What is a Consulting Software Engineer?
Tom Smykowski is a consulting software engineer with nearly two decades of experience in product delivery, combining deep engineering skills with UX and product thinking. He is the ideal hire for founders, CTOs, and executives who need ownership from discovery through production, offering staff, senior, or founding engineer-level engagements. His consulting approach is built on delivering tangible outcomes, whether that's building products from scratch, modernizing legacy systems, solving complex technical problems, or integrating AI-native workflows into your development process.
As a consulting software engineer, Tom operates as a strategic partner, not just a code executor. He works remotely from Poland, seamlessly collaborating with international teams across the EU, UK, and US, including overlapping with US East Coast time zones. This model provides organizations with elite-level engineering expertise and technical leadership on a flexible, project-based, or long-term basis, without the overhead of a full-time executive hire or large consultancy firm. His work spans the full spectrum from hands-on coding and architecture to team mentoring and AI strategy formulation.
This engagement is particularly valuable for companies at an inflection point. Perhaps you're a startup needing a founding engineer to build your MVP, a scale-up like Printify requiring a design system overhaul before a major merger, or an established enterprise like GE Healthcare or Unilever seeking to modernize a critical application. Tom's consulting role is to embed himself into your challenges, provide clarity on the technical path forward, and lead the execution to a successful launch.
Core Consulting Services and Expertise
Tom's consulting practice is built on a foundation of staff-level software engineering, enabling him to offer a wide range of high-impact services. His primary focus areas include product engineering and full-stack development, where he takes ownership of building and scaling applications. This was demonstrated at Croissant, where as a Staff Software Engineer he partnered directly with the CEO and CTO on compliance and collaboration features for their workplace platform. He leverages modern stacks like Vue.js, TypeScript, and Supabase to create maintainable, user-focused products.
Another critical service is technical leadership and architecture consulting. This involves conducting code and architecture audits, providing technical due diligence for acquisitions or investments, and designing scalable systems from the ground up. For clients, this means de-risking major technical decisions and ensuring their architecture can support future growth. His experience founding Websoul, which served over 32,000 businesses with marketing automation and fintech SaaS, gives him firsthand insight into the architectural demands of high-growth SaaS products.
A rapidly growing segment of his consulting work is AI integration and strategy. Tom helps companies establish AI Software Factories, integrating agentic engineering, AI coding agents like Claude Code and Cursor, and AI-native development practices into their SDLC. This goes beyond simple ChatGPT prompts to building automated quality gates, AI testing suites, and workflows that significantly boost developer productivity and product innovation. He provides everything from executive AI briefings for CEOs and CTOs to hands-on team workshops and full setup engagements.
Proven Impact Across Industries and Clients
The credibility of a consulting software engineer is measured by the results delivered for previous clients. Tom's portfolio includes work for globally recognized brands and innovative startups, showcasing his ability to adapt and deliver in diverse contexts. For Printify, a marketplace with over 10 million merchants, he led the design system and rebranding initiative ahead of a significant merger, coordinating efforts across a frontend engineering team of roughly 60 developers. This project required not just technical skill but exceptional communication and stakeholder management to ensure a cohesive outcome.
His consulting impact extends to industrial and enterprise sectors. He served as the lead frontend engineer at Fream, focusing on industrial SaaS, where he built design systems, map integrations, and conversion-optimized UX. Earlier in his career, he worked on industrial ERP systems at Insoft Serwis, giving him a deep understanding of complex, data-intensive business applications. This blend of startup agility and enterprise-scale understanding makes him a versatile partner for organizations like DeLaval, Ordnance Survey, Bunge, and GE Healthcare.
Beyond the private sector, Tom has successfully delivered consulting projects for major public institutions, including the Polish Tourism Organisation, the Institute of National Remembrance, the University of Silesia, and the Marshal Office of the Silesian Voivodeship. These projects often involved unique constraints and requirements around accessibility, compliance, and serving a broad public user base. This diverse client list, from SaaS scale-ups and global corporations to government bodies, demonstrates a consistent ability to understand domain-specific problems and engineer effective, scalable solutions.
The Consulting Engagement Process
Effective consulting engagements follow a structured yet flexible process designed to maximize value and minimize risk. It begins with a discovery and scoping phase. Tom initiates projects with a deep-dive conversation to understand your business goals, technical challenges, team structure, and success metrics. For more complex needs, this can start with a paid audit or workshop, such as a codebase architecture review or an AI strategy briefing, to establish a clear baseline and roadmap.
Following discovery, the engagement moves into a collaborative execution phase. Tom integrates with your team using async communication and cross-time-zone collaboration practices honed from years of remote work with EU, UK, and US teams. He emphasizes transparency and regular knowledge sharing, ensuring that his work advances your project while also upskilling your internal team. Whether he's acting as a fractional technical lead, a hands-on developer implementing a critical feature, or an AI consultant setting up new workflows, the focus is on transferring knowledge and building sustainable systems.
The process concludes with a handover and iteration phase. The goal of consulting is not to create dependency but to empower your team. Tom ensures proper documentation, conducts final reviews, and establishes clear maintenance guidelines. For ongoing relationships, such as fractional CTO retainers or long-term collaboration contracts, this evolves into a cyclical process of planning, execution, and review. This structured approach, adaptable to short-term contracts or long-term collaborations, ensures that every engagement delivers measurable progress against your strategic objectives.
Why Hire a Remote Consulting Engineer from Poland?
Hiring a consulting software engineer based in Poland offers distinct advantages for international teams, particularly those in the EU, UK, and US. First is the significant overlap in working hours. Poland's Central European Time (CET) zone allows for full-day collaboration with European and UK teams and provides several hours of direct overlap with US East Coast mornings. This facilitates real-time meetings, pair programming sessions, and urgent decision-making without requiring extreme hours from either party, making the collaboration feel seamless.
Second, you gain access to a high-caliber, senior engineering talent pool known for strong technical education and pragmatic problem-solving, but without the premium costs often associated with major Western European tech hubs or large consultancy firms. Tom offers startup-friendly introductory rates for his experienced expertise, providing exceptional value. Furthermore, the B2B contract model common in Poland simplifies engagement, offering flexibility for project-based work, part-time collaboration, or full-time contracts without the complexities of international payroll.
Finally, a remote consultant eliminates geographical limitations, allowing you to tap into specialized expertise on demand. Whether you need an AI integration specialist for a 3-month project, a staff engineer to guide a 6-month platform modernization, or a fractional CTO for ongoing strategic guidance, you can access this level of skill without relocation costs or long-term commitment. Tom's ability to join occasional on-site workshops, client visits, and team offsites adds a valuable hybrid element, building stronger relationships when needed while maintaining the efficiency and focus of remote work.
Technical Stack and Methodologies
Tom's consulting work is powered by a modern, pragmatic technology stack and proven methodologies. On the frontend, he has extensive production experience with Vue.js and TypeScript, having used them to build the Websoul platform and other large-scale applications. He is also proficient in React and Angular, enabling him to advise on or directly execute modernization projects, framework migrations, or greenfield development based on your team's existing standards or strategic direction. His work with AG Grid for complex data grids and Supabase for full-stack development underscores a focus on developer productivity and robust architecture.
Beyond specific libraries, his methodology emphasizes design systems, accessibility, and API-first development. Leading the design system at Printify for a 60-engineer frontend team taught him how to build scalable, consistent UI foundations that accelerate development and improve user experience. He champions accessibility as a core requirement, not an afterthought, ensuring products are usable by everyone. His full-stack approach means he considers the entire system, from database design and API contracts to frontend state management and deployment pipelines.
A key differentiator is his integration of AI-assisted engineering methodologies. Tom consults on and implements AI-native SDLC practices, helping teams adopt tools like Cursor, GitHub Copilot, and Claude Code to automate repetitive tasks, enhance code quality, and accelerate development cycles. This includes setting up AI testing frameworks, quality gates, and agentic workflows that transform how engineering teams operate. This forward-looking expertise allows clients to not just solve today's problems but also build a more productive and innovative engineering culture for the future.
When This Consulting Engagement is a Good Fit
This consulting engagement is an excellent fit if you are a founder, CTO, or product leader who needs senior-level engineering horsepower and strategic insight but isn't ready for a full-time executive hire. It's ideal for project-based challenges like building an MVP, modernizing a legacy Angular or React codebase, or integrating AI capabilities into your product. It's also a strong match for companies seeking interim technical leadership, such as a fractional CTO to guide strategy or a staff engineer to mentor a growing team.
The fit is also right if you value clear communication and ownership. Tom operates with a product-minded approach, focusing on business outcomes and user value, not just technical output. If you need a partner who can navigate between high-level architecture and hands-on coding, who can explain complex concepts to non-technical stakeholders, and who takes ultimate responsibility for delivering a working solution, this consulting model will deliver significant value. Finally, if your team is distributed across Europe, the UK, or the US and you need a remote-collaboration expert who can work across time zones effectively, this engagement is designed for you.