About

I’m Mike Hjorleifsson.
Fractional CTO.

Rapid Architect is my practice — not a bench of consultants. I help founders and executive teams turn fragile, high-stakes systems into secure, reliable, AI-enabled platforms. I tell the truth, protect the team, and ship real improvements.

Mike Hjorleifsson, fractional CTO at Rapid Architect

The companies I work best with

Seed–C
Stage
10–200
Team size
US B2B
Where
Philosophy: Tell the truth. Protect the team. Ship improvements the people who stay can own.

How I actually work

No generic playbook. A blunt look at what’s running, then a sequence of small steps the existing team can carry.

See the whole picture

Cloud, architecture, security, AI, and team workflows in one view. The problem is rarely “just” a tool or a ticket.

Ship the next right step

Stabilize what’s running, strengthen the security posture, then add automation where it measurably helps and can be owned.

Leave you stronger

Systems and practices your people can understand, maintain, and evolve. Dependence on a black-box consultant is a failure mode.

How I engage: Alongside your team, not over them. Scope is designed to protect velocity while risk comes down.

Background

Public record, not a brochure. LinkedIn lists me as an AI-driven principal architect. Rapid Architect is the practice. I work with US teams from Tennessee.

  • 1

    Thirty-seven years in IT

    Broad range of production work, including fifteen years in cybersecurity. Network and remote-access security since the early 1990s. I have been the person on call when things fail.

  • 2

    Architecture that has to ship

    I turn client business goals into working technical solutions — proofs of concept first, then platforms teams can run. Simple, observable designs over slideware.

  • 3

    AI used as a tool

    I use models and agents to take tedious, low-knowledge work off people’s plates so they can do the thinking. If an AI idea is a toy, I will say so.

  • 4

    On the public record

    Co-author of Apple Training Series: Mac OS X Security and Mobility. Published on AWS cloud workflows and on small language models used for real operational work — OCR, invoices, the unglamorous jobs that actually save hours.

Standard: If they cannot run it, test it, and change it after I leave, it does not count as done.

What people actually say

Straight talk, business in mind, and the ability to lead both down the chain and up. That is the reputation I intend to keep.

LinkedIn

  • Tell you what needs to be done

    Not a status-quo operator. I will tell you what has to happen — with the business firmly in mind — to move the technology organization forward.

  • Ask the right questions

    Draw on experience across industries to identify the strategy, then assemble and lead the work so it comes to life on time and on budget.

  • Depth without theatrics

    Break problems into strategic and tactical pieces, say the positive and the negative, and adapt the message so people do not feel attacked in the process.