Interim CTO for a Forex and Crypto Trading Company in Dubai

The challenge

The group was launching a completely new crypto trading product in a short period of time, with an American white-label trading platform as the backend. A white-label platform shortens the road a lot: a 2026 guide by Evercode Lab says a white-label exchange can often be deployed within one to two months, compared with 12 to 24 months to build one from scratch. The platform still has to be connected to the company’s own systems, teams and controls before customers can trade.

In parallel, the teams were working on the next release of the group’s Forex trading application. Two launches at the same time put pressure on the same people: product owners, developers, the architecture team and management.

Forex and crypto trading are both regulated. A group with licensed companies in several countries has to meet the technology rules of each regulator, such as DORA for investment firms in the European Union, and crypto services in Dubai have their own regulator, VARA, with its own Technology and Information Rulebook. Each rule has to be mapped to the right company and to the systems that support it.

The company also needed a permanent CTO, and a clear view of which leadership roles would really cover its needs.

My task: as Interim CTO on site in Dubai, lead technology through both launches, assess the teams, the infrastructure and security, give management a clear one-year roadmap, and lead the hiring of the permanent CTO.

Interim CTO or external CTO: what is the difference?

An interim CTO joins a company full time, or nearly full time, for a limited period, usually a few months. They take the CTO’s place in the management team, make decisions, keep delivery going and often help to hire the permanent CTO who comes next. An external CTO, often called a fractional CTO, works part time, usually one or two days a week and often for several companies, and gives ongoing advice and oversight without running the teams day to day. You can read more in Go Fractional’s guide to the interim CTO role (2026) and in Stephan Schmidt’s comparison (2025).

This engagement was an interim CTO role: two months full time on site, with a mandate to lead technology and to hire the permanent CTO. Since then I advise the company ad hoc, which is closer to the external CTO model.

What I did

1. Led technology through a crypto trading launch and a Forex release as Interim CTO

   For two months I worked on site at the group’s headquarters in Dubai, closely with product owners, developers and C-level management, including the Chairman of the group. The main goal was to help launch a completely new crypto trading project in a short period of time, with an American white-label trading platform as the backend. In parallel, the teams were preparing the next release of the Forex trading application, and I worked with the product owners and developers of both streams.

2. Assessed the architecture team and the team leads

   I assessed the qualification and capabilities of the architecture team and of the leads of different teams. This gave management a clear view of the teams’ strengths and gaps before any decision about the permanent leadership.

3. Analysed infrastructure, DeFi infrastructure and security against compliance requirements

   I made a deep analysis of the infrastructure, including the DeFi infrastructure, and of security, including the compliance requirements that should apply. For the cloud part I set up an assessment that can be repeated: read-only access, automated collection of the configuration across the AWS estate, analysis of the dependencies between resources, and findings checked against source evidence and mapped to regulatory and AWS requirements. The same process can measure the progress of remediation on every future scan.

   Technical details

   • Scope: AWS accounts and resources, their dependencies and shared exposure, DeFi infrastructure and security controls.
   • Compliance: each obligation mapped to the licensed company it applies to and to the cloud services that support it, with the regulator’s rules for that company (for example DORA in the EU and VARA in Dubai).
   • Evidence: false positives removed against source evidence; areas that couldn’t be checked were reported as gaps, because a missing finding in an area nobody could see doesn’t prove compliance.
   • Severity: every finding rated Critical, High, Medium or Low, which set the order of the roadmap.

4. Gave management a one-year roadmap prioritised by severity

   I gave management a clear roadmap for one year of ongoing improvements, prioritised by severity. The first steps are to confirm the scope (which accounts and critical services belong to which licensed company, regulator, owner and data class), close the gaps in evidence, fix the confirmed critical findings, and prove resilience by defining recovery targets (RTO and RPO) and testing restoration and failover. After that, the roadmap runs as a programme with owners, deadlines and accepted exceptions, and a monthly report to executive management on risk removed, risk accepted and overdue items.

5. Led the hiring of the permanent CTO and advised on leadership roles

   In parallel I led the hiring process for the permanent CTO and advised C-level management on the configuration of roles that would cover the company’s real needs. My recommendation was to keep and strengthen the SRE team, add permanent ownership of the cloud architecture, and give one leader, a permanent CTO or a Head of Infrastructure and Security, the accountability to turn business requirements into priorities and to accept risk at the right level. Over time, a cross-functional Cloud Center of Excellence can bring architecture, SRE, security, compliance, risk and FinOps together.

Results

In 2026, the engagement delivered:

• Technology leadership for a new crypto trading launch on a white-label backend and for the next Forex app release, running in parallel.
• A clear view of the qualification and capabilities of the architecture team and the team leads.
• An analysis of the infrastructure, DeFi infrastructure and security against compliance requirements, with an assessment process that can be repeated to measure progress.
• A one-year roadmap of improvements prioritised by severity, with monthly reporting to executive management.
• A hiring process for the permanent CTO and a recommended set of leadership roles.
• The two-month on-site stage successfully completed, followed by ad hoc advice with periodic business trips to Dubai.

What I learned

External consultants can accelerate decisions. Permanent internal ownership must maintain the roadmap and evidence.

A growing platform keeps creating new systems, dependencies and obligations, so even the strongest experts can’t remove every risk in one intervention. That is why this engagement ended with an assessment the company can repeat, a roadmap with owners, a monthly report to management and the hiring of a permanent CTO. Improvement runs alongside business growth, and it doesn’t need a freeze on delivery.

Evidence and further reading

• Related projectBuilding a Cloud Center of Excellence from zeroThe operating model I recommended here, built for another international group.
• Related projectDORA compliance: benchmarking data center resilienceHow technology-risk rules for regulated financial companies work in practice.
• Related projectEmergency cloud migration of a core banking platformLeading technology for a regulated financial company under time pressure.
• Service · this siteOperation Partner: fractional CTO, managing partner, board memberHow I work with companies as an interim or external CTO today.

The client’s name and the platform vendor are under NDA. White-label time to market is from Evercode Lab (March 2026); VARA’s rules are in its Technology and Information Rulebook.

Skills and technologies

• Interim CTO
• External CTO
• Fractional CTO
• Technology leadership
• C-level advisory
• Crypto trading platform
• White-label platform
• Forex trading
• DeFi infrastructure
• AWS
• Cloud security assessment
• Compliance mapping
• DORA
• VARA
• Risk-based roadmap
• Team assessment
• CTO hiring
• SRE
• Cloud Center of Excellence

← All projects