Support service
An architect inside your team
When you need senior architecture decisions for a period rather than a permanent hire, an architect from our side joins your team, owns the decisions and leaves the capability behind.
- Duration
- 3 to 12 months
- Model
- Monthly retainer
- Output
- Weekly decision log and a stronger team
When an embedded architect makes sense
Some architecture needs are real but temporary. Hiring for them permanently is slow and often the wrong fit.
- A major programme is starting and nobody on the team has led one of this size.
- Your only architect has left, and hiring a permanent replacement will take months.
- The CTO is the de facto architect and has no time left for the rest of the role.
- Teams wait for architecture decisions, and decisions are made by whoever is in the room.
- An external vendor builds part of the system and you need someone to hold them to a design.
- You want to grow architects from within, but nobody has the time to mentor them.
- The board or investors ask for technical leadership that the current team cannot yet provide.
Accountable, not advisory
Advisory architecture, a monthly call and a slide deck, rarely changes how a system is built. The decisions that matter happen in design discussions, pull requests and incident reviews, and the architect has to be there.
An embedded architect works inside your team’s routines for an agreed number of days each week. They own the architecture decisions within an agreed scope, write them down in a weekly decision log, review designs and code where it counts, and represent the architecture to vendors and stakeholders.
From the first month, part of the role is making itself unnecessary. Engineers are brought into the decisions, the practices are written down, and at the end your team, or the architect you hire, takes over a working system of decisions rather than a blank page.
Scope
Included
- Ownership of architecture decisions within an agreed scope
- Weekly decision log and decision records
- Design reviews and targeted code reviews
- Participation in planning and incident reviews
- Oversight of external vendors against the agreed design
- Mentoring of the engineers who will take over the role
- Support in hiring a permanent architect
- Monthly summary for leadership
Not included
- Line management of your engineers
- Full-time feature development
- Product and commercial decisions
- An open-ended arrangement without a handover plan
How the engagement runs
- Weeks 1 to 2Agree the mandate. Scope, decision rights, days per week and success criteria are agreed with leadership, and the architect meets the teams.
- Month 1Take ownership. Open decisions are collected, the decision log starts, and the most urgent architecture questions are resolved.
- Month 2 onwardRun and teach. The architect works in the team’s routines, makes and records decisions, and brings engineers into each one.
- Final monthHand over. The log, the practices and the open questions are handed to the internal owner, whether an engineer who has grown into the role or a newly hired architect.
What you receive
Everything the architect produces is yours and lives in your tools.
Who this service is not for
- Companies that need a full-time permanent architect indefinitely. We can help you hire one instead.
- Teams that want an extra developer. The role is architecture ownership, not feature capacity.
- Arrangements in which the architect has no authority. Without an agreed mandate the role becomes advisory and loses its value.
Frequently asked questions
How many days a week?
Usually two to three days a week, agreed at the start and reviewed monthly. The time follows the intensity of the programme rather than a fixed rule.
Who will the architect be?
Because we do not publish team details, the CVs of the proposed architects are shared once an NDA is signed, and you meet them before the engagement starts.
Can the architect work with our vendor?
Yes. Holding external delivery to an agreed design is one of the most common reasons for this service.
How does the engagement end?
With a planned handover to an internal owner. The mandate includes this from the start, so the end is a milestone, not a surprise.
How is this different from Architecture Governance?
Architecture Governance sets up a decision process for your teams to run. This service puts an accountable architect inside the team for a period.
Start with a short technical call
Thirty minutes. You describe the programme and the gap in the team, and we tell you what the role would look like.