Null Engineer: hands-on senior and principal engineering
Senior engineers in your codebase and your cloud, without opening a req. We fix unreliable systems, cut cloud waste, and make deploys boring, for technical founders and engineering leaders who need depth now.
Hands-on engineering from $2,000 a month for 1 day, async. Most clients choose 4 days, $8,000. Same day rates as NullCXO, lower from 6 days a month. Scoped projects from $1,250. Business-hours engineering on U.S. Eastern Time: not 24/7 or on-call, and no SLA unless agreed in writing.
What Null Engineer covers
When production keeps breaking
Bring in senior depth when outages, regressions, or "we can't ship" block the business. We establish impact, symptoms, and ownership, then investigate and explain stabilization options.
Reliability and urgent technical work
Site reliability, incident diagnosis, backup and recovery issues, and production hardening. Earliest normal start is 2 to 4 business days. An inquiry is not an emergency line, and there's no 24/7 coverage.
Cloud cost and platform work
We find the waste in your cloud bill and show you what cutting it would cost in customer impact, delivery speed, and risk.
Systems engineering scope
Software, architecture, infrastructure, cloud, SRE, automation, and the gnarly problems that need someone who has seen it before.
Build and operate
Set up and maintain servers and cloud services, automate routine tasks, improve deployments, and troubleshoot problems so your team can keep working.
Already have technical founders?
Good. Null Engineer adds senior infrastructure, reliability, and cloud-cost depth so your founders can stay on product. You keep the technical direction; we take the platform work off your plate.
What this looks like in practice
Selected reliability outcomes, with the delivery context behind each result.
Lowered cloud cost
Anonymized Client
Optimized a managed Kubernetes platform while keeping it stable.
- Situation
- A growth-stage security platform needed lower cloud operating cost.
- Constraint
- The platform had to remain stable while the container strategy changed.
- What changed
- Reviewed and optimized the Amazon EKS container strategy.
- Measured result
- 35 to 40% lower cloud operating cost.
Diagnosed a critical backup failure
Anonymized Client
Isolated a critical backup issue after two prior attempts failed.
- Situation
- A critical backup failure required a fast diagnosis.
- Constraint
- Two prior SRE consultants had already attempted the fix over multiple engagements.
- What changed
- Traced the failure path and identified the corrective fix.
- Measured result
- Critical backup issue isolated and fix identified within 15 minutes.
Shorter planned maintenance downtime
Anonymized Client
Built infrastructure and operating procedures that cut planned maintenance from 3 weekends of downtime to 1 day.
- Situation
- High-visibility events needed lower-latency, more resilient operations.
- Constraint
- The platform had to remain fault-tolerant during large-scale activity.
- What changed
- Built low-latency infrastructure and clear operating procedures.
- Measured result
- Planned maintenance downtime cut from 3 weekends to 1 day.
Cleared compliance findings
Anonymized Client
Cleared compliance findings across a regulated 100+ node environment.
- Situation
- A regulated environment required remediation during a FedRAMP/CCRI scale-out.
- Constraint
- The program covered a 100+ node environment with compliance requirements.
- What changed
- Resolved security and compliance findings through a structured program.
- Measured result
- 300+ findings resolved across 100+ nodes.
FAQ
What is Null Engineer?
Null Engineer is NullorNaN's hands-on engineering service: senior and principal engineers for software, infrastructure, cloud, SRE, automation, and complex troubleshooting, without a full-time hire.
What's the difference between Null Engineer and NullCXO?
Null Engineer is hands-on build, fix, and operate work. NullCXO is fractional executive leadership for the C-level seat you need (CTO, CIO, CISO or COO), for strategy, teams, vendors, and delivery governance. Build Your Own and day plans let you mix both under one monthly agreement. Explore NullCXO.
How much does a Null Engineer retainer cost?
Null Engineer is sold in half-day and full-day blocks at $225/hour ($900 half day, $1,800 full day at tier 1). Volume tiers track NullCXO day bands (0.9× the published NullCXO day rate). Live days add $400. Plans start at $1,800 a month for 1 day (Rain); most clients choose 4 days (Lightning). 3-month minimum. Prebuilt and Startup packages use a term of 3, 6, 12, 18, or 24 months (minimum 3). Package discounts apply to the monthly rate on those terms. Build Your Own terms depend on combined monthly hours: 3 or 6 months up to 60 combined hours/month; 6, 12, 18, or 24 months above 60 combined hours/month. You pay month to month: first month at signing, then the same amount each month until the term ends. Total value is monthly rate times months in the term. No extra deposit. Engagement terms, prepaid fees, unused hours, and cancellation provisions are governed by the executed services agreement.
Do monthly hours roll over or include on-call coverage?
Your included hours refresh each month. If you do not use them, they do not carry forward. Hours do not roll over, pile up, move between Null Engineer and NullCXO, or turn into credits or refunds. Subscriptions are best-effort engineering time, not 24/7 incident response unless scoped separately in writing.
Do you offer one-off engineering advice?
Yes. For a bounded technical question, such as an architecture second opinion or a vendor review, see Null Advisory sessions and blocks. Null Advisory sessions and blocks.
Discuss the technical problem
Tell us what is failing or stuck in plain language. We will tell you honestly if hands-on engineering is the right fit and what a sensible first step looks like.
NullorNaN Systems, LLC is a U.S.-registered consulting firm based in Metro Atlanta. US-focused, serving clients globally, on U.S. Eastern Time.