Fractional CTO
Strategic leadership to navigate from zero to one. We define the technology roadmap, recruit your founding engineering team, and architect for scale and security from day one.
About Us
Founded by Lucas Sargent, Buoyant Systems transforms technical vision into acquired reality. We aren't just consultants; we are fractional co-founders who build resilient, scalable AI foundations. From the first line of code to the exit strategy, we deliver high-velocity engineering and strategic clarity.
Our track record is built on successfully launching AI companies, creating ISO-certified platforms from scratch, and guiding teams to acquisition. We believe in low-process, high-communication environments where technology serves the business—not the other way around.
Our Services
We bridge the gap between executive strategy and hands-on execution. Engage us to lead, build, or uplift your capability.
AI Strategy & Governance
Pragmatic AI adoption that cuts through the hype. We implement secure, high-impact AI solutions (including RAG and semantic analysis) that solve actual business problems while managing data risk.
Principal Engineering
Senior-level hands-on engineering. We handle the complex, foundational work—building novel architectures, GPU-optimized pipelines, and shipping production-grade code that your team can build upon.
Team Uplift
Culture as code. We mentor your engineers, instill best practices in CI/CD and cloud-native infrastructure, and foster a high-communication environment that accelerates delivery.
Case Studies
Real-world experience, from co-founding startups to modernizing enterprise stacks.
Real-Time Voice AI SaaS Platform
Engagement: Co-founder & CTO at Quarterzip
The Challenge
To build a B2B SaaS platform for embeddable, conversational voice agents from scratch, requiring ISO-certified infrastructure and real-time latency capabilities.
The Solution
Architected the entire tech stack and CI/CD pipelines enabling multiple daily deployments. Recruited the founding team and established a high-velocity engineering culture.
ISO-Certified
Real-Time AI
CI/CD
SaaS
Generative AI Security Platform
Engagement: Co-founder & CTO at Redactive (Acquired by RecordPoint)
The Challenge
To create a novel Generative AI security product with robust data governance, capable of attracting early customers and securing a successful exit.
The Solution
Invented a "permissioned-RAG" architecture to enforce access controls at retrieval level. Led the technical vision and team growth from inception to acquisition.
Acquired
Permissioned RAG
Data Governance
GenAI
Anomaly Detection in Finance
Technical Lead @ Global Tech Giant
Designed and built an exemplar system for detecting anomalies in high-volume data streams (10k+ points/sec) using predictive ML models.
GCP Dataflow
TFX
Kubernetes
Automated Licence Plate Recognition
Technical Lead @ Infrastructure Leader
Refined problem statements and established MLOps foundations for a large-scale ALPR system, managing complex stakeholder requirements.
Sagemaker
Step Functions
Docker
GRC Platform Modernisation
Technical Lead @ Stealth Startup
Migrated a traditional CRUD architecture to a high-performance analytical time-series engine, significantly reducing costs and accelerating risk algorithms.
Azure Data Explorer
Time Series
Edge Video Analytics
Lead Architect @ Telematics Provider
Architected a modular, config-driven system for combined edge-to-cloud DVR and ML-on-the-edge use cases.
AWS Greengrass
IoT
Lambda
Satellite Imagery Super-Resolution
R&D Lead @ National Industry Body
Award-winning research (Maxar) developing custom neural networks (UNet, SRGAN) to extract higher spatial resolution from satellite imagery.
TensorFlow/Keras
CUDA
Deep Learning
Spark Platform Uplift
Lead Engineer @ Major Telecoms Provider
Optimized a bespoke Spark-based ML platform, increasing throughput and implementing lifecycle rules that saved over AUD $100k annually.
Apache Spark
Cost Optimization
MLOps Accelerator
Product Owner @ Leading Tech Consultancy
Led development of an internal tool using Pulumi to automate "zero-to-mlops" deployments across AWS, Azure, GCP, and Databricks.
Pulumi
Multi-Cloud
Python
ML Platform SaaS
Product Owner @ Leading Tech Consultancy
Managed a multi-tenant ML Platform ensuring client SLAs were met and achieving zero-downtime production deployments.
Kubernetes
GitOps
Istio