Services / Platform architecture & engineering consulting
Understand it. Design it. Build it.
Software architecture, hands-on implementation, developer tooling, and ongoing engineering. The problem determines where we start.
01 / Where I can help
Architecture and design
When the next technical decision needs a clearer direction.
Understand the existing system, compare alternatives, and define platform boundaries or an incremental modernization path. Document architecture decisions and develop implementation plans.
See the Ground architecture case studyHands-on implementation
When a sound design needs someone who can build it.
Implement application systems, AWS infrastructure, deployment workflows, and operational improvements. The work can produce working systems or complete a difficult part of an existing project.
See the development and build workflowsDeveloper tools and experience
When getting work done depends on knowing who to ask.
Build internal tooling, automate workstation setup, and improve service creation workflows. Put repeatable knowledge into tools engineers can use.
See the workstation setup automationOngoing engineering
When the system needs sustained attention.
Contribute alongside your team to maintenance, support, modernization, and delivery. The role and duration follow the work.
02 / How I work
Turn unknowns into decisions.
I don’t assume I understand your system because I understand the technology. I start with the engineers, their experience, and the business context. An engagement can include some or all of these phases.
Understand
Listen to engineers, investigate pain points, and learn the relevant business and technical context.
Output / A shared understanding of the problem.
Explore
Compare possible solutions with the team and make trade-offs explicit.
Output / Alternatives and the questions that distinguish them.
Validate
Use prototypes when they can answer important uncertainties. Skip them when the decision is sufficiently understood.
Output / An evidence-based recommendation.
Execute
Plan and implement the agreed work, alongside the people who will maintain it.
Output / Working systems and engineering contributions.
03 / Engineering judgment
“I will use grep if grep does what I need.”
Sophistication has to earn its complexity.
Cost, performance, scalability, time to market, developer experience, and operational burden can pull a decision in different directions. Their relative importance comes from the problem, not a universal ranking.
What will the organization have to own?
Consider managed services, existing products, and simple tools before custom software. Build when there is a reason. Account for the team’s knowledge, learning time, resources, maintenance, and the engineers who will inherit the system.
Who pays for the abstraction?
A useful abstraction can centralize complexity once; a poor one can make every consumer reason about it. Ask how useful it is, who handles the complexity, and whether the underlying concepts remain understandable.
Hide complexity. Don’t hide meaning.
How expensive will this be to change?
Consider future scenarios and reversibility without making today’s system pay for every imaginable requirement. The aim is the simplest overall system. A sophisticated, well-tested component can earn its place when it removes complexity elsewhere.
At Volt, this included bringing projects into a monorepo and building the Nix environments, task commands, and Linux release workflow the team used.
Explore the development and build workflowsStart a conversation
What is getting harder?
You don’t need to know the solution before we talk. You may not even know exactly what the problem is yet.
Something slow, fragile, expensive, or dependent on tribal knowledge is enough to begin with. We can work out where to start together.
Start a conversation