Jacob Ralph

Available to hire

Fractional CTO who also builds: AI systems, full-stack engineering, audits and rescues. You get a fractional CTO who also builds, so the person who makes your technical calls ships them.

About

Fractional CTO who also builds: AI systems, full-stack engineering, audits and rescues.

You get a fractional CTO who also builds, so the person who makes your technical calls ships them. I have 17+ years in production software. As co-founder and CTO I built an AI platform from zero to 50+ companies with under 3% churn.

Client feedback: “He does not simply complete assigned tasks. He identifies risks early, thinks through how decisions will affect the product long term, and recommends practical solutions based on real-world experience.”

FRACTIONAL CTO
If no one on your staff owns the technical decisions, I take that seat: what to build first, in what order, and whether what was built is right. If you already have developers or an agency, I set their direction and review what they ship. You get a plain-language written update every week. I have worked as fractional CTO on an AI and maps mobile assistant MVP, from scope and architecture to developer hiring and build oversight. I am working as senior technical lead for a mid-market operator that does not need a full-time CTO.

AI AUTOMATION AND AGENTS
I write down the work your team repeats and rate each task: automate it, have the system draft it for a person to approve, or leave it with a person. I have built an order-email processor that flags uncertain matches for a person, an invoice reconciliation that writes back payment status, and a system where supervisor models review what worker models produce before a user sees it.

FULL-STACK ENGINEERING
MVPs and full products for web and mobile, in TypeScript, React, Next.js, Node.js and Python, on PostgreSQL and AWS. I have built a freight logistics platform with role-based access and shipped a React Native mobile app. I am working as technical lead on a marketplace’s Next.js web platform, including its CI/CD and booking.

AUDITS
An independent look at your live platform: a written report of what to fix first and what can wait. I have done a paid code review of a pre-launch platform. If you start a build with me within 60 days, the audit fee is credited toward it.

RESCUES
A stalled project, or an AI pilot that works in a demo and fails in use, gets a short fixed-price diagnosis that ends in a written verdict: fix it, finish it, narrow it, rebuild it or stop.

HOW I WORK
Discovery comes first. I get the context and ask the questions that turn a half-formed idea into a fully formed one, and I gauge how technical you are. The scope, an acceptance test, the plan and the architecture follow from that.
I am one accountable lead on your project. I use generative AI on client work and tell you so before we start. Anything that fails the agreed test and is found within 30 days of acceptance, I fix at no extra charge.

Based in Dallas, TX (Central Time), working 100% remote. Message me with one line about what you need. You get a written reply within one working day.

  • Joined October 2026

Industry experience

  • Software & Internet
  • Professional Services
  • Computers & Electronics

Projects · 8

SaaS platform that tracks how brands appear in AI search engines. As Co-Founder & CTO of FancyAI (2023–2026), I led product and engineering. Problem: brands had no way to measure or optimize how ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini and Grok recommend them. Traditional SEO tools only track Google. What we built Visibility tracking (Visibility Score, Share of Voice, Citations, Sentiment) across 5 AI platforms AI recommendation engine generating 30-40+ optimization briefs per customer across 18 task types Citation Builder for AI-matched publisher placements Research corpus of 40,000+ websites and 1,500+ sources Results: 50+ paying customers, under 3% monthly churn and an 80% demo close rate. Stack: Next.js, React, Tailwind, Node.js, MongoDB, AWS

  • AI Developer
  • AI Engineer
  • AI Strategy Consultant
  • +2

Event-driven AI CRM for a growing software agency that was losing deals to slow, inconsistent follow-up. What we built 41 event-driven workflows orchestrating 39 specialized AI agents Ingests inbound messages, meeting transcripts and email; agents read per-lead git repos for full context and draft responses, proposals and scoping docs Human-in-the-loop review queue (approve / edit / send) on every outbound draft 5 live integrations, 36-model Postgres schema, 143 test files incl. Playwright E2E Result: CRM module in active production use. Stack: TypeScript, Next.js, Fastify, Postgres, Prisma, Claude (Anthropic), Slack

  • AI Developer
  • AI Engineer
  • AI Strategy Consultant
  • +2

Multi-agent system that turns feature specs into merge-ready, tested code. Problem: AI code generation looks right in demos but breaks in production, so teams lose the speed gain to human rework. What we built Specialized AI agents collaborating through iterative refinement loops Test-driven generation: tests written before implementation Adversarial self-review that catches issues before human reviewers 725+ tests validating the system itself Stack: TypeScript, Node.js, SQLite, Zod, OpenAI, Claude

  • AI Developer
  • AI Engineer
  • AI Strategy Consultant
  • +2

AI-native SDLC orchestration system that automates the software engineering process, with human oversight only at version boundaries. What we built AI Supervisor managing planning, execution, review and quality across six modes: Code, QA, DevOps, Security, Performance, Compliance Claude Opus-powered evaluation engine making qualitative decisions at nine key evaluation points Parallel AI workstreams with file-conflict prevention, crash recovery and stuck detection Stack: NestJS, Next.js, TypeScript, PostgreSQL, Docker, WebSockets, Electron, Claude

  • AI Developer
  • AI Engineer
  • AI Strategy Consultant
  • +2

Phrase-based codebook system that cuts LLM token usage and cost. Problem: token pricing adds up fast, and AI outputs repeat the same phrases, wasting cost, bandwidth and storage. What we built: a codebook that replaces frequent multi-token phrases in JSON responses with short codes, while keeping full responses easy to reconstruct. Stack: Node.js, OpenAI

  • AI Developer
  • AI Engineer
  • AI Strategy Consultant
  • +2

One-way integration syncing appointments and patients from a spa-booking platform into an EHR for an IV-therapy clinic, eliminating manual re-entry of protected health information. What we built Timer-triggered Azure Function (every 10 minutes) with incremental, watermark-based sync Patient matching and dedup (date of birth + name, then phone/email) with safe auto-create Dual OAuth2 refresh-token flows (booking platform + EHR) Retry logic, email failure alerts and HTML sync reports Stack: C#, .NET, Azure Functions, Azure SQL, Entity Framework, REST

  • AI Developer
  • AI Engineer
  • AI Strategy Consultant
  • +2

Unified platform for a freight logistics company that was running operations on spreadsheets, phone calls and disconnected tools. What we built 5-role RBAC: Admin, Dispatcher, Carrier, Shipper, Broker Real-time load management and status tracking Carrier assignment and performance tracking Document management on S3, automated notifications Containerized deployment with Docker Stack: NestJS, Next.js, Postgres, Prisma, S3, Docker

  • AI Developer
  • AI Engineer
  • AI Strategy Consultant
  • +2

Architecture and project plan for a national fitness franchise website rebuild: 60+ locations, ~12K active members, hard go-live deadline. Problem: an outdated site-builder site that couldn't scale with franchise growth. What we designed React + Next.js frontend on Vercel with Sanity headless CMS Templated location pages so each new franchise launches without a custom build Central content editing (edit once, all locations update) SEO-indexable location pages with schema.org LocalBusiness markup Deliverables: technical architecture document, full project plan, service agreement, kickoff deck. Stack: Next.js, React, Sanity, Vercel

  • AI Developer
  • AI Engineer
  • AI Strategy Consultant
  • +2

Work experience· 8 roles

Co-Founder and CTO · FancyAINov 2023 – May 2026 · 2 yrs 7 mos

I owned the technical architecture and AI pipeline design of a production AI platform running parallel Claude and GPT pipelines across 18 distinct task types, with a queue, retries and failure handling, and took it from zero to 50+ companies with under 3% churn.

Partner, Head of Operations · Fancy AwesomeOct 2020 – Mar 2024 · 3 yrs 6 mos

As a partner at Fancy Awesome, a digital marketing agency serving hundreds of brands, I ran operations and fulfillment, in practice as its COO. I scaled the agency's operations, led its move to AI-assisted workflows and managed its cross-functional delivery teams.

Head of SEO & Development · Fancy AwesomeOct 2019 – Sep 2020 · 1 yr

I led SEO and development at Fancy Awesome, a digital marketing agency. I moved into this role after a year as a senior full-stack engineer there. A year later I moved on to head operations and fulfillment.

Senior Full-Stack Software Engineer · Fancy AwesomeOct 2018 – Sep 2019 · 1 yr
President and CTO · Serene LabsJul 2018 – Present · 8 yrs 5 mos
Co-Founder and CTO · Client Book CRMSep 2013 – Aug 2019 · 6 yrs
Software Technician · Supply DynamicsJun 2010 – Aug 2010 · 3 mos
Lead Developer · Imperial GamesSep 2009 – Mar 2011 · 1 yr 7 mos

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