Principal engineering
Senior leadership for your product, and the hands to build it.
Architecture, code review, standards, the roadmap and the releases, owned by one senior lead. Our team adds capacity when you need it.
- Seniorlead who writes code
- Monthlyscope, reviewed together
- 30 daysnotice to stop
The situation
Your product ships, but nobody owns how.
Releases break things you thought were fixed. Each contractor writes code their own way. The roadmap lives in a founder's head. Nobody reviews the pull requests that matter. The product works today, and you are not sure it will next year.
- 1senior lead accountableFor architecture, quality and releases.
- Everyimportant change reviewedBefore it reaches your customers.
- 0lock-inCode, decisions and docs live in your name.
What is included
Every month, your product gets the following.
Architecture decisions, written down with the reasons
Code review on every change that matters
Coding standards, tests and a release process your team follows
A roadmap kept current, with a monthly review of scope, risks and priorities
Hands-on engineering on the hardest parts
More capacity from our team when the roadmap needs it
Engineers, designers and QA, under the same lead and the same standards.
A thirty minute call
Your product, your team and what keeps going wrong. Then whether this is the right fit.
A two week onboarding
We read the code, the backlog and the release history. You get a written picture of what to fix first.
The first month
Standards in place, a release rhythm agreed and the first priorities shipped.
Where it sits
More hands-on than a CTO. Wider than one project.
A Fractional CTO advises on strategy a few hours a week. Forward-deployed engineers ship one system over a fixed term. Principal engineering owns the whole product, month to month, and does the work.
Fractional CTO: strategy and decisions, a few hours a week
Forward-deployed: one system, one to three months
Principal engineering: the whole product, hands on the code
When it is a bigger job
When the product needs a build, the same lead runs it.
Rescue and modernization
Rescue and modernizationTake over the app your last developer left, and move it forward.
A straight answer
When principal engineering is the wrong hire.
You only need advice
If your team can build and you need decisions, a Fractional CTO costs less.
You have a strong engineering lead already
Then back them. We can help with a single system instead.
The product is not live yet
A first build is a fixed project. See our services for a single number.
Investment
From $6k a month.
Month to month after the first quarter, with thirty days notice.
recommended
Principal engineering
from $6k / month
A senior lead who owns your product engineering, with hands on the code.
- Architecture and code review
- Standards and release process
- Roadmap ownership
- Team capacity when needed
Questions
What owners ask about a principal engineer.
How is this different from a Fractional CTO or forward-deployed engineers?
A Fractional CTO advises a few hours a week. Forward-deployed engineers ship one system and leave. Principal engineering owns the whole product, month to month, and builds it.
Who else works on our product?
Your senior lead, plus engineers, designers and QA from our team when the roadmap needs them. Everyone works to the same standards and the same reviews.
How do you handle standards and code review?
We write the standards down in week one. Every important change gets a senior review before it ships. AI helps with routine checks, and a person approves.
How is the monthly scope set?
We agree priorities at the start of each month and review them at the end. If you need more capacity, we add it with your approval.
Do you provide on-call support?
We can. Monitoring and an agreed response window are part of the scope when you need them.
Who owns the roadmap?
You own the business priorities. We own turning them into a technical roadmap, and we keep it current every month.
Next step
Bring the release that went wrong last month.
Thirty minutes. You leave knowing what an owner would change first, whether or not we work together.