connecting patients to specialists via the NHS App and easing elective waiting times.

Read case study

Software DevelopmentNHS England, 2025

Manage Your Screening (MAYS)

Lead UI Developer on the Manage Your Screening team — making NHS cancer screening easier to understand, easier to access, and easier to manage.