◇ SENIOR TEAM · EX-FAANG FORWARD-DEPLOYED CODE HANDED OFF
Forward-deployed AI engineering

From AI prototype
to production
in weeks.

Most enterprise AI pilots stall before production — not because the models are bad, but because nobody wires them into the real workflow. We're a small team of senior, ex-FAANG engineers who forward-deploy alongside your team, ship a working hybrid AI system in 6–12 weeks, and hand off the code — for the cost of a few months of a senior hire you can't find, not a $560K headcount or a $3M consulting program.

6–12 wk
Prototype to
production
100%
Code handed off —
no lock-in
from $4K
Fixed-fee entry
audit
THE HYBRID SPINE
◧ Deterministic layer~90%
Parsing · math · rules · retrieval · validation — auditable, no hallucination
◍ LLM layer~10%
Reasoning & synthesis only — reserved for genuine ambiguity
THE PRINCIPLE DON'T PAY AN LLM TO PARSE ▾

Senior engineers — only.

No faceless agency, no bait-and-switch to junior contractors. A small team of senior engineers with big-tech pedigree, forward-deployed into your codebase from week one.

Hiring the role

~$560K and months to fill

The traditional path to senior AI talent.
  • Months of recruiting before a single line ships
  • ~$560K fully-loaded comp — fixed indefinitely
  • A scarce hire you may not land at all
  • Idle senior capacity once the build is done
PERMANENT HEADCOUNT · CARRIED FOREVER
Commissioning the work

Shipping from week one

A senior team, forward-deployed, then handed off.
  • Production AI shipped in 6–12 weeks, not quarters
  • A few months of senior cost — no standing headcount
  • Systems we've built before — no ramp tax
  • You own the code; we hand off and step back
FIXED ENGAGEMENT · CODE IS YOURS

Big-Tech pedigree

Senior / Staff · ex-FAANG

Every engineer has shipped production systems at the scale and reliability bar of the largest tech companies — the experience you'd hire for, without the headcount.

Production, not prototypes

Shipped & operated at scale

We've taken AI systems past the demo and into production — handling real data, real load, and the edge cases that quietly kill pilots.

Hybrid by default

Deterministic + LLM

Deep across classical AI, data engineering, and modern LLMs — so the architecture is chosen for the problem, not for the hype cycle.

The model is a commodity.
The architecture is the advantage.

Frontier models now perform similarly. The risk — and the cost — lives in how you wrap them. My opinion, built into every system: a deterministic spine carries the load; the LLM is invited only where it earns its keep.

Deterministic spine — where correctness lives

Rules, parsing, schema validation and math do the heavy lifting: auditable, repeatable, and impossible to hallucinate. This is the part you can put in front of a regulator.

  • No hallucination on critical or financial data
  • Parsers, RegEx & schema validation gates
  • Vector search & classical embeddings
  • Factor models, signals & statistics
  • Runs for fractions of a cent, in milliseconds

LLM layer — reserved for real ambiguity

The model is invoked only for reasoning and synthesis, where ambiguity is genuine. Used sparingly, it stays cheap — and your token bill stops paying an LLM to do a parser's job.

  • Reasoning, synthesis & natural-language output
  • Edge-case resolution, not bulk processing
  • BYOK — your keys, your data stays in your VPC
  • Provider-portable: cloud, local, or on-device
  • No single-model vendor dependency
Lower cost is the by-product. Contained risk is the point.
How to engage →

Start small. Prove it.
Then build.

Every engagement starts with a fixed-fee audit one person can approve — no procurement, no leap of faith. Each step earns the next.

STEP 01 — LAND

AI Architecture & Cost Audit

from $4K

A fixed-scope read of your stack: current vs. hybrid cost, accuracy and latency deltas, and a prioritized, costed migration roadmap. The deliverable doubles as the build SOW — and it's yours to keep whatever you decide next.

~2 weeks · single signer
STEP 02 — PROVE

Proof of Concept

$25K–$40K

A scoped PoC on your real data, targeting one agreed success metric. It de-risks the build for you and calibrates the estimate before any fixed bid is on the table.

2–3 weeks
CORE
STEP 03 — BUILD

Build & Handoff

$90K–$180K

A fixed-scope hybrid system shipped into production — with full code handoff and a written knowledge-transfer plan. Milestone-based payments. Your team runs it when we leave.

8–14 weeks · milestones
STEP 04 — EXPAND

New Workstreams

from $35K/mo

A fractional, forward-deployed engagement to build your next AI workstream — explicitly for new problems, never to maintain what was already handed off.

3–6 month minimum

Indicative ranges, not a price list. Scope sets the number. The audit is deliberately priced so a single budget owner can say yes today — and everything you pay for is yours to walk away with.

Patterns we've shipped

The problem-shapes we've put into production — proof of method, not slideware. Details kept abstract by design; we discuss specifics under NDA.

001

Decision support Hybrid Quant + LLM

A research and analysis platform where classical models do the quantitative heavy lifting and the LLM handles interpretation and natural-language querying. The statistical core is deliberately isolated from the language layer — so accuracy is never at the mercy of a model's mood.

Quantitative modelsBacktestingLLM interpretationIsolated cores
Auditable
Numbers from math, language from the LLM
002

Private knowledge base On-Device RAG

A document-grounded assistant that ingests files and answers questions entirely on-device. Embeddings and retrieval run locally — no API calls, no data egress, no per-query cost. Built for teams who can't send sensitive material to a third-party cloud.

Local embeddingsVector retrievalAir-gappedZero egress
$0
Inference cost · data never leaves the device
003

Tiered inference Edge ↔ Cloud

A system that runs small models on-device for the common cases and escalates to cloud models only for the genuinely hard ones. An explicit cost-and-privacy tiering strategy — most requests never leave the device, and the bill reflects it.

On-device inferenceSelective escalationOffline-capableCost-tiered
Offline
Common path runs with no connection
004

Autonomous pipeline Agentic Orchestration

A multi-stage pipeline that researches, decides, and produces a finished deliverable end to end. Structured outputs drive each stage with validation between them, on a provider-portable backend that runs local or cloud at near-zero cost.

LLM orchestrationStructured outputsValidation gatesProvider-portable
End-to-end
Research to deliverable, autonomously

From audit to handoff

A deliberate route. Each stage produces something concrete and CFO-readable — no open-ended retainers, no vapor.

PHASE 01

Audit

We map where on your stack the LLM is overpaying for work a deterministic layer should own — and what the fix is worth.

PHASE 02

Prove

A PoC on your real data against one success metric, defined before any code — so we both know what "working" means.

PHASE 03

Build

We embed and ship a production hybrid system, validated against your data with deterministic guardrails throughout.

PHASE 04

Hand off

Full code, written knowledge transfer, your team trained. You own it and run it. We step back.

You're never locked in.

The biggest fear with an outside engineer is the one who never leaves — or the system you can't run without them. Both are engineered out from the start.

Full code, fully yours

Every line ships to your repos with a written knowledge-transfer plan and your team trained to run it.

BYOK & on-device

Your keys, your cloud. Data stays in your VPC — and there's no single-model vendor you're chained to.

No month-12 dependency

You will not pay us the same in month 12 as month 1. The system is yours to operate the day we leave.

The retainer is opt-in

Any ongoing engagement exists only to build your next thing — never to maintain what we already handed off.

"The system we build is yours to run — full code, no lock-in. We come back only when you want the next thing built."

That's the whole deal, in writing, in the contract. Independence isn't a feature here — it's the structure of the engagement.

Trust & security — stated honestly
Data control

BYOK and on-device options by default — sensitive data never has to leave your environment.

Auditability

The deterministic spine is repeatable and inspectable — the part you can put in front of a regulator.

SOC 2

Type II readiness in progress. We'll tell you exactly where it stands rather than imply a posture we don't yet hold.

Capped first step

A fixed-fee audit with an explicit exit clause — see senior work on your real data before any larger commitment.

Now booking audits

Start with a map,
not a leap of faith.

Tell us the workstream that's costing you most. You'll get a fixed-fee, ~2-week audit: where AI fits, what it saves, and a costed roadmap you keep — whatever you decide to do next.