Fractional AI Architect

Senior architecture on retainer. The person who shipped for unicorns and rescued tangled codebases, in your corner — for the decisions that are expensive to get wrong. Predictable engagement, no full-time hire.

What You Get

  • A senior architect on call for the decisions that are expensive to reverse
  • Regular architecture and code reviews that catch problems while they're cheap
  • Sounding board for build-vs-buy, model choice, and scaling calls
  • Mentorship that levels up your team instead of creating dependence
  • Predictable monthly engagement — budget for it, no full-time hire
  • Continuity — the same person who knows your system, every month
  • Direct line to 18+ years of production architecture experience
  • Scales up for crunch, down for calm — flexible by month

Duration

Monthly retainer (typically a few days a month; flexible)

Price

Custom monthly retainer (contact for a quote)

The hire you can’t quite justify yet

You have a good team. What you don’t have is a senior architect — someone who’s shipped real systems at scale and can tell you, fast, whether a decision will hurt you in a year.

So those decisions get made under pressure, by whoever’s available, and you learn if they were right months later when the bill comes due. A full-time architect would fix it, but the hire is slow, expensive, and more than you need right now.

A senior architect, on retainer

You get the judgment without the headcount:

  • The expensive calls, made well. Build-vs-buy, model choice, how to structure the new thing, whether to refactor — weighed before they’re locked in.
  • Reviews that catch drift early. Regular architecture and code reviews, while problems are still cheap to fix.
  • A team that gets stronger. We mentor and document, so you depend on us less over time, not more.
  • Predictable cost. A monthly engagement you can budget, flexing up for crunch and down for calm.

Who’s in your corner

The same person who rescued tangled codebases for funded teams, architected RAG systems under real constraints, and built and runs real products — with 18+ years in production. Not a junior, not a rotating bench. One senior architect who learns your system and stays.

Let’s set it up

Tell us where the hard decisions keep landing, and we’ll shape a retainer that fits.

Book an architecture call.

Frequently Asked Questions

How is this different from a one-off consulting project?

A project ends; a retainer is continuity. The value of a fractional architect compounds — the same person knows your system, your constraints, and your team, so each decision builds on the last. It's the difference between calling a stranger for directions and having a navigator who's been in the car the whole trip.

How much time do we actually get?

Typically a few days a month, flexible. Some months are heavy (a big architectural decision, a scaling push); others are light (reviews and a few calls). We agree on a baseline and flex around your reality rather than billing you for a fixed block whether you need it or not.

Will this create dependence on you?

The opposite is the goal. We mentor your team and document decisions so they get stronger over time. A good fractional architect makes themselves progressively less necessary — and we're fine with that. Many engagements naturally taper as the team levels up.

What kinds of decisions do you help with?

The expensive-to-reverse ones: how to structure a new service, which model or vendor to commit to, whether a refactor is worth it, how to scale without painting yourself into a corner, build-vs-buy. Plus regular code and architecture reviews to catch drift early.

Can a retainer start after a rescue or build project?

That's a common path. We rescue or architect the system, then stay on retainer to keep it healthy as you grow. You already have the context loaded; the retainer just keeps a senior hand on the wheel.

Book an architecture call →