Know your system's limits before launch day does.
I take a small number of fixed-scope advisory engagements, starting with a Release Risk Diagnostic. Each one ends in numbers a board can read.
Where you are
- A launch, a sale or a platform cutover is coming and it cannot fail.
- Start with: Release Risk Diagnostic
- You are modernizing or investing in a platform and want an independent read before you commit the money.
- Start with: Technical Assessment
- Engineering costs more than it returns, releases keep slipping, or customers report defects your tests missed.
- Start with: Engineering Operating Model Review
- A program needs outside assurance, or you want a senior sounding board for a few months.
- Start with: Interim program assurance or an advisory retainer
What I do
- Build and rebuild engineering organizations
- For companies that have outgrown their engineering, or need one for a new line of business. Structure, standards and enablement, so the team keeps delivering after I leave.Three organizations built from zero, and one quality model adopted by every product team.
- Modernize legacy estates
- For companies running a decades-old estate alongside new platforms. One operating model across programs, rolled out through enablement.A thirty-year estate across three continents, with three programs on one testing model.
- Platforms that hold under pressure
- For launches, seasons, sales and cutovers that cannot fail. Load limits found before the day that matters and stated as numbers, with contract testing in CI.200,000 requests a second on a rebuilt backend; 7,000 buyers at a time with more than 100,000 queued.
- Cloud and infrastructure cost
- For bills that grow faster than the business. Hosting, cloud and network use, cut without breaking what customers use.Hosting down 90%, cloud spend on data pipelines down 60%, network use cut in half.
- Quality engineering and test data in regulated industries
- For fintech, financial data and healthcare under HIPAA and GDPR. Quality gates, test data as a service, and masking evidence compliance can use.Test data from 1 to 2 days to 3 to 4 hours per account.
- AI-assisted delivery, measured
- For teams under pressure to show what AI returns. Agents that generate tests, with written rules for what they may touch, measured before and after.Test authoring time from about 60 to about 20 minutes, about 302 engineering hours saved in one quarter.
- US and Latin America teams
- For companies building or running nearshore teams. Bilingual leadership in English and Spanish.Teams led in the US, Latin America, Canada, Asia and Europe.
- Independent technical assessment
- For a CEO, board or investor about to commit money to a migration, a vendor platform or an investment.Ranked findings with evidence and a 90-day plan, in 2 to 3 weeks.
The Release Risk Diagnostic
Know your system's limits before launch day does. A fixed-fee engagement of about two to three weeks, scoped in a 30-minute call. It ends with a decision: stop with a plan in hand, or continue with an advisory retainer.
You receive five things:
- A ranked list of release risks, each with the evidence behind it.
- Load evidence for the critical path you choose: where it slows and where it breaks, stated as numbers.
- A gap map of contract testing and quality gates across your services and pipelines.
- A 90-day plan with owners and expected effect.
- A one-page summary a board can read.
Ways to work together
The Release Risk Diagnostic is a fixed fee, typically $12,000 to $24,000 depending on scope. Other fees are quoted in writing after the first conversation.
- Release Risk Diagnostic
- The five deliverables above and a readout session with your leadership.
- Technical Assessment
- Some of the largest engineering costs are decided before anyone knows whether a platform will hold. A written, independent read of a platform and the delivery behind it, before you commit money to a migration, a cutover, a vendor platform or an investment: ranked findings with evidence, what each one risks in hours and in your own numbers, a 90-day plan and a one-page summary for a board or investment committee. I have worked those decisions in sports media, ticketing and fintech.
- Engineering Operating Model Review
- A current-state map of how work moves from plan to release, where it waits and what each wait costs in hours, ranked constraints, a draft operating model with roles, governance and KPIs, and a 90-day plan.
- Advisory retainer
- A weekly working session, monthly written priorities with a decision log, and review of designs and plans.
- Interim program assurance
- A named assurance lead for one program: release gates, a risk register, weekly status and a handover document.
How an engagement runs
- A 30-minute conversation. You tell me what you are launching or changing and what you are least sure will hold. If I am not the right person, I say so then.
- NDA and scope. I sign yours or send a mutual one before I see anything. Scope, deliverables, dates and fee go into a written statement of work.
- The work. I interview the people doing the work before I recommend anything. You name a counterpart and give me read access to repositories, pipelines and dashboards, plus a few hours a week from two or three people. Load tests run in a production-like environment you provide, never in production.
- Readout and handover. You get the deliverables in writing and a readout session, then decide whether to stop or continue.
In regulated environments I work with masked or synthetic data and do not need production PII or PHI. Outside the scope unless agreed separately: production changes, security testing, and personnel or HR advice.
Questions buyers ask
- How is the fee set?
- The Release Risk Diagnostic is a fixed fee, typically $12,000 to $24,000 depending on scope, written into the statement of work before I start. It is not billed by the hour. The retainer is a monthly fee and interim assurance is a day rate.
- What do you need from us?
- A named counterpart, read access to repositories, pipelines and dashboards, a production-like environment for load tests, and a few hours a week from two or three people.
- Do you sign an NDA?
- Yes. I sign yours or send a mutual one before I see anything.
- Do you test in production or use real customer data?
- No. Load tests run only in a production-like environment you provide, and I work with masked or synthetic data. I do not need production PII or PHI.
- What happens after the Diagnostic?
- You decide whether to stop with the plan in hand or continue with an advisory retainer.
- Where do you work, and in which language?
- Remotely from Redondo Beach, California, on Pacific time, and on site in the Los Angeles area by agreement. I work in English and Spanish with teams in the US and Latin America.
- Who is it for?
- A CEO, CTO or engineering leader with a launch, a modernization, a cost problem or a team that has to scale in the next three to six months, who needs evidence a board can read. If I am not the right person, I say so on the first call.
- What is outside the scope?
- Production changes, security testing, and personnel or HR advice, unless agreed separately.
About the advisory work
I work alone, through Lucent Labs LLC, a California limited liability company. The person you talk to is the person who does the work.
I have also consulted part time for a fraud-prevention software company, building the reference GitHub Actions and Terraform pipeline that its new Java microservices follow on AWS.
Start with a conversation
Tell me what you are launching or changing, and what you are least sure will hold. I reply within one business day.
Prefer email? info@antonioalmazzo.com
Prefer to pick a time? Open my calendar
Based in Redondo Beach, California (Pacific time). LinkedIn