The fractional model sits between hiring a full-time senior engineer and bringing in a consultant for a specific project. Your team receives ongoing technical leadership (someone who knows your codebase, understands your business context, and can guide architectural decisions) without the commitment and cost of a permanent hire.
I become a consistent part of your technical operations, typically working with you between 12 and 16 days per month.
By Daniele Barbaro, Tech Lead & Software Engineer. Last reviewed .
When I work with a team as fractional engineering leadership, I'm not parachuting in to fix a specific problem and leave.
This means attending relevant standups and planning sessions. Reviewing pull requests and helping establish coding standards. Being available for the questions that arise during normal development work. Understanding not just your code, but your team dynamics, your business constraints, and the context behind technical decisions.
Over time, I become genuinely useful in ways short-term consultants cannot. I know which parts of your system are fragile. I know which team members are strong in which areas. I understand the history behind that workaround in the payment module.
Roughly four days a week. Fractional engagements typically use this arrangement.
Suits teams that need direction and review more than sustained hands-on capacity.
The exact rhythm depends on your needs: some teams prefer concentrated blocks, others prefer distributed days.
The filled days are only an example of how a month can look.
Consulting is scoped to a problem: an audit, a refactor, a performance investigation. Fractional leadership is scoped to a team.
| Aspect | Consulting | Fractional |
|---|---|---|
| Focus | Project-focused | Relationship-focused |
| How it runs | You have a problem, you bring in experts, they solve it (or help you solve it), and then they leave. | The engagement is ongoing. The problems I tackle evolve as your product evolves. |
| Responsibility | A single deliverable | Technical direction, growing with your team |
| Where the value comes from | Solving a defined challenge | Accumulated context about your codebase and your people. It compounds over time. |
| Commitment | One project at a time | Mutual: I reserve significant capacity for your team, and you commit to a sustained engagement. |
Consulting works well for defined challenges: a codebase audit, a specific refactoring project, an architectural review.
Fractional work is not something to start casually, but for teams that need it, it's more valuable than any single project engagement.
For teams in growth phases or addressing technical debt systematically, this arrangement offers the right balance of expertise and flexibility.
I participate in technical planning and help prioritize work. I review significant pull requests and provide architectural guidance on new features. When there's a difficult problem to solve, I'm available to pair with your developers or tackle it directly.
Regular check-ins, usually weekly, keep everyone aligned on priorities and progress. Between scheduled sessions, I remain reachable for questions that cannot wait.
For scheduling details, see my monthly collaboration options. Fractional engagements typically use the 16-day monthly arrangement, though 12 days can work for some situations.
The rates for this engagement are on the rates page.
I'm Daniele Barbaro, freelance since 2012. I build backend systems, focusing primarily on Laravel and Symfony, with TypeScript, React and Next.js when the product calls for them.
I maintain open source packages, among them laravel-vat-eu-validator, and I have seen what happens when codebases are built with care versus when they are not. That experience informs how I approach both greenfield development and legacy system improvement.
A fractional tech lead is part-time senior engineering leadership embedded in your team: architectural direction, code review, mentorship, and technical planning on a recurring commitment. It is a consistent part of your technical operations, not a short intervention that ends once a specific problem is solved.
Consulting is scoped to a problem: an audit, a refactor, a performance investigation. Fractional leadership is scoped to a team. The engagement is ongoing, the responsibility covers technical direction rather than a single deliverable, and the value comes from accumulated context about your codebase and your people.
When you need senior technical leadership but cannot justify a full-time hire. If the need is real but part-time, a fractional arrangement gives you the same seniority without that commitment.
Fractional engagements typically use the 16-day monthly arrangement, roughly four days a week. The 12-day option suits teams that need direction and review more than sustained hands-on capacity. The rates for both are on the rates page.
Both. Leadership without hands in the codebase drifts away from reality quickly. That means reviewing code, working through the difficult implementations, and staying close enough to the system for the advice to hold up in practice.
I am based in Turin and work remotely with teams in Italian and English. I can meet you in person in Turin when the project genuinely benefits from it.
If you are considering fractional engineering leadership, tell me about your team. I will want to understand your current structure, the technical challenges you face, and what you hope to achieve.
There is no cost for the initial discussion. Some teams benefit more from focused daily engagements on specific projects; others need the sustained involvement that fractional work provides.
In TurinToolbox Coworking (opens in a new tab)
via Agostino da Montefeltro 2
Torino, TO 10134
The door is always open for a chat over coffee.