Available for new engagements

Build fast.
Scale right.

I am Vagmi Mudumbai, a hands-on Fractional CTO and DevOps Architect with over 23 years of experience. I help startups and scale-ups accelerate their time to validation and market without the overhead of a full-time executive.

View Engagement Models Read my Engineering Log

# Philosophy

Velocity is free now.
Direction is the new scarcity.

The "Adult in the Room"

AI agents have commoditized code generation. But they haven't solved engineering. The bottleneck isn't typing anymore—it's taste, architecture, and decision-making. You don't need a $250k/year full-time executive to manage a small team. You need high-leverage, strategic oversight to ensure security, scalability, and correct vendor selection.

Velocity vs. Quality

AI allows junior developers to output code at senior velocities. Without a Fractional CTO to provide architectural guardrails, this rapidly leads to unmaintainable "big ball of mud" legacy systems. I provide the necessary friction to ensure speed doesn't kill your product's longevity.

Hands-on Leadership

I don't just draw diagrams. I write the foundational scaffolding (Rust/Go), setup the CI/CD pipelines, and establish the "Golden Paths" that allow your team—and their AI agents—to ship safely and fast.

# Capabilities

🏗️ Fractional CTO
Strategic technology leadership on a flexible basis. I align your tech roadmap with business goals, manage vendor relationships, and help you make build-vs-buy decisions.
⚙️ DevOps Architecture
Infrastructure as Code (Terraform), Kubernetes orchestration, and CI/CD pipelines. I build resilient systems that scale with your growth.
🚀 MVP Acceleration
Rapid prototyping and architecture for early-stage startups. I help you get from idea to validated product in record time using proven stacks (Astro, Rails, Go).
👥 Team Building
Hiring, mentoring, and setting up engineering culture. I've scaled teams from 0 to 35+, establishing best practices like TDD and pair programming.
♻️ Legacy Modernization
Strangling monoliths into microservices. I specialize in refactoring complex legacy systems (Rails, Java) into modern, maintainable architectures.
🔍 Audit & Due Diligence
Technical due diligence for investors or internal audits for security, scalability, and code quality assessments.

# Engagement Models

I dedicate 50% of my time to building Urai. These engagement models allow me to bring that same founder-level intensity to your problems, on a fractional basis. Predictable pricing. No equity required. Pause or cancel anytime.

DevOps Architect

$5,000 /month

Stability, Security, and Scalability for scale-ups with existing PMF but fragile infrastructure.

  • ▹ Monthly Infrastructure Audit
  • ▹ Terraform/IaC Refactoring
  • ▹ K8s Upgrades & Maintenance
  • ▹ CI/CD Pipeline Optimization
Apply for Spot
High Impact

Fractional CTO

$5,000 /month

Strategic leadership for early-stage startups. Your veteran technical co-founder, part-time.

  • ▹ Technical Roadmap Planning
  • ▹ Vendor/Stack Selection
  • ▹ Hiring & Vetting (First 5 Engineers)
  • ▹ Code Reviews & RFC Validation
  • ▹ Weekly Sync + Board Attendance
Apply for Spot

MVP Accelerator

$12,000 /month

Speed to market for founders with a validated idea. I build your V1 right the first time.

  • ▹ Hands-on Coding (Rust/Go/Typescript)
  • ▹ Full-stack Implementation
  • ▹ Architecturally Sound MVP
  • ▹ Deployable Deliverable
Apply for Spot

Why engage this way?

⚡

Immediate Impact

Skip the 3-month hiring process. I integrate with your team and start delivering value from Day 1.

🔓

No Equity Cost

Get C-level expertise without diluting your cap table. Perfect for early-stage validation.

⏸️

Flexible Commitment

Scale up or down as your needs change. Pause or cancel with just a month's notice.

?

Not sure what you need?

Every startup is different. If you need a custom combination of these services—like a heavy initial audit followed by ongoing advisory—we can tailor a package for you.

Let's discuss your situation

# Selected Work

BashLinuxContainersAlpine

A book and reference implementation on building rootless containers from scratch using Bash. Deep dive into Linux namespaces, cgroups, and overlay filesystems.

Urai - Urai Voice

CTO & Co-founder

RustKubernetesGCPWebRTCPostgreSQL

Building a developer-first voice AI platform for natural, real-time, interruptible conversations. The core voice service is written in Rust, utilizing Stunner for WebRTC and hosted on GKE with CloudNativePG and Barman for resilience.

Urai - Thiri

Platform Architecture

RustFirecrackerLinuxPython

Built a secure, API-driven Firecracker runtime for AI agents to execute ephemeral Python code. Engineered 'Thiri Linux', a custom Alpine-based distro with a specialized kernel (netfilter/conntrack) to support nested containers.

AICrete

Infrastructure & Platform Engineering

GoAWSTerraformEC2

Migrated infrastructure from Heroku to AWS EC2 with Compute Savings Plans. Built a custom Go-based CLI developer platform for log viewing and environment management. Integrated cloud-based Django dispatch system with legacy on-prem Windows systems using Go.

Tunecore

Platform Architecture

Ruby on RailsGoAWS LambdaFFmpeg

Architected the split of a 10-year Rails monolith into microservices. Built high-performance distribution services in Go and AWS Lambda, handling $1bn+ in artist payouts.

Moove

Location Services

GoWebSocketsOSRMAndroid

Optimized route planning and location tracking for employee mobility. Migrated from Google Maps SDK to OSRM, implementing WebSocket-based real-time tracking.

Ready to accelerate your engineering?

Whether you need a full architectural audit, a DevOps overhaul, or strategic leadership, I'm here to help.

Schedule a Free 30-min Call