Gabe Giro

Engineering, on demand

Hire a senior
AI
engineer.

A senior engineer on your product — setting technical direction, raising code quality, and shipping what matters. Available when you need to move, accountable for what gets delivered.

Architecture direction, hands-on delivery, and the senior judgment to make the load-bearing calls — against an agreed scope. Two delivery plans: Advisor (strategic anchor) from €1,000/mo, or Builder (embedded delivery) from €5,000/mo.

Plans

Two monthly retainers. Pick the one that matches who's actually shipping.

Senior delivery on an agreed scope.

One accountable owner, planned with you each cycle, a predictable monthly budget, and no hiring risk.

Every Builder engagement runs on an agreed scope. At the start of each cycle we plan what's being built and in what order — you always know what you're getting. Larger initiatives span multiple cycles; smaller ones ship within one. You're buying focused senior delivery against a plan we set together, not a fixed feature count.

Summer intro offer: 50% off your first month — June.

Advisor

€1,000/mo

4h advisory / month · 3-month minimum, then month-to-month.

First month €500 — 50% off (June)

  • Direct line to a senior CTO
  • 4 hours of senior advisory a month, plus async support between
  • 50% off every productized service while the retainer is active
Book Advisor → Not ready? Book a free 15-min call

Builder Core

€5,000/mo

One workstream · weekly planning · standard priority

First month €2,500 — 50% off (June)

One focus area at a time. We scope a single workstream each cycle; I deliver against it. Weekly planning, async support, standard priority.

Choose Builder Core → Not ready? Book a free 15-min call
Recommended

Builder Plus

€10,000/mo

Multiple workstreams · twice-weekly sync · high priority

First month €5,000 — 50% off (June)

A continuous roadmap. Multiple workstreams in flight, re-prioritised with you as things ship. Twice-weekly sync, high priority.

Choose Builder Plus → Not ready? Book a free 15-min call

Builder Max

€20,000/mo

Whole roadmap · daily availability · top priority

First month €10,000 — 50% off (June)

Full product ownership. I run the whole roadmap with you — broadest scope, daily availability, top priority.

Choose Builder Max → Not ready? Book a free 15-min call

Build it, priced by speed

Need a specific thing built, not an ongoing retainer? A scoped build by one senior owner, the same project priced by how fast you need it, paid per milestone. (Inside a Builder retainer, a Rush turnaround is a priority conversation, not a separate price.)

Lead with this

Rush

from €14,000

paid per milestone · 3 × ~€4,700

Fastest delivery, prioritized above everything else, for launches, fundraises, and hard deadlines.

Standard

from €8,000

paid per milestone · 2 × ~€4,000

A firm, realistic date. The right call for most projects.

Relaxed

from €5,600

paid in one milestone of €5,600

No firm fast date, built around everything else at a patient pace, for the lowest price.

Prices shown for a Full-MVP build. Configure your project → to size it and see your offer. Indicative pricing, provisional while I calibrate from the first quotes.

Services in detail

How each pillar shows up in a typical engagement.

Strategic Direction

I sit in on planning, set the architecture direction with your team, and make the boring-but-load-bearing decisions early, language, framework, hosting, build pipeline, infra boundaries, so you don't have to revisit them six months in. Buy-vs-build calls get answered with a real cost model, not a gut feel.

  • Quarterly roadmap reviews aligned to business goals and engineering capacity
  • Architecture decision records (ADRs) for any choice that's expensive to reverse
  • Technology selection with explicit trade-off documentation
  • Buy-vs-build evaluations with TCO and time-to-value baked in

Code Quality & Architecture

I review pull requests, pair with your developers, and refactor the parts of the codebase that are slowing the team down. The goal is to leave your engineers more capable, not just to ship better code on my watch, patterns get written down, conventions get enforced in the linter, and the next hire ramps faster.

  • Code review cadence + PR-author feedback that builds the team's senior judgment
  • Targeted refactors of high-traffic areas (auth, data layer, rendering hot paths)
  • Architectural patterns documented and enforced in code (lint, tests, CI)
  • Technical debt triage, what to fix now, what to absorb, what to leave alone

Team Management

Building the team that matches your stage, and reshaping it when the stage changes. I help you scope roles, design interview loops that actually predict on-the-job performance, and run hiring at a pace your existing team can absorb. When restructures are needed, I run them with care, performance conversations, role realignment, and graceful exits.

  • Role design and leveling, engineer, senior, staff, lead boundaries that hold up
  • Interview loop design with calibrated rubrics, take-homes, and live coding
  • Onboarding playbooks that get new hires shipping in week 2, not month 2
  • Restructures, performance plans, and graceful offboarding, handled directly

Transparent Communication

Stakeholders get the honest version, including the parts that are hard to hear. Engineering communication that earns trust over time looks like clear weekly progress, named risks, and explicit trade-offs. No theater, no euphemisms when something is behind, no surprise escalations to the board.

  • Weekly progress reports written in plain English, optimised for decision-makers
  • Named risks with owners, mitigations, and dates, not buried in a slide deck
  • Honest estimates including the uncertainty band, not the optimistic floor
  • Direct escalation path to founders / board with no filtering or spin
12+
Years experience
37+
Projects delivered
150M+
Users impacted
30+
Companies served

Engineering range

A self-rated snapshot of where I bring the most leverage, Football Manager style, scored out of 20.

  • Android (Kotlin, Compose) 10+ years, primary expertise
    20/20
  • Architecture & Tech Strategy
    18/20
  • AI/ML & LLM Integration Claude API, agent systems
    17/20
  • Team Leadership & Mentoring
    17/20
  • Backend (Node, Python, APIs)
    16/20
  • DevOps & CI/CD
    14/20
  • Frontend (React, Next.js, Astro)
    14/20
  • iOS (SwiftUI)
    12/20
  • ≥18 expert
  • 15–17 strong
  • <15 working knowledge

About the engagement

What do I actually get?

A senior engineer working directly on your product — setting technical direction, raising code quality, supporting hiring, and shipping against an agreed scope. You get senior judgment applied to the problems that matter most, on demand, with one accountable owner for what gets delivered.

How does pricing work?

Each plan runs on a flat monthly retainer, not an hourly meter. Advisor is €1,000/mo and includes 4 hours of senior advisory each month plus async support. Builder runs on three flat tiers, Core €5,000, Plus €10,000, and Max €20,000, differentiated by engagement level rather than a feature count. You're buying a predictable monthly budget against an agreed scope, not a timesheet.

What's the difference between Advisor and Builder?

Advisor (€1,000/mo) is a strategic anchor for teams that have their own developers, 4 hours of senior advisory a month plus async support, with 50% off every productized service. Builder is embedded delivery, I ship product against an agreed scope on three flat monthly tiers (Core €5,000, Plus €10,000, Max €20,000). The tiers differ by engagement level, priority, availability, and how much is in flight, not by a promised feature count.

What if I'm not sure which Builder tier I need?

Start at Builder Core (€5,000/mo), one workstream at a time with weekly planning. Most teams move up to Plus (€10,000/mo) once multiple workstreams are in flight and they want a continuous roadmap. You can resize between tiers as your needs change, so you're never locked into more or less than the work warrants.

What exactly do I get each month?

Every Builder engagement runs on an agreed scope. At the start of each cycle we plan what's being built and in what order — you always know what you're getting. Larger initiatives span multiple cycles; smaller ones ship within one. You're buying focused senior delivery against a plan we set together, not a fixed feature count.

What if something takes longer than a month?

Larger initiatives span multiple cycles, smaller ones ship within one. The retainer is ongoing senior capacity against an agreed scope, not a per-feature fee, so a multi-cycle build just continues across cycles. At the start of each cycle we re-plan what's being built and in what order, so you always know what's coming next.

How is a flat retainer fair if my needs vary month to month?

Each tier is sized for a typical month at that engagement level, so light and heavy months even out. The flat fee buys availability, priority, and a predictable budget, not a metered ledger. If you consistently need more than your tier delivers, we move you up a tier; a single busy month is simply absorbed.

How do you deliver so much for the price?

You get one senior engineer focused on your scope, working with a modern AI-assisted toolchain, one accountable owner, not a rotating team.

Is there a trial, and how long is the contract?

There's a seasonal first-month intro discount on new engagements when one is running. Builder is a 12-month engagement, billed bi-weekly for the first six months, then monthly. Advisor has a 3-month minimum, then runs month-to-month.

What industries do you work with?

I focus on mobile-first companies (Android in particular), SaaS, and startups with an established app or platform. Industries I find most interesting: extreme sports, motorsports, music, and high-end fashion, but I evaluate all opportunities on merit.

What does your engagement process look like?

We start with a free 15-minute discovery call. If there's a fit, I do a paid technical audit to understand your codebase, team, and goals. From there you pick a plan on the Advisor or Builder intake page and we begin. Builder is a 12-month engagement, billed bi-weekly for the first six months, then monthly; Advisor has a 3-month minimum, then month-to-month.

How is this different from making a permanent hire?

You get senior engineering capacity on demand — direction, code quality, and delivery — without the recruiting cycle, the equity grant, or the risk of a wrong permanent hire. It's the right choice when you need senior firepower on your product now, and want it accountable for what ships rather than for filling a seat.

Do you write code, or is it purely strategic?

Both. I'm hands-on by default, I review PRs, write production code, and pair with your developers. Pure strategy without execution is rarely useful. The Advisor plan leans strategic; the Builder plan leans delivery. Both include some of each.

Ready to ship?

Start with a free 15-minute discovery call. No commitment, no pitch deck, just an honest conversation about your product and your goals.

Book a free call