Fractional Ruby on Rails Engineer
Hiring a full-time senior Rails engineer can be a slow and expensive process. You need someone who can jump in, ship features, and tackle the tech debt that's been piling up, but you don't have the budget or workload to justify a full-time hire. Meanwhile, your team is stretched thin, with pull requests waiting for review piling up and long-term decisions being made without enough experience in the room.
I embed with your team part-time as a fractional Ruby on Rails engineer to ship features, reduce tech debt, and keep your codebase healthy without the overhead of a full-time hire.
Who needs a fractional Rails engineer?
A fractional engineer is a good fit if:
- You need senior-level backend expertise but can't justify a full-time salary
- Your team is shipping slower than you'd like and needs extra hands to move forward
- Tech debt keeps getting pushed aside because there's no time to address it
- You want code reviews and architectural guidance from someone with experience
- You're between hires and want to maintain momentum on the project
What's included with fractional engineering
Kickoff call
We discuss your current codebase, team structure, priorities, and how I can best integrate with your workflow.
Onboarding
I get up to speed on your application, development environment, and processes so I can start contributing quickly.
Ongoing work
I work alongside your team on a regular schedule: shipping features, fixing bugs, reviewing PRs, and tackling the work that keeps getting deferred.
What you'll get
- Features shipped and bugs fixed by a engineer with 15+ years of hands-on Rails experience
- Code reviews that improve quality and share knowledge with your team
- Technical guidance on architecture and backend decisions
- Chip away at technical debt without pulling your team off product work
- Flexibility to scale hours up or down as your needs change
Pricing
Starting rate for 15 hours per week. Flexible arrangements available based on your needs.
Frequently Asked Questions
How many hours per week do you work?
Typically 10-20 hours per week, though this is flexible based on your needs. We'll figure out the right amount during the initial kickoff call.
How do you integrate with our team?
I join your Slack (or preferred communication tool), attend relevant standups or team syncs, and work within your existing Git workflow. The goal is to feel like part of the team, not an outsider.
What if we eventually want to hire someone full-time?
I'm not seeking full-time work, but I can help with the transition, document what I've been working on, and even help evaluate candidates if that's helpful.
Do you work on frontend too?
While I can work on the frontend, my strengths lie on the backend. I'm probably not the right fit if you mostly need frontend help.
Ready to add senior Rails experience to your team?
Book a free consultation so we can talk through your current challenges and see if fractional engineering is the right fit.
Request a Free Consultation