I’m Jay Leon. I help founders and leadership teams make high-stakes platform and AI decisions, then stay involved through delivery. You work with me directly: CTO-level judgment, hands-on architecture, and acceptance criteria agreed before anything is built.
Based in Northwest Arkansas. Working nationwide.
Track record
I’ve run technology as a CTO and VP, and I still do hands-on engineering, lately with AI agents. That lets me weigh a decision at the leadership table and then check whether it holds up in the code.
Healthcare · CTO
6 weeks to a HIPAA-aligned intelligence platform, built by a team of four
I lead product and engineering at a personalized nutrition company. On this platform, AI handled the repetitive implementation and structural checks while the team owned requirements, design, and sign-off.
How the platform was builtThreat intelligence · Technology leadership
Architect → VP of Technology at a threat intelligence company serving enterprises and government agencies
I joined as Lead Platform Architect and moved up to Director and then VP of Technology, so I’ve been responsible for both the platform and the strategy around it.
From architecture to the executive roleTravel marketplace · Engineering advisor
Simpler stack and lower hosting costs for an inherited marketplace
I led three developers in stabilizing a product built by earlier teams. We standardized the stack, automated routine work, and cut the hosting bill.
Working through inherited complexityHe’s built systems large and small that continue to scale … in some cases going in and re-architecting failing systems that used fewer resources to achieve greater results.
Mike DorySr. Staff UX Engineering Lead, Google DeepMind · via LinkedInHaving Jay on your team is sure to give you confidence that even the craziest brilliant ideas can become a reality.
Marc HartzmanExecutive Creative Director, KBS+ · via LinkedInThese are roles I held at each organization, not Vitasphere client engagements. Earlier work, including award-winning campaign platforms at KBS+, is on the About page, and the full history is on LinkedIn.
A fixed-scope review of your systems, team, and vendors. You get a written account of what works, what doesn’t, and what to do first. Most clients start here.
From $7,500 Fixed fee · 2–4 weeks
Senior technology leadership, part-time. I take on the architecture calls, vendor and build-or-buy choices, AI evaluation, and roadmap decisions, and I’m in the room when they get made.
Ongoing Scoped to the time you need
For a major build or migration. I write the architecture and spec, build the riskiest parts myself, coordinate the rest with your team or partners, and check each milestone against the spec.
Per project Scoped to the build
Not sure which fits? The first call is free. Fifteen minutes is usually enough to tell which of these matches the decision in front of you, or whether you need any of them.
Discuss optionsThe costliest technology mistakes are usually made before anyone writes code: in a vendor contract, a rushed architecture call, or a rebuild nobody tested the case for.
So I work spec-first. Each engagement starts with a written description of the problem and how we’ll know it’s solved. The build is checked against that document, and nothing ships until it matches. I call the discipline Enso.
I’ve worked this way for twenty years as an engineer, platform architect, and technology executive, much of it in healthcare and intelligence, where failures land on people. These days most of my hands-on time goes to agentic AI: testing what current systems do well, and working out where they fit a business and where they don’t.
I’m Jay Leon, founder of Vitasphere. For more than twenty years I’ve built platforms, led engineering teams, and run technology for companies from early-stage startups to global brands.
I started Vitasphere because companies at a turning point rarely need another vendor. They need someone senior who has made these calls before and will tell them plainly what they have, where it should go, and what to skip.
When you hire Vitasphere, you get me. I don’t pass the work to junior staff, and you won’t get a slide deck where a decision should be.
About a third of my first conversations end with me telling the company it doesn’t need what I offer, and pointing it to what would help instead.
A fractional CTO is a senior technology executive who works with you part-time or on a defined project. You get experienced judgment on architecture, vendors, AI, and team structure without the cost of a full-time executive. I’ve written a longer piece on what the work looks like week to week.
Companies facing a technology decision that is expensive to get wrong and that nobody on the team has made before: a platform migration, a first serious AI project, a vendor replacement, an acquisition. I’ve worked everywhere from early-stage startups to Fortune 500 brands, and the stakes of the decision matter more than company size. I’m based in Northwest Arkansas and work with clients across the U.S., mostly remotely.
You work with me directly, and nobody junior does the work under my name. Every engagement starts with a written specification and stated tradeoffs, and I check delivery against them.
Sometimes, deliberately. I don’t replace your engineering team or act as extra headcount. But when a decision depends on whether something can actually be built, such as an AI workflow, a hard integration, or a new architecture, I often build the first version myself. It’s the quickest way to replace opinion with evidence.
A Technology Assessment is a fixed fee starting at $7,500 and usually takes two to four weeks. Fractional CTO and partnership work is priced to the scope and the time involved. After a short call, I’ll give you a straight number.
You get a written report with findings and a prioritized roadmap. You can carry it out with your own team, bring me on as fractional CTO, or have me oversee the work. The assessment is useful on its own, and there is no obligation to continue.
Start with a 15-minute call. No pitch and no slides, just a direct conversation about what’s working and what isn’t.
Book a call