Embedded Architect
One Day A Week. Same Architect. Cancel Anytime.
Senior architect embedded with your team one day per week. Architecture, code review, AI integration, production-readiness. Async-first with one weekly call.
actually get
Most fractional CTO engagements in 2026 are advisory — they advise on hiring, attend board meetings, vet architecture decisions, but don't ship code. Embedded Architect is the shipping variant: same architect every week, in your repo, on your Slack, reviewing every PR your team produces.
One day per week (~4 days per month) is the right dose for most funded Series A teams. It's enough time to keep architectural coherence as you scale from 3 to 8 engineers, catch the production-readiness gaps before they bite, and design the AI integrations the team's not specialized in yet. Cancel anytime: if it's not pulling its weight in month two, you walk away.
Hard limits
- Time commitment1 day per week (~4 days/month)
- ArchitectSame architect across engagement
- CommitmentCancel with 30 days notice
- CoverageArchitecture · code review · AI integration · production-readiness
In every Embedded Architect
- Same senior architect every week (8+ years on-record)
- Code review on every PR your team ships
- 1 weekly sync call (your call, your agenda, your timezone)
- Async-first via Slack (your workspace + ours linked)
- Architecture input on roadmap calls
- AI integration design (Claude / GPT pipeline architecture)
- Production-readiness reviews (auth, multi-tenant, security, observability)
- Code + IP yours, no platform lock-in
Explicit exclusions
- Full-time delivery throughput (use Iteration Sprint Standard/Plus)
- On-call / 24x7 (add-on, ~€2,000/mo extra)
- Project management / sprint planning (we contribute, your team owns)
- Recruiting / hiring (advisory only, not execution)
Opinionated by default
One default stack for 80% of builds. Same stack shipped wintura.ai. Same stack the architect knows cold and has a runbook for at 3 a.m. When you swap pieces, the timeline goes up — the scoping call surfaces the swap before work starts.
Operational rhythm
Not a process for show — the scaffolding that keeps a fixed-price engagement on track when life happens. Same rhythm across every Lift, Sprint, and Pod.
Daily commits
Every weekday, to a branch you can pull and run locally.
End-of-day async videos
3–5 min Loom summarizing decisions and blockers — review on your schedule.
Friday demo on Zoom
30 min walkthrough of what shipped that week — questions answered live.
Slack-first, decisions in 24h
Our workspace and yours linked. Questions get answered in a day, both directions.
Concrete deliverables
No slide deck. No "phase 2 proposal." The list below is what hits your repo, your inbox, and your stack on the last day of the engagement.
Most agencies say "fixed price" and reserve the right to add a change order the moment the brief shifts. Soatech doesn't.
The way fixed price stays honest is by being unreasonable about scope. The scoping doc lists every flow, every screen, every integration. If something isn't on that list, it isn't in this engagement. If you discover during the build that you need it, the current scope ships as planned, and v1.1 begins after handoff — at the next tier's price, or as a follow-on Feature Sprint.
This sounds rigid. In practice founders consistently report it's the most valuable thing about the process — the discipline of saying "v1.1" thirty times across six weeks is what keeps the timeline honest.
Funded B2B SaaS at Series A/A2 with 2–8 engineers and no AI specialist. Teams that want senior engineering judgment in the room without hiring a full-time Architect.
Teams needing delivery throughput (use Iteration Sprint Lite/Standard/Plus). Teams between full-time CTO hires needing 3+ days/week (consider hiring).
Upsell trigger: When you need delivery throughput beyond 1 day/week of architect time → Iteration Sprint Standard
Questions, answered
- What's the difference between Embedded Architect and Iteration Sprint Lite?
- Embedded Architect is one day per week of architect ATTENTION — code review, architecture input, AI integration design. Iteration Sprint Lite is two-week delivery sprints that ship feature modules. Embedded covers thinking; Iteration covers shipping. Many clients run both: Embedded for the architect's input + Iteration when delivery throughput is needed.
- Can I cancel after one month?
- Yes. 30 days notice required. Most clients renew through month 6+. If month two isn't pulling its weight, walking away is the correct decision and we'll help with handoff documentation.
- Is this the same as a Fractional CTO?
- Closely related. A 2026 fractional CTO market median for 1 day per week is €6–8K (advisory + light hands-on). Embedded Architect sits in the same band but leans hands-on (code review + architecture design + AI integration) rather than advisory (board prep + hiring). If you need a CTO who attends board meetings and runs your hiring pipeline, hire a traditional fractional CTO. If you need a senior architect who keeps your codebase coherent, Embedded Architect is the fit.
- What's the difference between Embedded Architect and MVP Sprint?
- MVP Sprint is a one-shot 4–8 week build to V1, then handoff. Embedded Architect is ongoing weekly engagement that compounds over months. Many clients do MVP Sprint to ship V1, then transition to Embedded Architect for the post-launch architecture coherence.
Related from the blog
Fractional CTO + AI Is the New Full-Stack — What an Architect-Led Studio Actually Offers in 2026
Why hiring a fractional CTO in 2026 means hiring an Architect with AI-acceleration. Verified Q2 2026 market data, real Wintura experience, and the Soatech positioning explained.
The Wintura Playbook — Exactly How I Ship Production MVPs at Soatech
Day-by-day walkthrough of the 30-day MVP Sprint process Soatech runs, derived from the actual Wintura.ai build (Next.js 16, Claude Sonnet 4.6, multi-tenant Postgres, 24 e2e tests).
I Built Wintura.ai with Claude as My Pair-Programmer — Here's What AI Can and Can't Do in 2026
First-person breakdown of where Claude Sonnet 4.6 + Haiku 4.5 worked and where they failed across 6 months of shipping a production B2B SaaS solo. Real examples, not benchmarks.
Skip the sales reps. Book the Architect directly.
30 minutes. Scope your project with a senior architect — the same studio that shipped wintura.ai. Your assigned architect is confirmed after scope sign-off.
30-min Blueprint scoping call
Direct line to the Architect. No SDR. No nurture sequence. Confirmed within 24 hours.
- CET available · async time-zone friendly
- Calendar invite + Google Meet auto-sent
- Blueprint fee converts to Sprint One
- 30 minutes · free