Hands-on engineering, when advice is not enough
Sometimes the fastest way to make a decision real is to build the critical piece myself or to sit inside the team for a few weeks. Hands-on engineering is for those moments, in TypeScript, React and Node.js, with the same product thinking as everything else I do.
For teams that have a plan and lack the senior hands to execute the hard part of it.
When you need this
- You need a feature, a module or a whole product built, and you want the person building it to think about the product as a whole.
- Your team is strong but small, and a senior pair of hands for a few months would unblock a quarter.
- A founder or tech lead wants a sparring partner for a decision that is hard to undo, such as a platform choice, a rewrite or a hire.
What I take on
- Web applications and the mobile apps that share their code
- Backends, APIs and data, including the parts everything else depends on
- Interface and interaction decisions, made together with you
- Operations around the code, from continuous integration to deployment and monitoring
- Automation of whatever the team does twice by hand
- Sparring with founders and tech leads, by the hour, before a decision that matters
Built the same way
Products I have built or helped build with exactly this approach. The full list is on the references page.
How it works
A first call
What you need built, by when, and what already exists. I say whether I am the right person for it.
A proposal
A fixed scope with a fixed price, or a time-based arrangement with a clear number of days per week. Agreed before work starts.
Work in your tools, in the open
Your repository, your issue tracker, your channels. Progress is visible every day.
Handover
Documentation, a walkthrough, and a codebase your team can continue without me. If you want me to stay, we talk about a few days a month.
What it costs
Time-based at a fixed day rate, or a fixed price for a defined scope. Numbers on request.
Questions people ask first
- Which technologies do you work with?
- TypeScript across the stack, React and React Native on the front end, Node.js on the back end, PostgreSQL and MongoDB for data, and Docker and Kubernetes for running it. I have modernised products from older stacks onto these in production and can work in adjacent ones where it makes sense.
- Project or team member?
- Both. A defined project with a fixed scope suits a new product or a self-contained module. Joining the team for a few days a week suits a product that already has engineers and needs senior capacity. The first call sorts out which one fits.
- Do you also design the interface?
- I shape the interaction and the flows, and I have done so for products used daily by people who do not read manuals. For the visual design I work alongside a designer and build the interface to match the design.
- Remote or on site?
- Mostly remote, across Germany, Austria and Switzerland. In person is possible around Göttingen and for kick-offs, workshops or the occasional day with the team elsewhere.
- How do you use AI tools?
- Heavily, and with review. AI tools speed up the typing part of the work. Everything the tools produce goes through the same review as anything a person writes before it reaches your repository.