CONSULTING & ADVISORY
Four ways to work together.
Most engagements start small — a review, a workshop, a second opinion on an architecture that has to hold. Scope grows from there when it earns the right to. Pricing below is indicative; final scope decides the number.
Engagement models
Priced by outcome rather than by hours, except where hours genuinely are the unit.
Architecture Review
For teams who need an independent read before committing budget.
- Current-state architecture assessment
- Protocol conformance audit (OCPI, OCPP, Beckn)
- Risk register with severity and effort
- Written report plus a readout session
- Prioritised remediation roadmap
Fractional Architect
For platforms needing architecture ownership without a full-time hire.
- Design reviews and architecture decision records
- Partner integration and certification support
- Escalation path for production architecture issues
- Roadmap input and technical sequencing
- Direct access between scheduled days
Integration Programme
For an interoperability or AI build that has to reach production.
- Target architecture and interface design
- Partner onboarding and conformance testing
- Delivery oversight alongside your engineers
- Runbooks, ADRs and handover documentation
- Post-launch stabilisation window
Advisory & Workshops
For a specific question, a team that needs levelling up, or investor diligence.
- Protocol deep-dives for engineering teams
- Enterprise AI architecture workshops
- Technical due diligence for investors
- Second opinion on a design decision
- Interview panels and hiring support
On the numbers. These are indicative starting points, not a rate card. Final pricing depends on scope, timeline, and how much of the delivery sits with your team versus mine. Nothing is billed before a written scope is agreed. Indian pricing is exclusive of GST.
What I am usually hired for
Three areas specialised enough that a generalist would take twice as long.
EV charging interoperability
OCPI 2.2.1, OCPP 1.6J and 2.0.1, and Beckn (BAP/BPP). Partner onboarding, conformance auditing, roaming settlement and CDR reconciliation. 42 published guides on these protocols.
Enterprise AI architecture
Retrieval design, vector search, agentic orchestration, evaluation harnesses and governance on .NET and Azure — built for systems that must stay auditable. See the approach.
Platform architecture at scale
Microservices, event-driven design, API gateways and reliability engineering. Fourteen years on platforms carrying a million-plus daily interactions at 99% uptime.
Scope boundaries
Stated up front, because mismatched expectations are the most common reason engagements go wrong.
INCLUDED
- Architecture design and decision records
- Hands-on prototyping where it de-risks a decision
- Code and design review for your team
- Direct conversations with your partners and vendors
- Documentation your team keeps after I leave
- Written handover at the end of every engagement
NOT INCLUDED
- Full-time feature development as a contract developer
- Production on-call or 24/7 operational cover
- Staff augmentation billed by headcount
- Work without a written, agreed scope
- Sub-contracting to a team I have not worked with
How an engagement starts
No cost until step three.
Introductory call
Thirty minutes. What you are building, what is blocking it, and whether I am genuinely the right person. Free — and I will say so if I am not.
Written proposal
Scope, deliverables, timeline and a fixed number, sent within three working days of the call. Free.
Agreement and kick-off
Signed scope, mutual NDA where needed, and a start date. Billing begins here, never before.
Questions
Yes. Platforms I have architected run in the UAE, United Kingdom and USA. International engagements are quoted in USD and run on overlapping hours agreed up front.
Yes — purchase orders, vendor onboarding, mutual NDAs and standard MSAs are all fine. Allow extra lead time for enterprise procurement.
Scope changes are quoted as a written variation before any additional work starts. You will never receive an invoice for something you did not agree to in advance.
Yes — a single advisory day under model 04 is the usual way in. Many engagements start there and grow once the value is obvious to both sides.
Permanent and senior architecture roles are considered separately from consulting. Get in touch and we can work out which makes more sense.
Start with a conversation, not a contract.
Thirty minutes, no cost, no obligation. If I am not the right fit I will say so and point you somewhere better.