Skip to content

About

Rob Gough

I'm Rob Gough. I've spent the best part of twenty years building software and leading the people who build it — these days as a fractional CTO.

The arc

I studied software engineering at the University of Manchester and spent the years since shipping things: healthcare systems at System C, holiday logistics at On the Beach, fintech mobile apps at OpenMoney as Head of Mobile, and Wejo's first customer-facing web product — concept to MVP in twelve weeks, with a team hired from scratch to do it.

My most recent permanent role, before I relaunched the consultancy, was Group Director of Software Engineering at Fletchers Solicitors, a PE-backed legal group — senior leadership team, twenty-plus engineers across web, data, Salesforce and AI. I led the programme replacing expensive legacy systems with in-house platforms, and built the firm's modern AI team — rebuilding its legacy machine-learning work the current way.

Rob Gough Consulting has existed since 2019, but in 2025 it became the day job — starting with eight months as fractional CTO at FastDox, and now an AI-native practice working with a small number of clients at a time.

The other stuff

I live in Manchester. I build and run my own products — StayUpfront, Dictator, Weighted Down, Giglr — and I write about whatever's occupying me: code, products, weight, and the occasional detour. The blog goes back to 2022 and it's all still there, on purpose.

Outside the work, two things eat my time: live music — I'm forever at Manchester's smaller venues, which is how Giglr happened — and steadily improving my own health, which is the itch Weighted Down scratches.

Elsewhere