Technical discovery
Understand the product, constraints, codebase, and goals.
You receive
A written read of the system and its risks.
Engineering capacity for teams that need to ship.
Backend systems, architecture, infrastructure, and senior engineering support for software companies.
Engagements
Time-based and milestone
Delivery
Remote
Oversight
Senior technical oversight
Correspondence
(01) The studio
A small studio of senior engineers. We take on few engagements and stay close to each one: designing and building the backend, the architecture beneath it, and the infrastructure it runs on.
Selective
A limited number of engagements at any one time.
Direct
Engineers speak with engineers. Nobody stands between you and the people doing the work.
Accountable
Estimates in writing, hours made visible, approval before a budget moves.
(02) Capabilities
Four disciplines,
practiced as one.
01Backend Engineering
The systems behind the product, built to carry load, change gracefully and stay legible.
- 01APIs
- 02Distributed systems
- 03Integrations
- 04Databases
- 05Performance
- 06Application backends
02Architecture
Early decisions are expensive to reverse. We help you make them well, or revisit them honestly.
- 01System design
- 02Technical planning
- 03Scalability
- 04Migrations
- 05Architecture reviews
- 06Technical due diligence
03Infrastructure & DevOps
Infrastructure that is boring, observable and reproducible, so releases stop being events.
- 01Cloud infrastructure
- 02Containers
- 03CI/CD
- 04Observability
- 05Deployment
- 06Reliability
04Engineering Capacity
Senior engineers inside your team, or quietly behind your brand, for as long as the work needs them.
- 01Temporary engineering support
- 02Dedicated developers
- 03Project augmentation
- 04White-label agency support
Inherited a system that is slowing you down? Rescue, refactoring and modernization run through all four.
(03) Formats of engagement
Three ways to work together.
Each format suits a different kind of work. We will say which one we think fits yours.
I.Time & MaterialsBilled hourly
Best for evolving scope and ongoing product development. You pay for the engineering time actually spent, with hours and progress visible throughout.
II.MilestonesBilled per phase
Work is divided into defined phases, each with an estimated budget and an approval checkpoint. Suited to well-bounded projects with a clear end.
III.Dedicated CapacityBilled monthly
Reserved engineering capacity, billed monthly. Senior engineers who work as an extension of your team, or behind your agency’s brand.
*Estimates are transparent. Any work beyond an agreed milestone budget requires your approval before it begins.
(04) Method
How we work.
Scope and estimate
Break the work into technical workstreams and provide estimated hours and budget.
You receive
An estimate with approval checkpoints.
Delivery
Engineering is delivered incrementally with regular visibility into progress and hours.
You receive
Working software, reviewed in small steps.
Handover or continuation
Continue as an engineering partner or hand over cleanly to the internal team.
You receive
Documentation, walkthroughs, or reserved capacity.
(05) Technical philosophy
Software should
be boring
where it
matters.
01
Simple systems over unnecessary complexity.
Every moving part is a future incident. We add one only when it earns its place.
02
Maintainability is a feature.
The next engineer to open the code is part of the audience. We write for them.
03
Pragmatic architecture.
The least structure that carries the load, and room to grow when the load changes.
04
Reliability, measured.
Objectives, alerts and dashboards, so uptime is a number and not a feeling.
05
No unnecessary rewrites.
Most systems can be improved in place, in steps, while the business keeps running.
06
Engineers talk to engineers.
Direct conversations, honest trade-offs, no relay through account managers.
(06) Commercial
Most engagements are billed on actual engineering time. Larger projects are divided into milestones with agreed budget ranges.
Hourly$100 / hourStarting rate
Billed on actual engineering time, reported regularly.
Milestone$15k – $75k+Typical phase budget
Each phase estimated up front, with an approval checkpoint.
Monthly capacity$16k / monthStarting rate
Reserved senior capacity, billed monthly.
(07) Contact
Have a project that needs engineering capacity?
Tell us what you’re building, what’s blocked, and where you need help.
Received.
Thank you, . A senior engineer will read your note and reply personally.
Thank you, . Your email app should have opened with your note ready to send. If it didn’t, write to hello@ataraxia.ws.
- Name
- Company
- Budget
- Start