Senior bandwidth for the third initiative that keeps slipping
Applications Pro at $4,500 a month. Senior engineer with bolttech and Cuez-scale experience. Plugs into GitHub, Linear or Jira. Work Made for Hire.
Who this is for
VP Engineering at a 50-300 person scaleup running three parallel initiatives.
The pain today
- One of the three initiatives always slips because internal owners get pulled to fires.
- Hiring a senior engineer for a single initiative takes 120 days.
- Agencies want 6-month minimums for work that finishes in 10 weeks.
- The slipping initiative is blocking a revenue lever or a customer contract.
The outcome you get
- A senior engineer owning the slipping initiative end to end.
- Integration with existing GitHub, Linear or Jira, and code review standards.
- Daily async updates (16-year habit).
- Handover discipline so the internal team absorbs the work cleanly.
The third initiative pattern
Scaleup engineering orgs running three parallel initiatives hit a recurring pattern: two ship on schedule, one always slips. The slipping initiative is usually the one without a dedicated senior owner: engineers get pulled off it to fix production issues on the other two. The monthly retainer at $4,500 a month brings a dedicated senior engineer to that third initiative. They do not get pulled. They own the project from Monday of week one to ship. The VP Engineering gets all three initiatives landing on time without another permanent hire.
Trust-building with 100+ engineer orgs
Large engineering orgs have established culture. A new contractor who does not respect it bounces off. I earn trust the same way every time: read the code before I write it, follow the existing conventions, write small PRs, attend standups, ask before I refactor. By week three I am a peer. By week six I am one of the people internal engineers come to for architecture questions. This is the pattern that worked at bolttech (1B+ unicorn, 40+ payment providers) and Cuez (10x API performance).
Async updates daily
Scaleup VP Engineers do not have time for weekly status meetings. I send a daily async update: what shipped, what is in progress, what is blocked, what decisions are pending. The VP reads it on their schedule. Over 16 years this habit has been the single most appreciated delivery discipline. It also creates a written audit trail that makes handover trivial when the engagement ends.
Handover disciplines
Every scaleup engagement ends with a clean handover. Architecture docs, ADRs, runbooks, a two-hour walkthrough with the internal team, and a written transition packet. The team inherits a documented system, not a mystery. Cancel end of month, no penalty, all code under Work Made for Hire. Most scaleup engagements run 3-9 months. The door stays open for the next slipping initiative.
Recent proof
A comparable engagement, delivered and documented.
Unified payment orchestration across Asia and Europe
Delivered the payment orchestration platform at bolttech, a $1B+ unicorn, with 40+ integrations across multiple regions.
Frequently asked questions
The questions prospects ask before they book.
- Can you work on our microservices architecture?
- Yes. bolttech was a microservices architecture with 40+ payment providers. I understand the patterns and constraints.
- Do you take on-call?
- For the initiative I own, yes. Not the whole platform.
- Can you onboard to our security posture?
- Yes. NDA, vendor onboarding, SSO, any hardware or VDI requirements. Standard at scaleup scale.
- What if the initiative gets re-scoped mid-engagement?
- We adjust in the next monthly check-in. Cancel anytime if the re-scope kills the fit.
- Can you help with code reviews beyond your own PRs?
- Yes. Many scaleup clients use my code review capacity on other teams' PRs as a side benefit of the retainer.
Ready to start?
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