Fractional Architecture
A senior data or solution architect embedded in your team for an agreed number of days a month. Design authority without a permanent hire.
Fractional architecture is a model where a senior data or solution architect embeds with your team for a fixed number of days each month, providing design authority, reviews and decision records without a full-time hire.
The problem
Hiring a permanent Head of Data or principal architect is expensive, slow and often premature. At Seed to Series C you may only need a few days a month of sharp design decisions — not a full calendar of meetings.
Without that authority, pipelines sprawl as one-off scripts, two product teams disagree on what “customer” means, and vendor choices get made by whoever shouted last.
Who this is for
- Teams choosing warehouse, lakehouse or AI platform patterns for the first time at scale.
- Engineering leaders who need senior review without waiting six months to hire.
- Companies that want design authority and ADRs, not staff-aug juniors.
Outcome
Design decisions made by someone senior, on a cadence that fits your budget.
What the engagement involves
- Month 1
Orient and decide
Understand your stack, constraints and near-term bets. Unblock the highest-risk decisions first and write them down as architecture decision records.
- Ongoing
Cadence embedded
Agreed days per month for design sessions, PR and design review, hiring input and roadmap challenge — always in your tools and channels.
- As needed
Surge or hand back
Increase days for a critical launch, or taper as your in-house function matures. Artefacts stay yours either way.
What you receive
- A named senior architect accountable for the days you booked.
- Architecture decision records your team can execute without us.
- Regular code and design review on the paths that matter.
- Honest advice on when to hire full-time instead of extending fractional cover.
Core deliverables
- Named senior architect
- Architecture decision records
- Code & design review
What is a fractional data architect?
A fractional data architect is a senior practitioner who works with your team part-time — typically a set number of days per month — to own design decisions, write ADRs and review critical work, without joining as a full-time employee.
It is design authority on a cadence, not a substitute for a whole data department once the work is continuous and multi-team.
When does fractional beat a full-time hire?
When you need senior judgement a few days a month, when hiring would take longer than the decisions in front of you, or when budget cannot yet support a principal-level salary.
Hire full-time when data is a core product surface and multiple squads are blocked on platform decisions every week.
What does a typical month look like?
A fixed day budget across design workshops, async review, ADR writing and office hours with your engineers. We work in your Slack, repos and cloud — not behind a proprietary portal.
Will we be dependent on you forever?
No. Success looks like decisions and documents your team can run with. If an engagement cannot explain what will still be true after we leave, it is staffing theatre — not architecture.
Not sure this is the right fit?
A 30-minute discovery call is enough for us to tell you honestly whether this is what you need.
Book a discovery call