Tech lead & consulting
Sometimes the team is already in place, but confidence in the technical decisions isn't. The architecture was chosen on the fly, the stack is debatable, releases keep stalling, code review is a formality, and there's no one to lean on when hiring engineers. In that situation you don't need extra hands — you need an outside perspective: someone who has seen dozens of similar projects and can tell where a decision is solid and where it's quietly storing up pain.
Manvi Digital takes the role of an external tech lead or reviewer: we help the team with architecture, stack choices and process, run code reviews and take part in hiring engineers. We don't replace your team or take over — we strengthen it and leave behind decisions it can carry on its own. We draw on 10 years of commercial work in React Native and Node.js and products across travel, delivery, e-commerce and ride-hailing.
When you need it
An external tech lead helps where the question isn't the number of developers but the direction. For example: a startup before a round or a release wants an independent read on whether the code will survive growth. The team is split on a stack or architecture choice and can't settle it. Timelines keep slipping and the cause is hard to see from the inside. You need to hire a strong engineer but have no one to run the technical interview and judge the candidate's level.
If the review shows the project actually needs hands rather than advice, we'll say so plainly and propose a build or rework engagement — we don't sell consulting for its own sake.
What's included
The scope is shaped around your request, but it usually covers: a review of the architecture and key technical decisions with the risks laid out; help choosing a stack and tools for the actual task rather than by fashion; regular code review and setting it up as a process inside the team; building engineering process — branching, CI, the release cycle, dealing with tech debt; taking part in hiring — drafting the role, running the technical interview, assessing take-home tasks.
You walk away with concrete decisions and priorities, not abstract advice: what to fix now, what can wait, what agreements to lock in across the team. If you need a written code-and-architecture review with an action plan, that's closer to a separate audit engagement, and we'll point you to the format that fits.
How we work
We work fully remote, across Russia and abroad, as a recurring presence: calls with the team, reviewing pull requests, talking through architectural forks as they come up. The depth ranges from a one-off assessment to an ongoing external-tech-lead arrangement.
We talk to the team as peers, without condescension — the goal is that afterwards your developers understand not just what to change but why. Every decision stays with you: documentation, agreements and the reasoning behind them, not a dependency on an outside consultant.
Timeline and pricing
A one-off architecture or stack assessment usually fits within 2–4 days and ends with a clear summary and priorities. An ongoing external-tech-lead arrangement is a recurring commitment scaled to the team's rhythm.
Consulting and team reinforcement are billed at an hourly rate — you pay for actual involvement, with no inflated fixed fee. We give an exact range and format after a short call where we figure out where the project's real pain is.
FAQ
How is this different from an app audit?
How much does it cost?
Will you replace our tech lead or work with the team?
Tell us about your product — a path to production follows
A 30-minute call: the task, the risks and the format of working together. No obligations.