Clear the Series A backlog without another 90-day hire
Applications Pro at $4,500 a month. Senior-level throughput plugged into your team via GitHub, Jira or Linear. Work Made for Hire. Cancel anytime.
Who this is for
Series A engineering manager whose team is drowning in a post-round roadmap.
The pain today
- Every senior hire takes 90 days to close.
- Founders push for velocity the team cannot sustain without burnout.
- Agencies want 12-week commitments for work that should ship in 4.
- Recruiter fees are 25 percent of first-year salary for every new engineer.
The outcome you get
- Senior throughput on a 2-4 day delivery cycle, starting inside two weeks.
- Plug-in to existing GitHub, Jira or Linear, and Slack workflows.
- Ownership of one product area or a backlog slice, end to end.
- Clean exit when the full-time hire lands.
The backlog-clearing senior contractor pattern
Series A engineering managers discover the backlog-clearing contractor pattern the hard way. Every quarter there is one feature or one cleanup project that keeps slipping because internal engineers get pulled to production fires. That feature sits on the backlog for two quarters until someone finally ships it at 3x the original scope. A senior contractor owns that project from Monday of week one, ships it in 4-6 weeks, and hands over a clean PR. The engineering manager gets the feature shipped and the internal team stays focused on the roadmap. The retainer at $4,500 a month pays for itself in saved internal engineering hours.
Integrating with an existing team
I plug in to the existing team, not the other way around. Your GitHub conventions, your branch naming, your PR template, your code review expectations. I attend the standup if useful, skip it if not. I follow your architecture, not mine. The goal is for the team to feel like the new engineer ramped up in a week, not that a contractor was dropped in. In 16 years across bolttech, Cuez, and dozens of startups I have done this repeatedly. The integration is the product.
Scope design for known-unknowns
Series A work is full of known-unknowns: that feature depends on an integration nobody fully documented, that refactor touches a module the original author left. I scope for this explicitly. The first week of every engagement is a spike: I read the code, talk to the team, and write a revised plan that calls out the risk spots. Scope adjusts. Timeline stays honest. No 3-week surprises in week 11.
Cancellation when the hire lands
The right outcome for many Series A retainers is a clean cancellation when the permanent senior engineer lands. I plan for it from day one: documentation, architecture notes, a handover call with the new hire. Cancel end of month, no penalty. Work Made for Hire means the code, docs, and everything else are yours. Most Series A engagements run 4-8 months. Some extend to 12. A few convert to an ongoing Advisory retainer for the next product area.
Recent proof
A comparable engagement, delivered and documented.
Rescued a slow API that was blocking user growth
Refactored the backend architecture, making the system far more responsive and scalable for the growing user base.
Frequently asked questions
The questions prospects ask before they book.
- Can you work on our stack if it's not your default?
- Yes. I work in Next.js, React, Vue, Laravel, NestJS, Node, TypeScript. If you're on Django, Rails, Go, or .NET, I would refer you elsewhere.
- How do you ramp up fast on our codebase?
- Week one is a codebase read and a design doc. Week two is a small PR. Week three is the real feature. Most engineering managers report ramp complete by week four.
- Can you go on-call?
- For the product area I own, yes. I do not go on-call for the whole platform.
- What if the roadmap shifts?
- We re-scope at the next monthly check-in. Cancel anytime if the new roadmap does not need senior contractor help.
- Do you pair with junior engineers?
- Yes. Many Series A engagements include pair sessions with junior engineers, which accelerates their ramp and doubles as on-the-job training.
Ready to start?
Tell me what you need in 60 seconds. Tailored proposal in your inbox within 6 hours.