NLT Labs · Fractional CTO and CIO
About
I'm Bill Thornton. I've spent more than 25 years in enterprise software, most of it as the technology executive in the room. I started NLT Labs in 2026 to do that work part time, for leadership teams that need the judgment without adding a full-time hire.
Founder, NLT Labs · Technology executive & hands-on CTO
I started NLT Labs to work directly with your leadership team on the decisions that actually move things: architecture, delivery, AI programs, and the operating model that makes them stick. You get direct access to the person doing the thinking, from the first conversation through delivery.
Before NLT Labs, I spent those years in senior technology leadership roles in enterprise SaaS. Here's what I built there, as an executive, not as NLT Labs client work:
Career history
NLT Labs, 2026. Fractional CTO and CIO.
Tango Analytics, 2022 to 2026. CTO. A PE-backed platform through several owners and four acquisitions.
RevolutionEHR, 2020 to 2022. VP of Engineering at a PE-backed healthcare SaaS platform. Moved core workloads to AWS with zero downtime, cost down and uptime up.
Tango Analytics, 2013 to 2020. VP of Engineering. Built out the platform that carried enterprise retail and restaurant brands across more than a hundred countries.
IBM, 2011 to 2013. TRIRIGA and Maximo, after IBM bought TRIRIGA. I ran the evaluation of whether to put the two products on one platform, and recommended keeping them separate.
TRIRIGA, 2000 to 2011. The IWMS platform for real estate, facilities and workplace. I started as a lead architect and left as VP of Platform Development. In 2011 I was one of ten people chosen to take the company through sell-side diligence with IBM.
Actual result · prior executive role
I helped grow a global enterprise SaaS business two and a half times in ARR, scaling engineering, infrastructure, security, and operations to match. If your growth is outrunning your platform, that's the gap I close.
I led technology and organizational integration across four acquisitions: keeping the product running while platforms, infrastructure, and teams came together. If you're facing an integration, I know where the real risk hides.
I directed cloud, security, and compliance programs across SOC, ISO 27001, and FedRAMP, for enterprise and government customers who don't compromise on either. If compliance is blocking your roadmap, I've built the programs that clear it.
I designed engineering operating models end to end: architecture and delivery, DevOps and SRE, quality, data, and ML/AI, working as one system instead of six separate teams. If your org has outgrown ad hoc coordination, this is the model I bring to yours.
I negotiated and delivered enterprise software contracts up to $50M, working the commercial terms alongside the technical scope so what we signed matched what we could build. If your deal is in that range, I've sat on that side of the table before.
What the people I worked with say
Twenty-one people have written recommendations for me over twenty years. They don't talk about technology much. They talk about calm when things move fast, respect for what a team built before I got there, and knowing when to get into the detail and when to step back.
AI built for what comes after the demo.
We're building products. Consulting's open.