AK
Services

Consulting & coaching.

13+ years of backend architecture experience, packaged two ways — team consulting for companies, and 1:1 coaching for engineers targeting senior roles abroad.

For teams & founders

Consulting engagements.

Architecture Review
Starts at $2,500
1–2 weeks

Best for: You’re about to scale, re-platform, or ship something load-bearing.

  • Deep dive into your current architecture (code, infra, data)
  • Written report with findings + prioritised recommendations
  • 60–90 min readout call with your engineering leadership
  • 30 days of async follow-up for clarifications
Outcome
Clarity, a roadmap, and confidence to build.
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Most popular
Scaling Engagement
From $8,000 / month
4–12 weeks

Best for: Your system is breaking under growth — latency, cost, or reliability.

  • Hands-on backend and infrastructure work
  • Rate limiting, caching, circuit breakers, observability rollouts
  • Database / query optimisation and capacity planning
  • Weekly async updates + 2 live sessions per week
  • Knowledge transfer so your team owns it after I leave
Outcome
Measurable latency, cost, and reliability wins.
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DevOps & Cloud Engagement
From $6,000 / month
3–8 weeks

Best for: You need production-grade infra, CI/CD, or a cloud migration done right.

  • AWS / GCP architecture design, review, or migration
  • Kubernetes, Helm, Terraform — set up or audit
  • CI/CD pipelines (Jenkins, GitHub Actions) and secrets hygiene
  • Observability stack — Datadog, NewRelic, ELK, PagerDuty
  • Cost optimisation + right-sizing across environments
Outcome
Infra you don’t have to babysit. Deploys that don’t scare anyone.
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Fractional Principal Engineer / Architect
$12,000 / month or Custom
Ongoing

Best for: You need a senior-most engineer without a full-time hire.

  • Architecture ownership across 1–3 critical systems
  • Interview + mentorship support for your engineers
  • Design reviews, RFCs, and delivery unblocking
  • Direct line to me during business hours
  • Custom scope & pricing available for retainer or equity-adjusted deals
Outcome
A step-change in your team’s engineering velocity.
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For engineers · 1:1 coaching

Career grooming & system design mentoring.

Priced for individuals, not companies. I ran 15+ technical interviews at Bolt and mentored engineers from mid to senior — now I do the same 1:1. Honest feedback, no gatekeeping.

Limited slots / week
Highest-impact
Career Grooming — Europe & Canada
₹4,999 / session
60 min · 1:1

Best for: You’re an engineer targeting €150K–€200K roles in Berlin, Amsterdam, Dublin, or Toronto.

  • CV + LinkedIn review tuned for European / Canadian recruiters
  • Visa & relocation reality check (Blue Card, Global Talent, Express Entry)
  • Honest salary benchmarking by city, company tier, and YoE
  • Outreach playbook — where to apply, who to message, what to say
  • Mock behavioural round with written feedback
Outcome
A clear 90-day plan to land interviews at the compensation you want.
Book a session
System Design Grooming
₹1,500 / session
60 min · 1:1

Best for: You’re preparing for FAANG-level system design rounds or levelling up at work.

  • Live system-design round on a real problem (rate limiter, feed, payments, chat, etc.)
  • Whiteboard with me — no slide decks, just boxes and arrows
  • Trade-off coaching: CAP, consistency, caching, sharding, queues
  • Written feedback + follow-up reading list tailored to your gaps
  • Session recording + notes shared after every call
Outcome
Confidence on system design. Clear signal on where you stand vs. a real bar.
Book a session
Students & early-career engineers — reach out, I keep a few pro-bono slots each month.
Process

How an engagement actually runs.

01
Discovery call

30 minutes. You tell me where it hurts. I tell you honestly whether I can help.

02
Scoped proposal

A one-page SOW with deliverables, timeline, and price. No surprises.

03
Kick-off within a week

Access, context, first outputs. You’ll know within 10 days if the engagement is working.

04
Weekly delivery cadence

Written async updates. Live sessions only where they add value.

Let's build

Have a system that needs to scale — or stop breaking?

I work with a small number of teams each month on architecture reviews, scaling, and hands-on backend engineering. If that sounds like you, let's talk.