§ Data Engineering·United States

Data engineering services in the US.

Senior-only data engineering services and solutions for US mid-market and federal teams — pipelines, data quality, and governance built so your data is actually ready for production AI. We are not a staffing shop and we don't bill bodies by the hour: every engagement is fixed-fee, fixed-scope, and handed back with a runbook. Data engineering experts who write the architecture, ship it, and leave you owning it.

Start with an AI Readiness Sprint See the engineering practice → serving clients across the United States

Most data work stalls before the AI ever ships.

The reason isn't talent or tooling — it's the foundation. Teams buy big-data platforms and headcount, then watch the AI initiative die on data nobody trusts. The fix is rarely more pipelines. It's the right pipelines, governed, observable, and pointed at a use case worth funding.

85%
of AI projects fail on poor data quality and governance (Gartner). The data foundation — not the model — is where production AI is won or lost.

So we lead with the foundation. Before we build a single pipeline, we read where your data, governance, infrastructure, and talent actually stand — then sequence the work so the first build is the one most likely to pay off. That read is the AI Readiness Sprint; the build that follows is data engineering done so it survives contact with production.

§ What we build·data engineering solutions
Data pipelines & ingestion
Batch and streaming pipelines, CDC, orchestration, and the tests that keep them honest. Built on your cloud — AWS-native by default, bring-your-cloud on request.
Data quality & observability
The checks, contracts, and lineage that turn "we think the data's fine" into evidence. Because data quality is where 85% of AI projects fail.
Data governance & access
Cataloging, access control, and policy your auditors recognize — the governance layer that lets you scale AI without scaling risk.
AI-ready data foundations
Vector stores, retrieval, feature pipelines, and the warehousing that production AI actually depends on. The bridge from data to a system that ships.
Big-data & platform work
For teams past the spreadsheet stage: distributed processing, cost-routed compute, and platform consolidation — practical big-data engineering, not a re-platform for its own sake.
Migration & modernization
Legacy warehouse and pipeline migrations with a reversibility plan and a decision log, so you can see why every call was made.
§ Specialized services·dataops · mlops · lakehouse · modern data architecture

The specific consulting engagements teams come to us for.

Most clients arrive with a named problem, not a generic "data" mandate. These are the service-intent engagements we run most often — each scoped to a fixed fee and handed back with a runbook.

DataOps implementation services
CI/CD for data: automated testing, deployment, and monitoring of pipelines so changes ship safely and failures surface before they reach a dashboard. We stand up the DataOps practice — orchestration, observability, and the runbooks — then hand it to your team.
MLOps consulting services
The path from notebook to production model: feature pipelines, model registry, CI/CD for training and deployment, drift monitoring, and rollback. MLOps consulting that makes your models retrainable and observable, not one-off artifacts.
Data lakehouse consulting
Lakehouse architecture done right — Delta or Iceberg tables, a unified catalog, and the governance that lets analytics and ML share one source of truth. As data lakehouse consultants we build on Databricks with Unity Catalog, or open-table on your cloud.
Modern data architecture
For teams rethinking the platform: medallion layering, streaming-first design, cost-routed compute, and the architecture decisions that survive scale. Modern data architecture experts who write the design, ship it, and document why every call was made.

Built for teams past the prototype, not yet at scale.

Our data engineering consulting fits mid-market companies and funded startups that have outgrown spreadsheets and one-off scripts but don't have a standing platform team. You have data in three systems that don't agree, an AI initiative waiting on a foundation that isn't there, and an analyst spending half their week firefighting pipelines instead of answering questions. The fix is rarely more headcount — it's the right pipelines, governed and observable, pointed at a use case worth funding.

We are also a deliberate fit for federal and regulated buyers who need a defensible data foundation under an audit clock. The same governance, lineage, and access discipline that satisfies an auditor is what lets you scale AI without scaling risk — so the foundation work pays off twice.

§ What's included·in a data engineering engagement

Every data engineering engagement is scoped to a named outcome and a fixed fee. The baseline build covers the work that turns scattered, untrusted data into a foundation production AI can stand on.

§ Delivery model·fixed-fee, fixed-scope sprints

We are not a staffing shop and we do not bill bodies by the hour. Data engineering runs as fixed-fee, fixed-scope sprints, typically four to twelve weeks, with a runbook on exit. Most engagements start with a readiness read so the first build is the one most likely to pay off.

Start here
AI Readiness Sprint
from $12k · 4–6 weeks

A fixed-scope read on whether your data is ready for AI — maturity scorecard, shadow-AI audit, and a prioritized 90-day roadmap. The cheapest way to fund the right build first.

Build it
Data foundation sprint
fixed-fee, scoped · 4–12 weeks

Pipelines, quality, governance, and the warehouse or lakehouse layer — scoped to a fixed fee off the readiness read so you approve a number, not an open-ended retainer.

Modernize
Migration engagement
scoped off the assessment

Legacy warehouse and pipeline migrations with a reversibility plan and a decision log — moved without a big-bang cutover, handed back for your team to run.

§ Proof·frameworks from the field
Evaluation
A RAG evaluation harness

How a sound data and retrieval foundation stops the million-dollar chunking mistake — the engineering that decides whether AI ever ships.

Read the framework →
Architecture
Enterprise AI deployment

How enterprise AI deployment actually gets architected from scratch — the data plumbing underneath every system that reaches production.

Read the framework →
Production data
Predictive maintenance

An edge-to-cloud framework for manufacturing — the streaming pipelines and feature stores that carry sensor data to a live model.

Read the framework →

The stack we build on. Yours by default.

AWS-native by default — S3, Glue, Lambda, Step Functions, and the warehouse or lake that fits the workload — with bring-your-cloud on request. Where a team has standardized on the Lakehouse, we run pipelines and governance on Databricks: Unity Catalog for cataloging and access, Delta for reliable tables, and the orchestration that keeps it honest. The tooling serves the outcome; we don't re-platform a team that's already productive.

Start here
AI Readiness Sprint
A four-to-six-week fixed-scope read on whether your data is ready for AI — maturity scorecard, shadow-AI audit, and a prioritized 90-day roadmap, from $12k. The cheapest way to fund the right build first.
Scope a Readiness Sprint →
Build it
AI Engineering
Once the foundation is sound, we ship the production system on top of it — RAG, agents, pipelines, eval harness, observability, and a runbook that outlives the engagement.
See the engineering practice →
Read first
Why AI adoption is failing
The data-foundation problem, in plain terms — why most AI initiatives stall and what readiness actually looks like before you commit a build budget.
Read the framework →
§ Common questions·data engineering consulting

What does data engineering consulting cost?

Engagements are fixed-fee and scoped up front. Most start with an AI Readiness Sprint from $12k (four to six weeks), which sizes the foundation work before you commit to it; the data build that follows is scoped to a fixed fee off that read, typically a four-to-twelve-week sprint. You approve a number, not an hourly meter.

Do we need the whole platform rebuilt?

Almost never. The fix is rarely more pipelines — it's the right pipelines, governed and observable, pointed at a use case worth funding. We don't re-platform a team that's already productive; we close the specific gaps the readiness read finds.

What clouds and tools do you work in?

AWS-native by default, bring-your-cloud on request. Where a team has standardized on the Lakehouse we run on Databricks with Unity Catalog and Delta. The tooling serves the outcome, not the other way around.

How is this different from hiring a data engineer?

A hire owns one seat; a fixed-fee engagement delivers a foundation — pipelines, quality contracts, governance, and a runbook — built by a senior bench and handed back so your team can run it without depending on us.

Can you handle a legacy migration without breaking production?

Yes. Migrations ship with a reversibility plan and a decision log, moved in stages rather than a big-bang cutover, so you can see why every call was made and roll back if needed.

Will this make our data ready for AI?

That is the point. 85% of AI projects fail on data quality and governance, so we fix the foundation first, then route the AI build — into our machine learning practice or your own team.

Do you offer DataOps and MLOps consulting, or just pipelines?

Both. DataOps implementation services bring CI/CD, testing, and observability to your pipelines so changes ship safely; MLOps consulting extends the same discipline to models — feature pipelines, a registry, drift monitoring, and rollback. We stand up the practice and hand it back with a runbook, rather than leaving you a set of scripts.

Can you help with a data lakehouse or a modern data architecture?

Yes — data lakehouse consulting is a core engagement. We build lakehouse architecture on Delta or Iceberg with a unified catalog so analytics and ML share one governed source of truth, on Databricks with Unity Catalog or open-table on your cloud. For broader platform rethinks, our modern data architecture work covers medallion layering, streaming-first design, and cost-routed compute — written down so every decision is defensible.

§ Related writing·from The Refinery Report

A senior team, fixed-fee, and a runbook on exit.

No pyramid leverage, no rented headcount, no open-ended retainer. The people who scope your data engineering work are the people who build it — and they hand you the keys when it's done. If your data isn't ready for AI yet, that's exactly the problem we solve first.

It matters who does the work. A junior bench learns your domain on your budget and leaves the hard architectural calls undocumented; a senior-only team makes those calls deliberately, writes down why, and builds the foundation to survive contact with production rather than the next demo. That is the difference between a data engineering partner and a staffing invoice — and it's why the runbook we leave behind is a system your team can actually operate, not a black box that breaks the first time the data shifts.

Scope a call See all services →