For tech founders & engineering leaders EU + International

Senior, AI-native engineers, embedded in your team. Not your typical nearshore.

Your product needs senior engineers who use Claude and Cursor in their daily workflow, work in your timezone, and own the work — not a body shop selling juniors as seniors. We assemble that team — staff aug, dedicated squad, or custom build — with full accountability from a founder who's been a CTO.

Senior-only. 5+ years average. No juniors sold as seniors.
AI-native daily workflow. Claude, Cursor, copilots — included, not extra.
GMT timezone. Lisbon & Porto. Strong English. Real-time overlap with EU teams.
Embedded in 7 days. Not 7 weeks. Validated profiles, fast intake, fast match.
No commitment · No bait 3 min · 8 questions
Tell us what you need.
30-min intake call. We'll confirm fit, propose 1–2 senior profiles within 5 days, and you decide who to interview.
No sales pitch. No bait-and-switch. If we're not the right fit, we'll tell you on the intake call and recommend who is.
Not your typical nearshore. Four things we refuse to do, that most nearshore vendors quietly do.
Most do Sell juniors as seniors. We don't. Every engineer is 5+ years and validated by us before you ever see them.
Most do Subcontract to third parties. We don't. Every engineer is on our payroll, in Lisbon or Porto.
Most do Treat AI tooling as an add-on. We don't. Claude and Cursor are included in every engagement, used daily.
Most do Say yes to anything. We don't. If you don't fit our model, we say no on the intake call and refer you elsewhere.
In numbers
7days
From intake to embedded engineer
5+ yrs
Average engineering experience, senior-only
GMT
Lisbon & Porto · same timezone as EU teams
AI
Claude, Cursor, copilots — daily, included
01/Squad models

Four ways to embed a senior squad in your team.

Pick the model that fits your moment — staff aug for surgical addition, dedicated squad for sustained build, project squad for fixed scope, custom team for everything in between. Pricing on intake call.

01 / Staff Augmentation
Staff Augmentation
Single senior dev · embedded
One senior engineer dropped into your existing team. They use your tools, follow your process, ship in your sprints. Ideal for adding a specific skill (AI, backend depth, frontend specialist) to an existing engineering team.
Best for Extending an existing team with a specific skill
Format Monthly retainer per engineer
02 / Dedicated SquadMost popular
Dedicated Squad
3–5 engineers + tech lead · dedicated
A small team, dedicated to your product, with a tech lead coordinating delivery. They build inside your codebase but with their own process discipline. Ideal for building a new product line or a major feature stream.
Best for Building a new product line or feature stream
Format Monthly retainer · 6+ months commitment
03 / Project Squad
Project Squad
Full team · fixed scope · end-to-end
We take full responsibility for a defined deliverable — MVP, major refactor, integration project. Scope is fixed, milestones are clear, handoff is full. We come in, we ship, we leave you with documentation and a working system.
Best for Defined deliverable, MVP, major refactor
Format Fixed scope · milestones · full handoff
04 / Custom Team
Custom Team
Bespoke composition · your needs
When none of the above fits exactly. Maybe you need a fractional CTO + 2 backend engineers + a designer. Or a tech lead embedded for 6 months while we recruit your in-house team. We design the engagement around your actual constraints.
Best for When standard models don't fit
Format Discussed during intake call
02/How we engage

From first call to embedded engineer in about a week.

No procurement theatre. No five-stage sales process. We move at the speed of your decision — because we know you have one.

01
Intake
30 minutes
You describe role, stack, scope, timeline, budget. We confirm fit — including saying no on the call if we're not the right shop. No pitch deck, no slides, just a conversation.
02
Match
3–5 days
We propose 1–2 senior profiles for you to interview. You meet them directly, technical interview included. You decide who joins. If neither fits, we propose more — no pressure to settle.
03
Ramp
1–2 weeks
Onboarding, access setup, first sprint integration. We share our internal ramp checklist with you so you know exactly what to expect and when. By end of week 2, the engineer is shipping in your codebase.
04
Embed
Ongoing
Engineer becomes a steady part of your team. Monthly billing, quarterly review, full transparency on performance. Scale up or down as your roadmap evolves — no lock-in beyond the current month.
03/The team behind it

A senior engineering operation, led by an ex-CTO.

Unlocking Tech is founded and led by Miguel Marques — engineer, ex-technical director at a known Portuguese tech company, with a track record of building CRMs, SaaS platforms, and engineering teams from scratch. Every squad we send is matched, validated, and overseen by senior engineering leadership — not by recruiters.

18+ years
technical career, support to C-level
Ex-CTO / director
at a known Portuguese tech company
Built from zero
CRMs, SaaS platforms, engineering teams
Active across
Portugal, Brazil & EU clients
04/Tech stack

The stacks our senior engineers work in daily.

Modern, production-grade stacks. AI tooling baked into the workflow. If you don't see your stack here, ask — we likely cover it.

Backend
Python TypeScript / Node.js Go .NET / C# Java / Spring PHP / Laravel Ruby on Rails
Frontend
React Next.js Vue Angular Svelte TypeScript Tailwind
AI & ML
Claude (Anthropic) OpenAI / GPT LangChain RAG Agents Pinecone Weaviate Cursor n8n
Cloud & DevOps
AWS GCP Azure Kubernetes Docker Terraform GitHub Actions Cloudflare
05/Not for

We're not the right shop for everyone — and that's the point.

Body shops looking to subcontract. If you're an agency planning to resell our engineers under your brand, our model doesn't work for you.
Junior-only or "20 cheap devs" requests. We don't have a junior pool. If price-per-head is your main lever, look elsewhere — there are great vendors who do that well.
RFP-driven multi-vendor procurement. If your process requires us to respond against 20 vendors over 6 weeks, we'll politely decline and save you the time.
Fixed-bid waterfall projects with no discovery. We don't quote on undefined scope. A short paid scoping engagement is the minimum.
Pre-PMF startups still looking for product direction. We can help build, but only if you know what you're building. We're not your product strategy partner.
Anyone whose primary criterion is hourly rate. We're not the cheapest. If price is the lever, we lose to commodity vendors — and that's fine.
06/Next step

Need a senior squad in your product team?

Tell us the role, the stack, and the timeline. We'll respond within 24 hours with a fit assessment — and either propose a profile or tell you who's a better match for what you need.

EU + International · Reply within 24h · No pitch decks