Assessment-led
Best when you need a clear starting point before committing to ongoing support. Begins with a current-state assessment and moves into roadmap execution if the fit is strong.
Ongoing leadershipSenior security leadership,
Senior security leadership,
without the full-time hire.
If your organization needs executive security leadership but isn't ready for a permanent CISO, a fractional engagement provides the structure, judgment, and momentum — and someone accountable for the answer when a customer or a board asks.
CISSPCISMCCSIO
NIST 800-171·DFARS 252.204-7012·CMMC 2.0| also SOC 2 · HIPAA · ISO 27001
The gap
Security problems rarely come from a shortage of tools.
Most growing organizations already have tools, policies, vendors, audits, customer requests, insurance questionnaires, and compliance pressure. What they lack is a security leader who can connect those pieces into one operating plan and defend it externally.
A fractional CISO exists to answer the questions that keep surfacing at the leadership level.
- Which risks should we actually care about?
- Are we spending the security budget in the right places?
- What do customers, auditors, insurers, and regulators expect from us?
- What needs to happen now, and what can wait?
- Who owns security decisions inside the business?
- How do we improve without slowing the company down?
Coverage
What the role covers.
Senior leadership on a part-time, advisory, or project basis. The job is not to produce findings — it is to help leadership decide, sequence, and build a program that fits the business.
01Security strategy and roadmap
Set the direction of the program, identify priorities, and produce a roadmap leadership can understand, fund, and act on.
02Risk governance and executive communication
Translate technical concerns into business risk, leadership decisions, and defensible next steps.
03Compliance readiness and gap planning
Understand and close gaps against the frameworks that apply to you.
- NIST 800-171
- DFARS 252.204-7012
- CMMC 2.0
- SOC 2
- HIPAA
- Customer-driven requirements
04Policy, process, and program development
Build the policies, processes, documentation, and recurring activities a credible program needs.
05Security operations oversight
Leadership-level oversight of monitoring, incident readiness, access control, vendor risk, awareness, vulnerability management, and reporting.
06Board, customer, and stakeholder support
Prepare and deliver the security narrative for customers, executives, boards, partners, auditors, and insurers.
07AI and automation readiness
Understand the security, governance, and sensitive-data implications of AI-enabled workflows before adopting or building them.
Ramp
The first 30, 60, and 90 days.
The engagement should create momentum quickly — clarify the business context, identify real risk, and turn security into an operating plan.
FIRST 30 DAYS
Understand the business
How the organization operates, what leadership is trying to accomplish, where security pressure originates, and which risks are already visible. Leadership interviews, policy and documentation review, and a read on current activity.
ORIENTFIRST 60 DAYS
Build the plan
A high-level roadmap, the urgent gaps, and practical actions that create near-term improvement. The goal is to separate noise from priority.
PLANFIRST 90 DAYS
Move into execution
Advisory execution against the agreed roadmap: governance improvements, compliance-readiness work, policy development, risk tracking, operations oversight, and customer-response support.
EXECUTEModels
Common engagement models.
Monthly advisory retainer
Best for ongoing CISO-level guidance: executive check-ins, roadmap management, risk tracking, compliance planning, and steady program development.
Project-based
Best for defined initiatives — roadmap creation, compliance-readiness planning, policy development, customer security response, or AI security readiness.
Virtual CISO
Best when you need flexible remote access to senior leadership without an embedded on-site schedule.
Output
What the engagement produces.
Every engagement should generate artifacts you can use. Depending on scope, that includes:
- Current-state assessment and executive security summary
- Risk register with business context and ownership
- Security roadmap and 30/60/90-day action plan
- Compliance gap summary against your applicable frameworks
- Policy and governance recommendations
- Customer and audit response support
- Security program operating cadence and leadership reporting structure
- AI and automation-readiness guidance
Scope
What this is not.
Clarity cuts both ways. Here is what we do not do, so you can rule us out quickly if we are the wrong fit.
- Managed IT or helpdesk services
- Tool resale — we hold no vendor partnerships and take no referral fees
- Guaranteed certification outcomes or formal audit substitution
- Penetration testing or offensive security
- A promise that risk can be eliminated
- Unvalidated AI automation claims
Before you call
Questions we get first.
How much time does a fractional CISO actually spend with us?
It depends on the model. A monthly advisory retainer typically means recurring executive check-ins plus roadmap and risk management between them. Project-based work is scoped to the initiative. We size this during the scoping call rather than selling a fixed block of hours you may not need.
Can you sit in customer and audit conversations?
Yes. Representing the security program to enterprise customers, auditors, insurers, and boards is one of the highest-value parts of the role, and often the reason companies engage in the first place.
What happens if we hire a full-time CISO later?
That is a successful outcome, and part of the job is preparing for it — a documented program, a live risk register, and a roadmap your new hire can pick up on day one rather than restarting.
Do you replace our IT team or MSP?
No. We provide leadership and direction above the operational layer. Your internal team or MSP continues to run the systems; we make sure the right work is prioritized and that someone senior owns the risk conversation.
Get a clearer starting point.
Thirty minutes to see whether an assessment is the right next move. If it isn't, we'll tell you that on the call.