I help small teams ship better software, faster.

Over a decade of helping leaders and small engineering teams design, build, and maintain software systems that stay simple, stable, and effective.

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Who do I usually work with?

There are two types of clients I work with most often.

Small Engineering Teams

You have 1-10 engineers and need senior technical leadership. Scaling infrastructure, establishing best practices, integrating effective AI-driven workflows into your development process.

  • Fractional CTO
  • Staff engineer
  • Technical advisor
Get in touch

Non-Engineering Leaders

You have a vibe-coded MVP and need someone to make it production-ready. Architecture review, code quality, getting from prototype to a product that can handle real users.

  • Technical co-founder energy, without giving up equity
  • Architecture review & production hardening
  • From prototype to production
Get in touch

Will this be a good fit?

This would be a good fit

  • You need a senior engineer who can own outcomes, not just tickets
  • You want someone who stays long enough to live with their decisions
  • You value clear, direct communication
  • You're building a product with real users
  • You want AI-augmented development done responsibly

This probably wouldn't be a good fit

  • You need a large agency with a team of 20
  • You're looking for the cheapest hourly rate
  • You want someone to "just ship code" without understanding the business
  • You need 24/7 on-call support

How do I work?

1

Understand

Deep-dive into your business and goals. I ask questions before getting to the code.

2

Plan

Develop a clear, scoped roadmap with defined milestones. No surprises.

3

Build

AI-augmented development with human review on every PR. Fast but thoughtful.

4

Iterate

Weekly check-ins, continuous delivery. I stay until the work is done.

Client highlights

A closer look at some of my recent success stories.

Daash

Staff Software Engineer

Feb 2024 – Present

Led data pipeline standardization across a team of 8 engineers and built scraping infrastructure processing millions of pages daily. Reduced deploy times from 30 minutes to under 30 seconds. Pioneered AI-driven engineering workflows that compressed common development tasks from ~1 week to ~1 hour. Led monorepo migration with PR-based workflows that transformed team collaboration and broke down silos.

Zoox

Data Engineering Contractor

May 2022 – May 2025 (3 years)

Built internal tools on the data engineering team at this Amazon-owned self-driving car company, working with both real-time streaming and batch processing across millions of events and several terabytes of data per day. Reduced end-to-end event processing time from several days to under 4 hours. Tapped to work on a cross-functional tiger team reporting directly to executives within a 1,000+ person engineering organization.

Dart Studios

Founder & Developer

Aug 2021 – Oct 2024 (3 years, 2 months)

Built and sold two Shopify apps. One processed and visualized millions of orders with geographic analytics for presidential campaigns and major retailers. The other provided a store locator with bulk location management for brands and their site visitors.

Ouster

Full Stack Engineering Contractor

Aug 2017 – Oct 2020 (3 years, 2 months)

Led development of the Fleet Dashboard product for enterprise customers with lidar-equipped vehicle fleets. Enabled real-time vehicle tracking, collision/incident/fatality (CIF) event review, and driver association based on shift schedules.

What my clients say

“The difference between Hartley and the previous developers I have worked with is night and day. Hartley was incredibly thorough and communicative. He kept me up to date on his progress with weekly check ins that never left me wondering where we were on the project. His spec sheet was also incredibly helpful in bringing my vision to fruition. Hartley finished this project on time and on budget. He exceeded my expectations and I would definitely work with him again.”

Mike Stratman
Mike Stratman Serial Entrepreneur

“Hartley considered and covered small (but crucial) details in the project that would have otherwise gone unnoticed, and was so thorough that the majority of our QA time wasn't for bugs or errors, but my own changes. Hartley is considerate, detailed, and incredibly good at what he does. If you hire him, be assured that he'll cover all of your intended bases!”

Bryn Adler
Bryn Adler Localytics

Trusted by teams at

HubSpot Zoox Intuit Cybereason Toast Ouster Daash General Assembly UCSF Jataware Wonderment Continuum Volition Bracken Dart Studios HiOperator Felux Passion Analytics Burstworks NuFit Media Localytics Relevize Optimal Work HubSpot Zoox Intuit Cybereason Toast Ouster Daash General Assembly UCSF Jataware Wonderment Continuum Volition Bracken Dart Studios HiOperator Felux Passion Analytics Burstworks NuFit Media Localytics Relevize Optimal Work

Questions people actually ask

I prefer direct answers, no fluff.

Do you work with existing codebases?
Yes. Most of my engagements involve joining an existing project and codebase. I get up to speed quickly and aim to contribute meaningful work within the first week.
Do you use AI to write code?
Yes, extensively. As I have written and given presentations about, I use AI-augmented development workflows that leverage modern tools to strike the right balance of velocity and quality for your business.
Are you available for long-term engagements?
Yes. I prefer working with clients for at least 3 months. Longer engagements let me build real context, live with my own architectural decisions, and deliver compounding value over time.
Do you work on-site or remotely?
Remotely. I'm based in the midwest (Eastern timezone) and have worked remotely with teams across the US for over a decade. I know how to communicate effecitvely using async and remote tools.
Can you help with a vibe-coded MVP that needs production hardening?
Yes, that's one of my core services. I review the architecture, identify the biggest risks, and systematically harden the codebase for production traffic, security, and reliability.
How do you charge?
I charge a fixed weekly rate. I've found that it minimizes admin work and aligns our incentives much better than either hourly or "fixed scope" pricing. Reach out below to find out about current pricing and availability.
Can you start within the next few weeks?
Usually, yes. My availability changes, but I typically keep enough flexibility to onboard a new engagement within two to three weeks. Reach out and I'll let you know my current timeline.
Do you sign NDAs?
Yes. I'm happy to sign a mutual NDA before we discuss the details of your project. I treat all client work as confidential by default.

Let's talk

Tell me a bit about what you're working on.

Step 1 of 3

What best describes you?