Four Areas of Focus
One guiding principle: build systems that work because they're designed to work.
We take on a limited number of engagements each year. Every engagement is tailored to your context — not molded to fit a predetermined methodology.
How We Help
01 — Platform Architecture
Design systems that scale without heroics. From developer experience to deployment pipelines, we build foundations that last.
02 — Developer Experience
Transform friction into flow. We identify what kills productivity and fix it systematically across teams.
03 — Technical Leadership
Strategic partnership for leaders who need honest counsel, not vendor theater. Guidance from someone who's done it.
04 — Incident Archaeology
Root cause analysis that actually finds root causes. We don't stop at symptoms — we trace patterns to systemic failures.
Platform Architecture
We design systems that scale without heroics. Whether you're building from scratch or rescuing what exists, we create architectures that:
• Handle growth without redesign
• Fail gracefully under pressure
• Remain understandable as complexity grows
• Enable teams, not bottleneck on individuals
The Serverless Decision
On an $8B Army contract, standard org practice was Kubernetes. But idle compute was a direct cost to the revenue model.
The unconventional call: serverless. Reduced costs 7× while improving reliability and developer velocity.
Unified Auth Architecture
DoD CAC and Leidos PKI auth on one login screen. A problem that had defeated other programs on the same contract.
Live in six weeks. Built in production when the dev environment failed. Zero outages.
Developer Experience Transformation
High-performing engineering teams aren't born — they're enabled. We measure what kills productivity and fix it systematically.
At Leidos, Charles established developer experience standards adopted by 2,000+ engineers across a multi-billion-dollar business unit. Infrastructure that survived multiple reorganizations and sustained delivery for 5+ years.
Developer Experience Focus Areas
Local Development
Build times, test execution, dependency management — the friction that makes developers want to give up.
Deployment Pipeline
Bottlenecks, fear, and manual steps that slow down delivery and erode confidence.
Onboarding
Time to first contribution. Days? Weeks? We make it hours.
Cross-Team Coordination
The hidden cost of handoffs, dependencies, and communication overhead.
Technical Leadership Advisory
Technical strategy for leaders who need strategic partners, not vendors. We've seen what works and what doesn't at scale.
Charles acted as functional CTO for a ~$20M product unit — providing architectural direction across 50+ engineers without formal management authority. He knows how to navigate organizations, build consensus, and drive outcomes without the org chart backing him up.
Leadership Advisory Focus Areas
Technology Decisions
Make better technology decisions faster. Evaluate options without vendor capture or analysis paralysis.
Vendor Evaluation
Navigate vendor relationships with clear eyes. Understand what you're trading when you sign.
Team Structure
Design teams for sustainable delivery. Balance autonomy with coordination.
Stakeholder Communication
Translate technical reality for executive audiences. Build the consensus needed to act.
Incident Archaeology
Most post-mortems find symptoms. We find systemic failures.
When your systems fail, the immediate cause is rarely the real cause. We trace patterns across incidents to identify the structural problems that create repeated failures.
At CCRi, Charles recovered a failing program through architectural intervention. At Leidos, he identified the cross-cutting concerns that no one owned and built the structures to address them.
Incident Analysis Focus Areas
Deep Dive Analysis
Go beyond the obvious root cause. Trace the causal chain to its foundation.
Pattern Recognition
Map failures across incidents. Identify the structural weaknesses that create repeated outages.
Systemic Recommendations
Fix the system, not just the symptom. Design failures out of existence.
Knowledge Transfer
Build the understanding your team needs to maintain the fixes going forward.
Let's solve your hardest problems.
We take on a limited number of engagements each year. Every engagement is tailored to your context. Let's see if we're the right fit.