David Plappert

Services

Engagements built for senior IC accountability — without the cost of a full-time hire.

Four core ways I work with engineering leaders. Mix and match as needed.

01

Fractional AWS Reliability Lead

Ongoing retainer

A senior AWS practitioner in the seat for ongoing production reliability. The role your team needs but can't justify hiring full-time.

What's included

  • → Weekly architecture review and operational risk assessment
  • → Vendor-shipped infrastructure release gatekeeping
  • → Production incident escalation and post-mortem ownership
  • → Observability and alerting design
  • → Cross-team senior escalation availability

02

AWS Production Audit

Fixed-scope project

A senior-level production reliability assessment of your AWS environment with a remediation roadmap your team can execute against.

What's included

  • → End-to-end production risk assessment
  • → Cloud cost analysis identifying significant recoverable waste
  • → Architecture diagram and gap analysis
  • → Prioritized remediation roadmap with effort estimates
  • → Executive summary for leadership and engineering plan for the team

03

Vendor Technical Oversight

Multi-month project

For companies running mission-critical AWS infrastructure built and shipped by a vendor. I sit on your side of the table, technically.

What's included

  • → Vendor release gatekeeping (typically monthly cadence)
  • → AWS CDK and IaC review with vendor-skeptic discipline
  • → Pre-production remediation coordination
  • → Vendor performance accountability framework
  • → Production architecture for downstream consumers

04

Strategic Cloud Advisory

Light retainer

Senior cloud architecture counsel on retainer. Monthly check-ins, ad-hoc advisory, decision review for engineering leaders.

What's included

  • → Monthly architecture review session
  • → Async availability for ad-hoc technical questions
  • → Decision review on major AWS architecture choices
  • → Quarterly cloud strategy alignment

Not sure which fits?

Most engagements start with a discovery call. We figure out the right scope together.

Book a call