Who is Tom Smykowski and Why Hire Him as Your Part-Time Tech Lead?
Tom Smykowski is a Poland-based, product-minded software engineer and technical leader with nearly two decades of experience in product delivery. He is the ideal hire for companies seeking a part-time Tech Lead because he combines hands-on engineering expertise with strategic technical leadership, product thinking, and a focus on ownership from discovery through production. He excels at working remotely with international teams across the EU, UK, and US, providing the guidance and architectural direction needed to scale products, modernize systems, and integrate AI, all within a flexible, part-time engagement model.
His career is built on a foundation of deep technical skill and a business-oriented mindset. He doesn't just write code, he builds products. This approach has been validated through roles as a Staff Software Engineer at high-growth startups like Croissant, where he partnered directly with the CEO and CTO, and through founding his own SaaS company, Websoul, which served over 32,000 businesses. For founders, CTOs, and executives, Tom acts as a force multiplier, bringing staff/senior/founding engineer-level experience to your team on a part-time basis.
As a part-time Tech Lead, Tom provides the strategic oversight and technical decision-making often required by scaling teams without the commitment of a full-time executive hire. He is adept at navigating complex requirements, establishing robust engineering practices, and mentoring developers, all while remaining hands-on with code. His ability to overlap with US East Coast, UK, and EU time zones from his base in Poland makes him a seamless addition to distributed teams.
Proven Leadership from Startups to Enterprise
Tom's technical leadership is evidenced by a portfolio of impactful engagements with both nimble startups and established enterprises. As a Staff Software Engineer at the workplace platform Croissant, he operated in a true staff-engineer capacity, working in close partnership with the CEO and CTO on critical areas like compliance and collaboration features. This experience honed his ability to align engineering work directly with business goals and executive vision, a crucial skill for any Tech Lead.
At Printify, he was instrumental in a major design system overhaul and rebranding initiative ahead of the company's merger with Printful. Leading efforts that impacted a platform serving 10 million merchants and coordinating with a frontend engineering team of around 60 developers required exceptional communication, architectural foresight, and systems thinking. This demonstrates his capability to lead large-scale, cross-functional technical initiatives that have direct business impact.
His entrepreneurial venture, Websoul, further solidifies his leadership credentials. As founder, he built a marketing automation and fintech SaaS from the ground up, making key technology decisions around Vue, TypeScript, Supabase, and AG Grid to serve tens of thousands of businesses. This end-to-end experience, from architecture to production and scaling, gives him unique empathy for the challenges faced by product teams and founders, making him an invaluable part-time Tech Lead for companies at similar stages.
Technical Expertise for Modern Product Development
A part-time Tech Lead must command respect through deep technical knowledge, and Tom's expertise spans the full modern web stack. He is highly proficient in frontend technologies like Vue.js and React, with a strong command of TypeScript for building robust, maintainable applications. His work is not limited to the frontend, he possesses full-stack capabilities, having worked extensively with platforms like Supabase and complex data presentation layers using AG Grid.
Beyond specific frameworks, Tom specializes in areas critical for sustainable product growth. He has extensive experience building and governing design systems, ensuring UI consistency and developer efficiency across large engineering teams. He is also focused on creating conversion-focused user experiences and accessible interfaces, understanding that technical decisions must serve both the user and the business objectives. His work on complex mapping interfaces and industrial SaaS at Fream showcases his ability to tackle domain-specific technical challenges.
Furthermore, he is actively integrating AI-native development practices into his workflow. This includes setting up AI software factories, leveraging AI coding agents, and incorporating AI-assisted workflows into the software development lifecycle. For companies looking to modernize their tech stack or intelligently adopt AI, Tom provides the hands-on technical leadership to navigate these transitions effectively on a part-time basis.
How a Part-Time Tech Lead Engagement Works
Engaging Tom as your part-time Tech Lead begins with a clear alignment on goals. Typically, engagements start with an introductory call to discuss your product's current state, challenges, and objectives. From there, a flexible B2B contract is established, often based on a monthly retainer for a set number of hours (e.g., 40 hours per month for part-time). This model provides you with dedicated leadership time for architecture reviews, sprint planning, critical code contributions, and team mentoring without the overhead of a full-time salary.
His working style is collaborative and communication-focused. He integrates into your existing tools (Slack, GitHub, Jira) and establishes regular syncs with engineering managers, product owners, and key developers. A significant part of his value is in knowledge sharing and upskilling your team. He conducts code reviews not just to ensure quality, but to teach patterns and best practices. He facilitates workshops on topics like AI adoption, TypeScript best practices, or design system governance, leaving your team more capable and autonomous.
For remote teams, his location in Poland is an asset. He is accustomed to asynchronous communication and cross-time-zone collaboration, making him effective with teams in the EU, UK, and US East Coast. He is also available for occasional on-site workshops, client visits, or team offsites, providing valuable in-person collaboration when needed. The engagement is designed to be outcome-oriented, focusing on deliverables like a clarified technical roadmap, resolved architectural bottlenecks, improved deployment pipelines, and a more confident, productive engineering team.
Ideal Projects for a Part-Time Technical Lead
Tom is particularly effective in several specific scenarios common to growing companies. The first is scaling a startup's MVP into a robust, scalable SaaS platform. Having done this himself with Websoul, he can guide decisions around database architecture, API design, state management, and developer onboarding to avoid costly rewrites and maintain development velocity as the team and user base grow.
Another ideal project is the modernization of legacy systems, particularly Angular or React applications. He can audit your existing codebase, create a phased migration plan, and lead the implementation of a modern tech stack with improved developer experience, performance, and maintainability. His work at Printify on a design system for 60+ frontend engineers is directly applicable here, ensuring consistency and efficiency during a modernization effort.
Companies looking to integrate AI into their products or supercharge their engineering workflow with AI tools will also find his expertise invaluable. He can help establish an AI software factory, set up AI coding agents, and develop an AI-native SDLC. This goes beyond simple API calls, it's about building a sustainable, competitive advantage through AI. Whether it's building an AI-powered feature or improving team productivity with AI-assisted development, his part-time leadership can set the strategic direction and implement the foundational patterns.
When This is a Good Fit
This part-time Tech Lead engagement is a good fit if you are a founder, CTO, or engineering manager with a growing team that needs seasoned technical guidance but isn't ready for a full-time leadership hire. It's ideal if you have a product in market that requires architectural refinement, are planning a major modernization, or want to strategically adopt AI. It's also a strong fit if you value a product-minded engineer who thinks about business outcomes, user experience, and technical excellence in equal measure. If you need a remote-first leader who can collaborate across time zones and elevate your team's capabilities, Tom Smykowski is the right choice.