Skip to content
Vadim Polyakov

Accepting 2 new engagements for Q1 2027

Technology strategy your board and your engineers believe in.

I help CEOs, CIOs and investors turn complex technology estates into clear, executable architecture — as a fractional CTO, enterprise architect and independent advisor.

  • TOGAF® 10 Certified
  • AWS Solutions Architect Pro
  • 20+ years in technology leadership
Target-state architecturev2.3
Layered architecture diagram linking business strategy to platformsSTRATEGYBUSINESSAPPSDATAPLATFORMGrowthMarginRiskCustomerFulfilmentFinanceCRMOrder hubERPEventsLakehouseMDMCloudIdentityObserve
Value streamDependency

Sound familiar?

The problems I’m usually called in to solve

Most engagements start with one of these. All of them are solvable — with the right architecture, the right sequence, and someone accountable for both.

01

Technology spend keeps rising. Business value doesn’t.

Budgets, vendors and cloud bills grow every year, but nobody can draw a straight line from that spend to revenue, margin or risk.

02

Every initiative turns into an integration project.

Years of acquisitions and point solutions have left you with two of everything and no single source of truth.

03

You need CTO-level judgment, not a full-time CTO.

The decisions are executive-level — architecture, hiring, vendors, board updates — but the role doesn’t justify a permanent hire yet.

04

The board wants answers on AI, risk and scale.

And you want those answers to come from someone independent, who has done it before and has nothing to sell.

Services

Senior expertise, scoped to what you actually need

From a two-week due diligence sprint to an 18-month fractional CTO engagement — each one designed around outcomes, not hours.

6–18 months

Fractional CTO

Executive-level ownership of technology strategy, team and delivery for companies that need a CTO’s judgment two to eight days a month.

  • 12–18 month technology roadmap
  • Org design and hiring plan
  • Engineering operating cadence and metrics
  • Board and investor technology updates
Learn more
8–12 weeks

Enterprise Architecture

Pragmatic, business-led architecture: capability maps, target state and a sequenced roadmap that teams can actually execute.

  • Business capability map
  • Current-state application and data landscape
  • Target-state architecture and principles
  • Sequenced transition roadmap with business cases
Learn more
4–8 weeks

AI Strategy

A practical AI strategy: where AI creates value in your business, the architecture and guardrails to deliver it, and a portfolio of use cases with ROI.

Learn more
6–8 weeks

Cloud Strategy & Optimization

Evidence-based cloud strategy and cost optimization that cuts run cost, improves reliability and frees teams to build what differentiates you.

Learn more
2–3 weeks

Technology Due Diligence

Fast, candid technology and team assessment for investors and acquirers, with risks quantified and a 100-day value-creation plan.

Learn more

Track record

Outcomes that show up in the numbers.

Every engagement starts with a measurable baseline and ends with results the CFO can verify.

Years building and leading technology organizations
20+
Years building and leading technology organizations
In transactions supported through technical due diligence
$1.2B
In transactions supported through technical due diligence
Average infrastructure cost reduction after modernization
38%
Average infrastructure cost reduction after modernization
Architecture and CTO engagements delivered
60+
Architecture and CTO engagements delivered

How engagements work

Clear scope. Fast start. No surprises.

Every engagement follows the same simple path, whether it lasts two weeks or eighteen months.

  1. 1

    30 min · free

    Discovery call

    We discuss your goals, constraints and whether I’m the right fit.

  2. 2

    1–3 weeks

    Assessment

    Interviews, system and data review, and an honest baseline.

  3. 3

    1–2 weeks

    Roadmap

    Options, trade-offs and a sequenced, costed plan your board can back.

  4. 4

    Ongoing

    Lead & deliver

    Hands-on leadership until the plan is delivered — or handed over.

Client perspective

In their words

Vadim gave our board a technology strategy it could actually understand and our engineers a roadmap they believed in. Within two quarters we shipped faster with a smaller cloud bill.

Alex MorganCEO, Northwind Logistics

The due diligence report was the clearest we have received. It surfaced two material risks the other advisors missed and gave us a 100-day plan we used verbatim.

Priya RamanOperating Partner, Halcyon Capital

As a fractional CTO he did in six months what we had failed to do in two years: one platform, one architecture, and a team that owns it.

Daniel OkaforFounder & CEO, Fabrikam Health

Insights

Thinking on architecture & leadership