Staff-level product engineering · Available now
Your hardest build, shipped.
I’m an ex-Meta staff engineer. I take your stalled or high-stakes build and own it through to production. I write the code, not a deck. You stay as involved as you want, and I do the legwork.
- Applied-AI & agents
- Real-time & collaborative systems
- 0-to-1 builds
- UK-remote or London
Results
The work, in numbers.
At a FTSE 100 cybersecurity company
in new revenue from a product line I built.
growth in the core revenue metric.
“He navigated complex production incidents, showing real expertise in crisis management and problem-solving.”
— Engineering Manager, big tech
“He drove the investigations and provided the fixes on our toughest incidents. Our on-call was successful largely because of his contributions.”
— Senior engineer, big tech
“He’s extremely patient, encouraging, and always focuses on the growth and success of the team.”
— Senior AI engineer
How we work together
Engagements
Contract product engineering
I embed in your team and own a defined piece of work end to end: applied-AI features and agents, real-time and collaborative systems, or core product work.
Typically 3–6 months
Fractional engineering
A standing commitment to a product that needs a steady senior hand, without a full-time hire. The same ownership as a contract, on a regular schedule.
~2 days / week
0-to-1 / prototype builds
A working product from a blank repository, with scope agreed up front and a handover that includes documentation and a deploy pipeline. Suited to validating an idea before hiring for it.
Technical direction & second opinions
A technical sounding board for founders: architecture calls, build-versus-buy, and where to spend effort. From someone who still ships production code.
Monthly / quarterly
No long-term contract. Engagements scale up for a launch or a raise, and down as things stabilise. You keep the codebase, the context, and the docs.
Founder & Principal
Andrew Carpenter
Ex-Meta engineer. I own the work no one else will.
Arcadian Advisory is a product-engineering practice. I take on the ambiguous, high-stakes work that needs a clear owner: applied-AI features and agents, real-time and collaborative systems, 0-to-1 builds. I own it end to end, get up to speed fast in an unfamiliar codebase, and lead the team around me while I’m there.
I’ve built real-time systems at scale, and owned them through their worst days.
Bring me in when
- An applied-AI feature needs to get past the demo stage
- A real-time or collaborative system has to hold up under load
- A prototype has to exist before the next investor conversation
The method
Approach
Scope
A short call, then a written scope with milestones and a definition of done.
Embed
Straight into the repo, with a small change shipped early to prove the setup works.
Ship
Work lands in production in small increments, visible in your own tools.
Hand over
Documentation and a walkthrough, so your team keeps shipping after I step out.
Questions
Before we talk
How fast can you start?
Usually within a week or two. I take a small number of engagements at a time, so there’s rarely a long queue.
What happens to the code after you leave?
It’s yours, and it stays maintainable. Every engagement ends with documentation and a walkthrough, so your team keeps shipping without me.
Can you get up to speed in our codebase?
Yes. Getting productive fast in an unfamiliar, high-stakes codebase is the job, and the judgement carries across stacks.
Remote or on-site?
UK-remote by default, with London on-site when it earns its keep.
Contact
Available now.
Tell me what you need shipped. A short conversation is the fastest way to find out if I can help.