Embedded engineering
A senior engineer dropped into an existing team for a defined stretch — quick to fit into the process already in place, communicating in writing, and useful in the first week rather than the second month.
The gun-for-hire case: the need is not a project but capacity, and the team already has a process that works. Fitting into that process is the job.
What this looks like
- Joining an existing team for a defined stretch, in its repository, its review culture and its ticket tracker. No parallel process, no insistence on a different stack.
- Useful in the first week. The first task is read the code and ask good questions, not propose a rewrite.
- Picking up an unfamiliar domain or an unfamiliar library quickly — curiosity is the actual product being sold here, and most of this work has involved a stack that had to be learned on the way in.
- Covering a gap: parental leave, a departure, a deadline that arrived early.
- Mentoring and knowledge transfer along the way, so capability stays behind after the engagement ends.
What to expect in practice
- A short written update at the end of each week: what moved, what is stuck, what needs a decision.
- Pull requests sized to be reviewed in one sitting, with the reasoning in the description.
- Blockers raised the day they appear, not the day before the deadline.
- “I do not know yet” when that is the honest answer, followed by finding out.
- Disagreement stated once, clearly, in the right place — and then the team’s decision respected.
Terms
Day rate, part time or full time, for a fixed stretch. Remote by default, on site when it genuinely helps. No minimum retainer to get a first conversation.