Operate & Optimize
Dedicated hours, a shared backlog, your pace. Not a managed services contract. Not 24/7 monitoring. A block of hours you own every month, a shared backlog we build together, and work delivered within business hours.
Simple, predictable, no surprises
Choose your hours block
Pick from 10+, 20+, 40+, or 80+ hours per month. The more you commit, the lower the rate. After the initial 90 days, scale up or down month-to-month.
We build the backlog together
At the start of each month we align on priorities: migrations, hardening, WAF reviews, CI/CD, FinOps — whatever needs doing. You own the roadmap, we execute against it.
Work runs within business hours
Monday–Friday, 8am–6pm Mountain Time. When your hours run out, work pauses. You pick back up the next month. No auto-renewal surprises.
Mid-market teams without the headcount
You need dedicated AWS expertise but can't justify a full-time hire or a full managed services contract. You own the roadmap. We add the execution depth to make it happen.
- 50–500 employee companies
- $300K–$5M annual AWS spend
- Engineering teams with a roadmap already in motion
- Teams mid-migration or mid-modernization
- Companies that want a trusted AWS partner, not a vendor
What you get
- A dedicated AWS expert — your go-to for every engagement
- Monthly planning calls to align on priorities
- Shared backlog management (Trello, Linear, or Notion)
- Weekly status updates on hours used and work completed
- Direct Slack access for quick questions
- 90-day minimum commitment, then month-to-month
Transparent rates, no surprises
Rates start at $300/hr for 10+ hours/month, with volume discounts at 20+, 40+, and 80+ hours. All hours are consumed in the month — no rollover.
90-day initial commitment, then month-to-month. Need more than 80 hours a month? Talk to us — if it's more than one senior engineer can deliver well, we'll say so.
Frequently asked questions
How do the hours work?
You pick a monthly block — 10+, 20+, 40+, or 80+ hours — and we execute against a shared backlog. Hours are consumed within the month with no rollover; when they run out, work pauses until the next month. You can scale the block up or down month to month.
What is the minimum commitment?
Ninety days, then month-to-month. No annual contracts, no auto-renewal surprises.
What kind of work fits a retainer?
The ongoing stream that never fits a project: architecture reviews before big decisions, incident retrospectives, cost checkups, IaC improvements, security hardening, and the questions in between. Larger items graduate to fixed-scope projects — the retainer is the relationship, not a bucket for everything.
How fast do you respond?
Work runs Monday–Friday, 8am–6pm Mountain Time, with direct Slack access for questions and weekly written status on hours and progress. This is deliberately not a 24/7 pager service — if you need around-the-clock incident response, a managed services provider is the right tool and we will say so.
How is this different from managed services?
Managed services run your environment for you; Operate & Optimize keeps senior engineering leverage on your environment while your team stays in control. You own the roadmap and the operations — we add depth, judgment, and hands-on execution against the backlog you prioritize.
What happens when you are unavailable?
Honestly: this is a one-senior-engineer practice, and the retainer is designed around that. Blocks are only sold up to the capacity one person can genuinely reserve, planned absences are flagged a month ahead, and everything is documented in your repos and your tools — so nothing about your environment lives only in one head.
What if we do not use all our hours?
Unused hours do not roll over — the block is what reserves the capacity. If you consistently land under your block, drop to a smaller tier the next month; the point of month-to-month flexibility is that the commitment tracks reality.
Let's talk about your backlog
No commitment required. We'll spend 30 minutes understanding your situation and give you a clear proposal within 48 hours.
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