Work with me

Advisory & fractional engineering leadership

I take on a small number of advisory engagements alongside my work — for teams that want a senior architect's read on the decisions that are expensive to get wrong. Fifteen years building and scaling systems from startup to enterprise, distilled into the few conversations that move your roadmap.

What I help with

Architecture & System Design Review

An outside read on the decisions that compound. I review your architecture against the forces that actually matter — scale, team size, latency, cost — and tell you where you're over-engineered, under-engineered, or quietly building a distributed monolith.

Scaling Engineering Teams & Orgs

From 5 to 50 to 500. Org design, hiring frameworks, leveling, and the operating practices that keep quality high as you grow. Patterns from 1,000+ interviews and leading 25+ engineers across time zones.

Pragmatic AI Adoption

How to get real leverage from AI in software development without the hype or the debt — spec-first workflows, agent guardrails, AI-aware team structure, and what to measure. Production reality, not demos.

Fractional Technical Leadership

A senior architect/technical leader in the room for the decisions that are hard to reverse — technology choices, build-vs-buy, modernization without the big-rewrite trap. Steady hands for a defined engagement.

Who it's for

  • Founders and CTOs at a scaling inflection point who want a second opinion before a hard-to-reverse call.
  • Engineering leaders figuring out how to adopt AI without accumulating debt or breaking their team's craft.
  • Teams modernizing a legacy system who want to avoid the big-rewrite trap.

How engagements work

Advisory callA focused session on a specific decision — architecture, hiring, AI strategy. Come with the problem, leave with a direction.
Architecture / org reviewA deeper engagement: I review the system or the team and deliver a written assessment with prioritized, pragmatic recommendations.
Ongoing fractionalA recurring, lightweight engagement where I'm available as a sounding board and reviewer for your leadership team.

Availability is limited

I keep the number of concurrent engagements small so each one gets real attention. If your problem sounds like one of the above, the best first step is a short message describing it — I'll tell you honestly whether I'm the right person to help.

Prefer to get a feel for how I think first? Read the writing or see the background.