Fractional senior product engineering for founder-led vertical SaaS.
Over the past 15 years I’ve built and scaled production web applications across multiple verticals — including video-on-demand, fintech, and care-tech, handling unique domain complexites and collaborating closely on product decisions with founders and small teams. I work with founders to help them ship faster, reduce risk, and scale their products effectively.
Who I’ve worked with
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A bootstrapped financial and valuation data platform built for public and private markets, business advisors, and middle-market dealmakers, enabling customers to explore and analyze billions of financial data points.
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Platform founded by film composer Klaus Badelt (Pirates of the Caribbean) to enable filmmakers to upload once and distribute everywhere: Netflix, Amazon, Hulu, Apple TV+, and dozens of other major Video on Demand services. Filmhub has now succesfully raised over $14 million in venture capital.
- AnalystForum — 14 years · sole engineer
The go-to community platform where generation after generation of finance professionals united to navigate the grueling journey of the CFA program and elevate their investment careers.
- A care-industry SaaS platform — care-tech
A care-tech SaaS platform for a regulated vertical, with a focus on privacy and security.
Offers & pricing
Two retainers maximum — currently 1 open.
Advisory
A senior engineer ready at hand for architecture, code review, and technical direction — without a full engagement.
- Reserved capacity so you know you always have a modest but effective slice of my capacity dedicated to your project.
- A bit under half the capacity of a full Fractional product engineering engagement.
- Async interactions with team members and issue queues.
Fractional product engineer
One senior engineer owning a slice of the product end to end, at a steady weekly rhythm.
- Capacity for focusing on a single larger feature or multiple smaller features across the span of each week.
- Async interactions with team members and issue queues, video calls as needed.
- Maximum of 2 Fractional product engineering engagements are available concurrently, to ensure my full and balanced attention is given to every engagement.
Embedded senior engineer
Near half-time capacity for teams that need real throughput from a single trusted engineer.
- Capacity for focusing on one or more larger features, or multiple smaller features across the span of each week, ability to deliver more functionality and work on larger features in a given period.
- Async interactions with team members and issue queues, video calls as needed.
- Availability for remote weekly stand-ups if desired.
- Only 1 Embedded senior engineer engagement is available concurrently.
Architecture & Codebase Assessment
$5,000 fixedA fixed engagement ending in a written roadmap. Half the fee is credited toward a retainer if we continue.
How engagements run
Weekly cadence
Retainers run on a weekly rhythm: what's planned, what shipped, and a plain-English status update every week.
Built-in scope ceilings
Each retainer reflects a measured portion of my dedicated attention and capactity in a given period. Your retainer's defined capacity sets the scope ceiling — no runaway scope, no surprise invoices.
Team integration
Simple terms
Fixed prices, with controlled scope. Retainers are paid up front before each month to reserve my time and priority. Ad hoc hours if purchased appear on your next invoice. Net 15 on invoice payments is preferred. Engagement pricing is locked in annually with a built-in yearly adjustment of +5%. All packages are month to month. Capacity is reserved each month, so cancellation must be arranged before the next month begins.
FAQ
Why retainers instead of hourly billing?
Decades of hourly billing experience in web design, development, and software have taught me that it doesn't give the best results for either side. I love to continuously optimize my workflow and find new ways to deliver even more value at a faster pace, but hourly billing punishes that speed. On the client's side, you're left wondering if the budget will get out of control, or if faster delivery somehow means the quality has suffered (when in reality the opposite is true). This has only been compounded in the era of AI-accelerated workflows. A retainer fixes your cost and my commitment, so we both optimize for the result instead of the clock. Committing to a monthly plan is also the least expensive way to buy senior engineering capacity, as this frees me to focus on the work at hand rather than finding new clients.
How does an AI-native pace change what you deliver?
Over the past number of years working with AI coding assistants such as Claude Code, I've constantly refined my own AI-native workflow and custom skills/agents to build rapidly against well-defined specifications and robust test suites. While AI speeds up things that used to be manual and slow, it never replaces my 25+ years of experience and judgment. Hard-earned lessons learned from real-world bugs and how I solved them are constantly baked into my workflows.
How do you handle NDAs and IP?
Your code and your IP are yours. I'm happy to work under your NDA, and I've worked inside regulated verticals (fintech and care-tech) where confidentiality and clean handling of data are the baseline standard. All settings for sharing code for model training are disabled by default. If you have specific IP or NDA terms, we can discuss them before starting.
What are your timezone and availability?
I work from the US Central time zone on US business hours, with hours of same-day overlap for teams on either coast. Capacity is deliberately small — two retainers at a time — so every client gets genuinely senior attention.
Ready to talk?
A 30-minute strategy call is the fastest way to see if this fits. Prefer a lower-risk first step? The fixed architecture assessment gives you a written roadmap either way.