Engineering Retainer — we're part of your team.
When you need continuous senior engineering capacity without creating a role yet: Engineering Retainer. Three tiers, clear hours, predictable cost.
Stufen
Drei Stufen, klare Stunden, planbare Kosten.
Light
4 days/month (32 h)
On request
3-month minimum
Standard
8 days/month (64 h)
On request
3-month minimum
Strategic
12 days/month (96 h)
On request
3-month minimum
Who it's for:
DACH Mittelstand with a platform roadmap · software teams without a dedicated lead engineer · companies looking to take hire pressure off.
In der Praxis
How it works in practice:
Typische Aktivitäten pro Stufe
What we typically do in the retainer.
Light (4 days / 32 hours)
- ·Maintenance, dependency updates, security patches
- ·Small features (1 to 3 person-days)
- ·Bug fixes and hotfixes
- ·Monitoring adjustments
Standard (8 days / 64 hours)
- ·Larger features (1 to 2 weeks)
- ·Architecture iterations and refactorings
- ·Mentoring within the customer team (pair programming, code reviews)
- ·Performance tuning
Strategic (12 days / 96 hours)
- ·Lead engineer role within the customer team
- ·Sprint ownership, backlog grooming
- ·Hire support (tech interviews, onboarding)
- ·Strategic tech decisions
- ·Note: maximum one Strategic mandate in parallel
Klare Abgrenzung
What is NOT included in the retainer.
Stunden-Rollover
Hour rollover and top-up.
- 20 percent of unused hours roll forward 1× to the next month (max. 6 hours at Light, 12 at Standard, 19 at Strategic).
- Over-hours released by the customer with 24-hour notice, billed at the tier hourly rate.
- Hour tracking via Toggl or Linear, monthly proof as PDF.
Flexibilität
Tier switching.
- Upgrade any time to the next month, no surcharge.
- Downgrade after minimum term, 30 days notice to end of month.
- Pause max. 1 month possible (e.g. summer break or Q4 freeze).
FAQ
FAQ retainer.
Can we use hours for GenAI experiments?
Yes. Typical in Standard or Strategic retainers: RAG prototypes, LLM integration, token cost tracking. If an AI topic eats more than 30 percent of hours, we propose a dedicated Build Sprint — clean scope, its own demo discipline.
How is priority set when demand exceeds hours?
You prioritize the backlog. We build top-down until hours are used. Over-hours with 24-hour notice, or rollover from previous month, or shift to next month.
Does our team get access to the Linear board?
Yes. Linear is in the customer workspace, we are participants. Same for Jira. Full transparency, no black-box mode.
What if we only need engineering support for a single month?
Then a retainer isn't the right lever (3-month minimum). A build sprint in Time & Material mode is a better fit, hourly rate on request, no minimum scope.
Retainer-Stufe besprechen
Senior-Kapazität, eingebettet, ohne Festeinstellung.
Der Retainer beginnt typischerweise nach Sprint Zero — wenn klar ist, welche Roadmap kontinuierliche Engineering-Kapazität braucht.
One-Pager zum Mitnehmen
Engineering-RetainerPDF · Laufende Senior-Delivery