Senior Engineering Without the Hire
Not every problem needs a full build. Sometimes you need someone to tell you whether your architecture will hold up under 10x the current load. Or whether you’re overpaying for cloud infrastructure. Or how to structure your codebase so new features don’t take three weeks of archaeology before anyone touches the code.
I bring 8+ years of shipping Laravel and PostgreSQL at scale. I’ve built platforms from scratch (Dadooo.ai), inherited and modernized legacy systems (multi-database migration), scaled teams from 2 to distributed engineering groups (Exlink), and designed self-hosted infrastructure that runs reliably for years. That experience is available without a full-time hire.
Architecture Review
I look at your system holistically: code structure, database design, deployment setup, monitoring gaps, security posture, and team workflow. Not a surface-level code review. A deep assessment of why your system behaves the way it does and what’s going to break as you grow.
The output is a written report with:
- Current state assessment (what works, what doesn’t, what’s dangerous)
- Identified risks ranked by severity and likelihood
- Prioritized action plan you can hand to your development team
- Specific recommendations with examples, not generic “consider using caching”
I’ve reviewed codebases ranging from single-developer Laravel apps to multi-service platforms with dozens of microservices. The most common problems I find: no clear domain boundaries (everything calls everything), missing indexes on hot queries, deployment processes that require tribal knowledge, and no monitoring beyond “is the server up.”
Infrastructure Audit
Your AWS/GCP/Azure bill is probably higher than it needs to be. I evaluate your current hosting setup, network topology, and deployment pipeline, then provide a concrete comparison against Hetzner bare metal alternatives.
What I assess:
- Compute costs vs. equivalent Hetzner dedicated or VPS capacity
- Data transfer charges (Hetzner includes 20TB+ monthly)
- Storage pricing at your actual data volumes
- Managed service costs vs. self-hosted alternatives (PostgreSQL managed vs. self-hosted, for example)
- Networking complexity and security posture
- Compliance positioning (EU data residency, GDPR)
The output is a cost comparison with migration effort estimates. Sometimes cloud is the right answer. Often, for the B2B workloads I see, self-hosted is 60-80% cheaper with better data sovereignty.
DDD Guidance
If your Laravel codebase has fat models, controllers doing business logic, and services that know about everything, adopting Domain-Driven Design will change how your team thinks about the code. But DDD adopted wrong creates more complexity than it solves.
I work with your team to:
- Map your business domains into bounded contexts through collaborative sessions
- Define aggregates and value objects that match your actual business rules, not textbook examples
- Establish boundaries between contexts with clear interfaces
- Provide reference implementations your team can follow for new features
- Review initial work as your team adopts the patterns
This isn’t a three-day workshop that’s forgotten by Friday. I stay available for questions and code reviews as your team adapts. The patterns need to feel natural, not forced.
Team Augmentation
For critical projects or architectural transitions, I embed into your team temporarily. I make architecture decisions, review PRs, mentor developers on DDD patterns, and unblock technical problems. Think of it as borrowing a senior engineer who’s done this specific kind of work before.
At Exlink, I moved from individual contributor to team lead: hiring decisions, onboarding new developers, establishing code review culture, and maintaining technical ownership of the platform while the team grew. I know what it takes to scale engineering teams, not just code.
How Engagements Work
I scope by outcome, not hours. We define what you need to know or decide, I do the work, and you get a deliverable you can act on. Not a slide deck that collects dust. Not a 200-page report nobody reads.
Typical timeline:
- Architecture review: 1-2 weeks of assessment, written report delivered
- Infrastructure audit: 3-5 days, cost analysis with migration recommendations
- DDD adoption: 2-4 weeks of workshops and initial implementation guidance, then ongoing review
- Team augmentation: flexible, typically 1-3 months during critical phases
Who This Is For
You have a Laravel or PHP codebase that’s becoming harder to maintain. Or infrastructure costs that keep climbing. Or a team that needs senior guidance on architectural decisions. You don’t need another full-time hire. You need someone with specific experience to point you in the right direction and validate the approach.
If your team needs a second opinion from someone who’s shipped this kind of system before, let’s scope it.
Frequently Asked Questions
What’s the difference between consulting and just hiring you to build?
Consulting delivers knowledge and recommendations. Building delivers a working system. Sometimes the first leads to the second, sometimes it doesn’t. You might just need to know if your architecture will hold, or whether migrating off AWS is worth it. I’ll give you a clear answer and an action plan. If you then want me to execute it, we can talk about that separately.
Do you only work with Laravel/PHP teams?
The architecture and infrastructure expertise applies broadly. DDD principles work in any language. Infrastructure audits are stack-agnostic. But for code-level reviews and team augmentation, I’m most valuable when the stack is Laravel/PHP, PostgreSQL, Vue, and Docker. That’s where my 8+ years of production experience lives.
How do you deliver the architecture review? Is it a meeting or a document?
A written document. Concrete enough that your team can act on it without me in the room. Findings, risks, priorities, and specific recommendations with code examples where relevant. I also do a walkthrough call to discuss the findings and answer questions. But the deliverable is the document, not the call.
Can you help us adopt DDD if our team has never used it?
Yes, and I’d argue that’s the most impactful consulting engagement I do. Teams that adopt DDD properly stop fighting their codebase. But it needs to be introduced gradually with real examples from your domain, not generic textbook patterns. I model your actual business logic into bounded contexts during collaborative sessions, provide reference implementations, and review your team’s initial work as they adopt the patterns.
What if the honest answer is “your system is fine”?
Then I’ll tell you that and save you from an unnecessary rewrite. Not every codebase needs DDD. Not every AWS bill is too high. If your architecture handles your current scale and your team can maintain it, I’ll say so. You’ll get a short report confirming what works, flagging any minor concerns, and I’ll bill you for the actual time spent. I don’t manufacture problems to sell solutions.