A Fractional CISO is a named senior partner in the role, in the room with the board, the auditor, and the customer, with decision rights on risk, controls, and the security investment plan. Not a consultant on retainer. Not a marketplace platform. The seat.
Security decisions accumulate. Risk acceptances, control trade-offs, vendor approvals, customer attestations, board commitments, regulator responses, every one of these is a decision that needs an executive owner. When the seat is empty, the decisions get deferred, escalated to the wrong forum, or made informally by people who don't have the authority to make them. That's where the findings come from.
Hiring a full-time CISO is the right answer eventually. Today, it's not the answer for the next nine months. Fractional CISO is the owner in the seat now, a senior partner with industry depth and the standing to chair the board conversation, sign the customer attestation, sit across from the auditor, and lead the program until the full-time hire is ready to take it.
Trade-offs deferred, or made informally by people without the authority.
Third parties onboarded without anyone accountable for the exception.
Security questionnaires signed by whoever was least busy that week.
A quarterly slide with no owner standing behind the numbers on it.
An enterprise customer requires a named security executive on the contract. The board wants someone they can call. An investor's diligence flagged the gap. The deal, the round, or the relationship is conditional on the seat being filled.
Something broke. A breach, a finding, a regulator inquiry. The org needs an executive who can answer 'what changes now' with authority, run the remediation, and represent the response externally.
Security started as part of IT. It scaled past where a sub-executive can credibly own it, but the path to a full-time CISO hire isn't ready, or isn't the right next move.
One person, matched to your industry, your framework, and your stage. Not a pool, not a platform, not a rotation. The name on the contract is the name in the room.
A standing report written for the board, risk posture, program progress, regulatory horizon, incident trends, with the underlying evidence ready when asked.
Walkthroughs, evidence reviews, certifications, and exception responses chaired by your Fractional CISO. The auditor talks to one person, with one voice.
Senior signatory on questionnaires, BAAs, and master agreements. Customer security reviews led by the executive the customer was asking for.
Where the investment goes, what closes, what waits, what gets watched. Reviewed every quarter against the running program and the regulatory horizon.
The risk register is your CISO's. Decisions are dated, signed, and traceable, so when something happens, the response isn't reconstructed, it's documented.
When a full-time hire is the right next move, we run the search support, the onboarding plan, and the handoff, so the org you hand to them is set up for them to succeed.
We pair you with the right senior partner based on your industry, your audit framework, your stage, and the specific shape of the seat you need filled. The match is named before the engagement starts, not assigned out of a pool after.
First 60 days. The Fractional CISO reads the program, names the open decisions, builds the cadence, and stands up the forums that don't exist. By day 60, the role is live, the board, the auditor, the customer, and the org all know who to call.
The running engagement. Quarterly board reports, audit and regulator engagement, customer security reviews, incident leadership, program oversight. Decisions made and dated under the CISO's name.
When a full-time hire is the right next move, we run the search support, the onboarding plan, and the executive transition. The Fractional steps back as the full-time CISO steps in, to an organization set up for them to succeed.
Executive-level ownership of the security program: roadmap, investment, governance, and the cross-functional forum where security decisions actually get made.
See expertiseStanding up and chairing the GRC forum and the working groups underneath it, the structure that lets risk decisions get made at the right level, by the right people.
See expertiseWorking knowledge of SOC 2, HITRUST, HIPAA, PCI, NYDFS, ISO 27001, and the state and sectoral rules that reach mid-market organizations, applied to your specific environment.
See expertiseTranslating risk and compliance into the fiduciary language the board, the audit committee, and the investor signs off on. Written reports, in-person presentations, and the document trail that comes with them.
See expertiseThirty minutes with a senior partner. Bring the seat you need filled, board-facing, audit-facing, customer-facing, or all three, and we'll name the partner who matches it.