From zero to a shipping team
A product to build and no team yet. I work out the first slice of scope, hire the people to build it, set how the team works day to day, and get a first release in front of real users.
Available for PM & EM work
Alexandru Trif
Engineering & Project Manager
For over a decade I've built software and, for the last five years, led the teams that build it. What I enjoy most is starting something from nothing: forming the team, getting the first release out, and growing the people around it until the project runs well without me.
Cluj-Napoca, Romania · Remote across Europe/US
01
What I do
Start from nothing, and leave behind a team that doesn't need me.
My best work has usually started with an empty repository and a brief that wasn't finished yet. Someone has a product to build, a budget to justify, and no team to do it with. I like that part: deciding what to build first, finding the people to build it, and getting something real in front of users before the plan has a chance to go stale.
The half that matters more is what happens next: growing the team while it delivers, so the tech leads make the calls, the way we work is transparent enough to be questioned, and nothing important lives only in my head. When I leave, the project should be in better shape than I found it, and the people should be further along than when we met.
Greenfield delivery
A new platform, end to end. I carry scope, budget, risk and the customer conversation, and leave the architecture decisions with the engineers who will have to live with them.
Growing a team past its first shape
The point where one team stops being enough. A second layer of leadership, tech leads who genuinely own their areas, career paths that mean something, and hiring that doesn't quietly lower the bar.
Reliability built in, not bolted on
For products people use at all hours: on-call, incident response, and the operational habits that stop reliability and feature work from fighting over the same hours.
Handover
The part that decides whether any of the rest mattered. Decisions written down instead of carried in my head, tech leads who stopped needing me a while ago, and a way of working transparent enough that whoever comes next can pick it up without a rescue mission. I would rather be unnecessary than indispensable.
02
What that has looked like
Numbers are the shorthand, not the point. Behind each of these is a team that ended up better at its job than it started, and a handful of people who moved on to something bigger.
14
People in the largest team I have led
3+
Teams and projects taken from the start
€2M+
Annual revenue the programme grew to
40+
Engineers I have supported through their careers
24/7
Live operations kept steady, on call with the team
0
Data lost in a live, zero-downtime AWS migration
03
Career
Freelance
- Project & Engineering Manager2025 - Now
Cloudflight
- Engineering Manager / Project Manager2021 - Now
- Full-Stack Software Engineer2017 - 2021
Yardi
- Junior Developer2015 - 2017
04
About
I'm a software engineer at heart, six years hands-on before the last five leading people and projects. That background is why I can lead a team without getting in its way: fluent enough to earn engineers' trust, senior enough to let them own the hard calls.
Over the past year I ran two engagements in parallel (an Engineering Manager role and a freelance Project/Engineering Manager contract), leading delivery across both organisations at the same time.
I don't centralise decisions. I empower tech leads to own the technical direction and act as their sparring partner. My job is to make the team ship well and grow, not to be the smartest person in the room.
Leadership through trust, transparency & psychological safety
05
How I engage
Structured around your need
- BuildA new product with no team yet. From the first slice of scope to the first release, hiring as we go.
- ScaleA team outgrowing the shape it started in. Structure, tech leads, and career paths that hold up.
- ProgrammeMulti-team delivery. Scope, budget, risk and stakeholders under one owner.
- InterimFull-time cover, 3 to 9 months. Holding things steady while you hire for permanent.
- RemoteEuropean and US hours, async-friendly, contracted cleanly through my own company.
Currently taking on new work, up to and including a full-time engagement. Tell me what you are trying to build and I'll tell you honestly whether I'm the right person for it.
Who I work best with
- Founders with a funded idea and no engineering team yet.
- Companies starting a new product line or standing up a new team.
- Teams that have outgrown the structure they began with.
- Programmes that need one owner from kickoff through to handover.
- Anyone who cares whether the team still runs well after I have gone.
06
Stack & education
Leads teams across
JavaKotlinSpringReact / React NativeAWSEvent-driven & microservicesGraphQLSQL / NoSQLDocker & CI/CD
Education
M.Sc. Artificial Intelligence
B.Eng. Computer Science
07
Contact
Tell me about your team and where delivery hurts.
Whether you are starting something from nothing, growing a team past the shape it began in, or planning a handover you want to go well, let's talk.