For businesses without a senior engineer on staff, and teams that need one on a big project
Senior technical judgment, a few days a month.
You need someone to weigh vendors, set the roadmap, review what contractors ship, and write code when it counts. A full-time senior hire is more than the work calls for. A fractional engineer gives you 20 hours a month of that judgment at a published monthly price, from a degreed engineer with production experience and a business behind him.
How it works · Sheet S-05
Sound familiar?
When a part-time senior engineer fits.
If you are making technology decisions without anyone senior to check them, this is the gap.
- You are choosing between vendors and cannot judge their technical claims.
- Offshore or freelance developers ship work no one on staff can review.
- The roadmap is a wish list with no estimates or order.
- Your one internal developer is overloaded and has nobody to ask.
What we build
What the monthly hours cover.
A typical mix. The split between advising and hands-on work changes month to month with your priorities.
| Job | Today | After |
|---|---|---|
| Roadmap | Ideas collected in email with no sequence | A quarterly plan with estimates, owners, and trade-offs written down |
| Vendor selection | Sales demos decide which system you buy | Requirements, a short list, and a written recommendation you can defend |
| Contractor oversight | Invoices approved without seeing the code | Pull requests reviewed, standards set, and progress checked against the plan |
| Architecture | Each new tool bolted on wherever it fits | A simple system map and rules for how data moves between tools |
| Hands-on delivery | Critical fixes wait for the next hire | Senior code written directly on the pieces that matter most |
| Operations | Outages found by customers first | Monitoring, incident steps, and change practices based on ITIL 4 |
Published monthly plans
Know the number before we start.
Published monthly plans, each with included hours and response times in writing.
20 hours a month of leadership and hands-on work, same-business-day response on critical issues.
12 hours a month for steady improvement without a leadership role.
5 hours a month to maintain software and automations already in place.
A full technical audit and written plan, if you want to start there.
Fractional senior software engineer FAQ
Questions about fractional engineering.
How much does a fractional software engineer cost?
Our Fractional Engineer plan is $4,000/month for 20 hours, on our published price list. Lighter plans are $2,500/month for Grow and $1,000/month for Care. You can also start with a one-time audit at $1,500–$2,500 if you want a plan first.
How is this different from hiring a freelancer online?
You know exactly who you're getting. Dean holds a B.S. in Software Engineering and ITIL 4 certification and has built production software since 2020. The work runs under a written master services agreement and service levels, and we carry business insurance, including a professional and cyber liability policy with $1 million in coverage. You're not handing your systems to an anonymous profile.
How is a fractional engineer different from a consultant?
A fractional engineer stays. A consultant usually delivers a report and leaves. On a monthly plan we attend your planning, own technical decisions with you, review ongoing work, and build where needed, so advice and follow-through come from the same person.
Do you work with businesses outside Macon, like Atlanta?
Yes. We are based in Macon, work on site across Middle Georgia, and work remotely with teams in Atlanta, Savannah, and the rest of the US. Planning meetings and reviews run well over Teams or Zoom.
Will you manage our existing developers or vendors?
Yes, if you want that. We set coding standards, review pull requests, and check vendor work against what was promised. We report to you, not to the vendor, so the feedback stays honest.
A note from Dean
I've been building production software since 2020, from ERP reports for manufacturers to an organization-wide platform for thousands of users. I hold a B.S. in Software Engineering and ITIL 4 certification. On a monthly plan, you get me directly, not a rotating bench.
Dean Whitten
Start here
Tell us the decision you need a second opinion on.
You'll hear back within two business days with a useful next step, even if that step is a setting you haven't turned on yet. Rather call or text? (478) 954-7760