How it works
Three ways to put senior engineering on your team.
Senior engineering inside your company — your Slack, your standups, your repo — without the recruiting cycle or the full-time salary. Pick the shape that fits how you work.
The model
What is forward deployed engineering?
Forward deployed engineering puts the engineer inside the company instead of behind an agency wall — working in your Slack, your standups, and your repo, building against your real data, systems, and workflows.
Tall Karol runs on that model: senior engineering embedded where the work happens — shipping the websites, apps, and integrations that fit how your business actually runs.
Engagement models
Let's work together
Same senior engineering, what changes is how you buy it and how long I stay.
Project
Scoped. Built. Shipped. Documented.
A defined build with a defined finish line. Scoped upfront, shipped to production, documented and handed off clean — or rolled into a retainer if you want the studio to keep running it.
- Fixed scope, fixed timeline
- Discovery → build → launch → handoff docs
- Most projects become retainers once the build is live
- 1. Discovery
- 2. Proposal
- 3. Build
- 4. Launch
Retainer
Senior engineering on your team — without making the hire.
A forward-deployed senior engineer, embedded in your team. Your Slack, your standups, your roadmap — with a monthly hours bank that flexes as priorities shift. Builds, integrations, fixes, and the stuff nobody else has bandwidth for, shipped every week.
- Monthly hours bank, scoped to your roadmap
- Embedded in your tools and cadence from day one
- Senior end-to-end — no handoffs, no account manager
- 1. Intro call
- 2. Scope the bank
- 3. Embed day one
- 4. Ship weekly
For agencies
I'm your quiet dev bench.
White-label delivery under your brand. Your client relationship, my engineering — overflow builds, technical rescues, and retainer capacity you don't have to hire for.
Side by side.
Same engineer, same standard. The difference is how you buy the work and how long I stay.
| Comparison point | Project | Retainer | White-Label |
|---|---|---|---|
| Best for | A defined build with a finish line | Ongoing capacity on your roadmap | Overflow and delivery behind your brand |
| Commitment | Through launch | Month to month | Per-engagement or standing |
| How you buy it | Fixed scope, fixed price after discovery | Monthly hours bank | I quote you; you quote your client |
| Who it's for | Your company | Your company | Agencies — your clients never have to know |
| Cadence | Weekly demos on staging | Something ships every week | Weekly demos in your inbox |
| When it ends | Documented handoff — or it rolls into a retainer | Resize, pause, or keep going | The next build, or a standing bench |
- Senior end-to-end
- No handoffs, no account managers
- Something ships every week
- The engineer on the call does the work
Not sure which shape fits?
Tell me what you're building and I'll tell you exactly how I'd engage — including when a one-off project is the smarter start.
Book a Call