New automation ships every month, and I keep all of it running.
For companies with a growing automation backlog and no internal team to build or run it. I become that team: a standing block of senior build capacity plus operations, in your own cloud, on one flat monthly fee.
- A chunk of senior build capacity, pointed at the top of your backlog
- I operate & monitor everything I build, in your cloud
- Fixes when it breaks, improvements when it can be better
- Me, directly, not a ticket queue
- A monthly review, and you set the priorities
For teams that want a partner instead of another hire.
This is the retainer for companies that want automation to be a permanent part of how they operate. You have a backlog that keeps growing, and you would rather rent the team that already knows how than spend a year building one internally.
- You have a real, growing list of things to automate, not just one.
- You don't have an internal automation team, and don't want to staff one yet.
- You want someone to both build it and run it, not hand you scripts and walk.
- You're already running automations that someone needs to keep healthy.
- You value a predictable monthly cost over hourly billing and surprise invoices.
- You need exactly one thing built and handed off. That's Automation Build.
- You already have an automation team and just want overflow hands.
- You want the cheapest possible option over a reliable one.
- Your backlog is empty and you're not sure what you'd ask for next month.
Not sure where you sit? Start with an Automation Audit and we'll map the backlog together first.
Every month, the same two jobs: build, and run.
Most retainers sell you hours. This one is built around two jobs: a standing amount of new work shipped each month, and everything already live kept healthy. Here's what that covers.
Build capacity
A reserved block of senior build time each month. You point it at the top of your backlog and I ship: new automations, dashboards, AI workflows, integrations, etc.
I operate it
Everything I build runs in your cloud, monitored and on alert. I watch production so you don't have to staff an on-call rotation or wait for a customer to report the outage.
Fixes + improvements
When an upstream API changes or something breaks, I fix it without a change order. When a workflow can be faster, cheaper, or more reliable, I improve it as I go.
A standing line to me
You get me on a shared channel, someone who already knows your stack, rather than a ticket queue or a rotating contractor who has to relearn it every month.
A monthly review
A working session on what shipped, what it's costing, what's next, and where automation will pay off most. You leave with a re-ranked backlog.
A compounding kit
Each build reuses a hardened internal kit: monitoring, alerting, retries, cost tracking. Month two ships faster than month one, and it keeps compounding.
Anyone can write the automation. The hard part is keeping it alive when an upstream API changes without warning.
Running it is the part teams underestimate. I build to Fortune-500-grade reliability and then carry the pager: structured alerting, runbooks, automatic retries and dead-letter queues, self-healing deploys, and per-call cost tracking on anything AI. That's what turns a bunch of scripts into something you can depend on.
A simple monthly rhythm, steered by you.
There's no statement of work to negotiate every time you have an idea. We keep a living backlog, you decide what's most important, and the cycle repeats.
Groom
We keep a shared, living backlog and each cycle starts by re-ranking it together. You set priority, and I flag effort, risk, and dependencies.
Build
I work down the list from the top, in your cloud, reusing the kit. You see progress continuously instead of at the end of a quarter.
Ship + operate
New work goes live behind monitoring and rolls straight into the set I run. Nothing ships that I'm not also watching.
Review
A monthly working session on what shipped, what it costs, and what's next. Then the cycle starts again from a fresh, re-ranked backlog.
You set priorities
It's your roadmap. I bring the engineering judgment, you decide what gets built first, and nothing happens against a backlog item you haven't ranked.
You own everything
Every line of code, schema, and credential lives in your cloud and your Git repos, yours from day one. There's no proprietary platform and no black box you have to keep paying me to run.
Clean exit, anytime
Cancel whenever, or take it in-house. I hand off clean: plain-English docs, runbooks, and a walkthrough so your team (or any competent engineer) can pick it up.
The whole point is that you stay in control. Everything is set up so leaving is easy, and in my experience that's exactly why clients stay.
Two tiers, same partnership.
Both tiers are monthly, cancel anytime, and you own everything. The difference is how much I build, how much I run, and how fast I respond. We set the line at kickoff based on your backlog and how much is already live.
Not sure which fits? We start where your backlog is and adjust in either direction as the work tells us. Changing tiers is just a conversation.
The partnership, in its fullest form.
One small team runs an entire DTC brand on a platform I built and still run.
A fast-growing direct-to-consumer brand runs the whole business on a data + AI platform I designed, built, and operate for them, hosted in their own cloud so they own every line. That's 20+ data sources, 30+ internal apps, and 200+ serverless services kept healthy day to day, plus new work shipped continuously as they grow.
Their mornings now start in the operations command center, before anyone opens email.
[ specifics under NDA ] · anonymized + representative
A new data source or internal app that used to take a quarter now ships in days, because each build reuses the kit underneath.
Running it, reliably
My reference architecture for keeping automation highly-available and self-healing: queue mode, Multi-AZ, RPO 0, recovery in 5–10 minutes. This is what "I run it" looks like under the hood.
Rescued, then maintained
I reverse-engineered ~100k lines of brittle no-code into one operations console, stopped the duplicate invoices, and kept it running. That's the kind of mess a partner keeps from coming back.
Flat monthly, no lock-in.
and how much is already live.
Flat monthly
One number a month, known in advance.
Your cloud
Infra & data stay in your own account, typically a few hundred a month.
Cancel anytime
No long contract, and you keep everything I've built.
Less than the cost of one mid-level automation hire. A capable automation engineer runs $150–200K/yr fully loaded, takes months to ramp, and can't cover build and operations alone. This is senior build-and-run capacity that already knows how, for a fraction of that, with nobody to recruit.
- Billed monthly, in advance. No setup fee on top.
- No minimum term. Cancel with 30 days' notice, anytime.
- You own everything, in your cloud and your repos, from day one.
- Leaving means a clean handoff: docs, runbooks, and a walkthrough.
- Cloud run-rate stays in your account, usually a few hundred a month.
Common questions.
Can I cancel anytime?
Yes. It's month-to-month with 30 days' notice, no long contract and no minimum term. Everything I've built is already in your cloud and your repos, so the day you cancel you keep all of it, still running.
Do I own what you build?
Completely. Every line of code, schema, and credential lives in your own cloud account and Git repos from day one. There's no proprietary platform and no black box you have to keep paying me to keep running.
What if I want to bring it in-house later?
Great, and it's a clean handoff. You already own the source, so I deliver plain-English docs and runbooks, walk your team or your new hire through it, and step back. I build on standard, widely-supported tooling precisely so anyone competent can take the wheel.
Is there a minimum term?
No. If I do great work, you'll keep working with me. Simple as that. I'd rather earn the relationship each month than trap you in a contract.
How is priority decided?
You decide. We keep a shared, living backlog and re-rank it together each cycle. You set the order based on business impact, and I bring the estimate of effort, risk, and dependencies so the call is well-informed. Production issues on anything I run always jump the queue.
What if I just need one thing built?
Then a retainer is overkill. Look at Automation Build: a fixed-scope, fixed-fee build, handed off and yours. Plenty of clients start there and move to a partnership once the backlog grows.
Can this run a Commerce Intelligence Engine?
Yes. After a Commerce Intelligence Engine Launch, Managed Intelligence is delivered through this partnership. It covers pipeline and data-quality monitoring, cost and reliability work, new analyses and source systems, and the controlled move from human review to approved action.
Which tier am I, and can I switch?
We set the line at kickoff from your backlog and how much is already live, then adjust as the work tells us. Moving between Core and Scale is just a conversation, in either direction.
Make automation how you operate.
Tell me where you are and what's on the backlog, and we'll talk through what an ongoing partnership would build, run, and cost.