Turn Technical Chaos Into Scalable Systems

Your engineering team is smart, but they’re drowning.

The warning signs are everywhere:

  • Sprint velocity has dropped 30-40% over the last year
  • Half your engineering time goes to maintenance instead of features
  • Your AWS bill doubled but performance got worse
  • “Simple” features now take 3x longer than your estimates
  • New developers need 3-6 months before they can ship confidently

You need someone who’s seen this before and knows how to fix it.

The Problems I Solve

For Engineering Managers

  • Team velocity declining as codebase complexity grows
  • New hires taking 3-6 months to contribute meaningfully
  • Technical decisions paralyzed by too many opinions, not enough experience
  • “Quick wins” becoming expensive mistakes that compound over time

For CTOs

  • Board asking hard questions about technical strategy and timeline delays
  • Expensive rewrite vs. incremental improvement decisions keeping you up at night
  • Technical risk assessment for acquisitions, fundraising, or major pivots
  • Build vs. buy decisions for critical infrastructure components

How I Help

Architecture Health Check

1-2 week engagement

What you get:

  • Technical debt assessment with quantified impact
  • Scalability bottleneck analysis and timeline projections
  • Concrete 3, 6, and 12-month roadmap with priority rankings
  • Risk assessment of current architectural decisions

Investment: $15,000 - $25,000

Recent example: At StackAdapt, I led system reliability improvements that significantly reduced error rates through robust metrics and structured logging. Also led a GraphQL Gateway initiative that simplified service communication across multiple backend teams.

Technical Advisory

Ongoing retainer relationship

What you get:

  • Monthly architecture reviews and strategic guidance
  • Technical hiring support (interview design, candidate evaluation)
  • Real-time consultation on major technical decisions
  • Mentoring for senior engineers making the jump to architecture roles

Investment: $5,000 - $10,000/month (6-month minimum commitment)

Recent example: At Seek, I identified root causes of recurring outages in legacy batch-processing systems and successfully migrated to an event-driven architecture using AWS EventBridge, Lambda, and DynamoDB, eliminating the outages entirely.

Crisis Intervention

Immediate availability for urgent situations

What you get:

  • Senior expertise for production emergencies
  • Pre-acquisition technical due diligence
  • Legacy system rescue and modernization strategy
  • Expert witness for technical disputes

Investment: Starting at $2,500/day

Recent example: At CultureAmp, I led a complex data migration from MongoDB to PostgreSQL using CQRS patterns and feature flagging for safe rollout, while simultaneously reducing infrastructure costs and improving system observability.

My Approach: Pragmatic Over Perfect

I don’t believe in silver bullets or one-size-fits-all solutions. Every architecture decision depends on your team, your constraints, and your business context.

I focus on:

  • Solutions that your team can actually maintain — not impressive GitHub demos
  • Incremental improvements that deliver value while reducing risk
  • Boring technology that works over exciting technology that breaks
  • Asking the right questions before proposing any solutions

This philosophy has helped me:

  • Reduce infrastructure costs by 40% while improving reliability
  • Help 3-person teams scale to support 10x user growth
  • Turn 6-month “impossible” deadlines into achievable 3-month deliveries
  • Prevent expensive rewrites through strategic refactoring

Who This ISN’T For

I want to be upfront about fit. I’m NOT the right choice if you’re:

  • Looking for staff augmentation — I’m not a body shop. I’m here to multiply your team’s effectiveness, not be another developer
  • A team smaller than 3 engineers — You need hands on keyboards, not architecture strategy
  • Seeking the cheapest option — I provide premium expertise for teams ready to invest in technical excellence
  • Wanting bleeding-edge technology for its own sake — I favor boring, proven solutions that your team can maintain
  • Not ready to empower your team — My solutions require giving your engineers ownership and autonomy

Red Flags: When You Need Help Now

If you’re experiencing 3+ of these, we should talk immediately:

  • Deployments take multiple hours and often fail
  • “Simple” features consistently take weeks instead of days
  • Engineers actively avoid certain parts of the codebase
  • Customer-reported bugs are increasing month over month
  • Your best engineers are burning out or leaving
  • Technical discussions end in deadlock with no clear path forward
  • You’re considering a full rewrite because “it’s the only way”
  • Board meetings include questions about “technical debt” you can’t quantify
  • New features consistently break existing functionality
  • Your monitoring alerts are either ignored or constantly firing

What Makes Me Different

  • 20+ years building and fixing systems at high-growth companies like Instacart, Seek, and StackAdapt
  • Real-world experience with failure modes — I’ve migrated legacy batch systems to event-driven architectures and seen what breaks at scale
  • Focus on team capabilities — solutions that work with your people, not against them
  • Cross-functional leadership — I bridge technical and business stakeholders, having led teams of up to 9 developers

My expertise covers:

  • Ruby on Rails ecosystems — 16+ years scaling Rails from MVPs to enterprise systems at companies like Instacart and StackAdapt
  • Event-driven architectures — Led migration from batch processing to event streaming using AWS EventBridge and Lambda
  • Legacy system modernization — Successfully migrated MongoDB to PostgreSQL using CQRS patterns at CultureAmp
  • Observability and system reliability — Implemented robust metrics, logging, and monitoring that reduced error rates
  • GraphQL and API design — Led inter-team GraphQL Gateway initiatives to unify service communication
  • Technical team leadership — Mentored developers and led teams of up to 9 people across multiple projects

Technologies & Platforms I Specialize In:

  • Cloud Platforms: AWS (EventBridge, Lambda, ECS, RDS, DynamoDB, SQS, SNS), GCP (Cloud Run, Pub/Sub)
  • Databases: PostgreSQL, Redis, Elasticsearch, MongoDB (migrations away from)
  • Monitoring & Observability: DataDog, New Relic, Grafana, Prometheus, CloudWatch
  • CI/CD & DevOps: GitHub Actions, CircleCI, Jenkins, Terraform, Docker, Kubernetes
  • Languages & Frameworks: Ruby/Rails, Python, Node.js, React, GraphQL
  • Message Queues & Streaming: Kafka, RabbitMQ, AWS SQS/SNS, Redis Pub/Sub

Client Results

I’ve helped teams across fintech, e-commerce, media, and gaming solve complex architectural challenges:

  • Migrated critical production systems from MongoDB to PostgreSQL using CQRS patterns with zero downtime
  • Eliminated recurring outages by migrating from batch processing to event-driven architecture using AWS EventBridge
  • Reduced operational overhead by 14+ hours per week through automated spam detection systems using machine learning
  • Led GraphQL Gateway adoption across multiple teams, reducing network overhead and improving developer productivity
  • Built self-service automation tools that enabled non-technical teams to perform routine operations independently

Ready to Get Started?

Free 30-minute technical assessment call — No sales pitch, just an honest conversation about your challenges and whether I can help solve them.

During our call, we’ll discuss:

  • Your biggest technical pain points
  • What you’ve already tried and why it didn’t work
  • Whether your situation is a good fit for my expertise
  • Potential engagement options and timeline

Currently booking 4-6 weeks out for new engagements.

Schedule Your Free Assessment Call

Frequently Asked Questions

Do you work with remote teams? Yes, 80% of my clients are fully remote or hybrid. I’m experienced with asynchronous collaboration and documentation-driven decision making.

What size companies do you work with? Primarily startups and scale-ups (10-200 engineers), though I also advise larger enterprises on specific modernization projects.

Do you write code? Yes I love it, but also my focus is on architecture, strategy, and enabling your team. I’m here to multiply your team’s effectiveness.

How do you measure success? By your team’s improved velocity, reduced operational overhead, and your confidence in technical decisions. Every engagement includes specific, measurable outcomes.

What if we need ongoing support after the engagement? Most clients transition to a monthly advisory retainer. I believe in building long-term relationships, not one-time transactions.

Ready to turn your technical challenges into competitive advantages? Let’s talk.

Connect with me: LinkedIn