Independent. Hands-on. Principal-level.

Engineering across every layer.

Deep experience.Better decisions.Proven delivery.

I've built, modernized, and operated software across startups and Fortune 500 companies. That range of experience helps me recognize risks, weigh tradeoffs, and move your project forward.

I architect the change.
Then I build it.

Know what you're acquiring. Build beyond the MVP. Get legacy software moving forward. I assess, architect, and implement the changes—from application code to production infrastructure.

Principal since 2020.
AI speed. Experienced judgment.

Discuss your project

Daniel Nalbach

Founder & Principal Engineer

From technical decisions to working software.

See what I can change

PRODUCT.

Interface & application

PLATFORM.

Cloud & delivery

PERSPECTIVE.

Architecture & leadership

Change what's
holding you back.

Make an informed acquisition. Meet tougher customer requirements. Remove the limits of a legacy system. I bring clear technical judgment to the decision and hands-on engineering to the implementation.

Technical due diligence.

Know the technical reality before you make the deal.

Know what you're acquiring.

A polished demo only tells part of the story. I examine the application and infrastructure, surface the risks, and identify the engineering work ahead—so you can make the acquisition decision with your eyes open.

What I evaluate

Architecture, code quality, and maintainability
Cloud infrastructure, security, and operational practices
Integration challenges and expansion potential
Technical debt, dependencies, and the work ahead
Test coverage, automation, and test quality

Discuss an acquisition

MVP to enterprise.

Turn a validated idea into software built for bigger demands.

Build the product your next customer needs.

Your MVP proved the idea. Now the product needs to support more demanding customers and real operational pressure. I strengthen the architecture, implement the application changes, and build the infrastructure and delivery practices the next stage requires.

What I strengthen

Application architecture and data design
Test strategy, automation, and test quality
Authentication, fine-grained permissions, and integrations
Infrastructure, deployment automation, and monitoring
Reliability and performance against your requirements

Build beyond your MVP

Legacy modernization.

Keep the business knowledge. Build a better way forward.

Keep the value. Lose the friction.

Make your established product easier to change and operate. I work through the code, data, infrastructure, and deployment process, replacing aging foundations while preserving the business logic that matters. I architect the path forward and implement the changes.

What I modernize

Rails applications, APIs, and vendor integrations
Aging AWS services and infrastructure management
Databases, containerization, and delivery pipelines
Testing, documentation, and engineering workflows

Move your application forward

Real systems.
Real change.

I've worked with small startups and Fortune 500 corporations on projects of every size and scope. These examples show the changes I've delivered in applications, infrastructure, and how teams work.

Make factory power data visible.

Built dashboards for factory sensor data to help examine power data.

Bring the expert into the store.

Helped build a video conferencing kiosk that connected retail customers with remote tech support.

A knowledge base. 100× faster.

Helped replace a legacy knowledge base application with a product that cut backend search time by 99%.

Recover the infrastructure. Rebuild the system.

Recovered lost legacy application infrastructure and rebuilt it.

Government award for team excellence.

Part of a team that won a government award for excellence in 2015.

Put city services within reach.

Built a mobile web application exposing Denver services to citizens.

Champ SoftwarePrincipal Engineer

A modern foundation
for a legacy healthcare EHR.

I designed and built AWS infrastructure across environments for a 20-year-old Rails product. I replaced OpsWorks/Chef with Terraform, containerized the application with Docker, migrated PostgreSQL to RDS, and modernized deployment workflows.

I implemented product features and vendor integrations, helped build a unified engineering team, led hiring interviews, and established documentation practices. I also led AI adoption with practical workflows and team guidance.

RAILS / AWS / TERRAFORM / DOCKER / RDS / CI/CD

Canopy InnovationsPrincipal Engineer

From monolithic API
to production-ready platform.

I built AWS infrastructure with separate production and staging accounts, automated with Terraform. I converted a Rails API into a containerized, clustered, load-balanced platform with non-disruptive deployments.

I also designed a new licensing system, led implementation of fine-grained permissions, integrated Auth0, and delivered third-party integrations.

RAILS / AWS / TERRAFORM / DOCKER / AUTH0

Project highlights span employment and consulting. The knowledge base and government award reflect shared team work.

Portrait of Daniel Nalbach, founder and Principal Engineer of Full Stacker Consulting — **Daniel Nalbach**Founder & Principal Engineer

I design the system.
I write the code.

I'm Daniel Nalbach, founder and Principal Engineer of Full Stacker Consulting.

You work directly with the principal engineer making the decisions and implementing them. I assess the problem, design the architecture, write the application code, and build the infrastructure that runs it.

I've worked across frontend and UX, backend and full-stack development, DevOps, architecture, and leadership. I understand how the decisions connect—and can take ownership with minimal oversight or work inside your team.

Independent consultant.Based in Tennessee / Working remotely

Discernment. Judgment. Taste.

Code is cheap.
Judgment comes from experience.

I was a Principal Software Engineer in 2020. I built production systems before AI became part of my workflow. That experience guides the questions I ask, the tradeoffs I make, and the standards I hold the work to.

In the AI era, code is fast and cheap. Better outcomes take discernment, judgment, and taste.

I direct AI, challenge weak recommendations, and shape the result around your business, your users, and the realities of your system. The value is knowing what to build, what to question, and what deserves to ship.

AI lets me deliver work that used to require a team. I architect and implement the changes, review and test the results, and take responsibility for what ships.

Better outcomes.
One engineer accountable.

What changes across the stack.

Make the product easier to use.

I bring frontend and UX experience to the interfaces people use every day. I build the interactions, clarify the workflows, and connect the experience to the application behind it.

Build the capabilities you need.

I build full-stack Rails applications, backend services, APIs, data models, and integrations. I can follow a product requirement through every layer and implement what makes it work.

Put a decade of AWS to work.

I bring a decade of AWS experience across compute, databases, networking, storage, and delivery services. I build the infrastructure, automate releases, and operate what goes into production.

Test what matters.

I design test strategies and automation around real behavior, important failure paths, and regressions. I assess and improve test quality so the suite earns your confidence when the software changes.

Design security. Implement it.

I design and implement authentication, authorization, SSO, identity federation, and access controls across applications and cloud infrastructure. The security architecture carries through to the working system.

Make the decision clear.

I communicate with and on behalf of executive leadership at every level. I translate technical risk, priorities, and tradeoffs for the people making decisions and the teams doing the work.

Assess. Architect.
Implement.

Find what needs to change.

I examine the product, the systems, and the business constraints. You get a clear view of the risks, the bottlenecks, and the changes that will make a difference.

Set a direction. Make the call.

I recommend a path, explain the tradeoffs in terms that matter to your stakeholders, and define what needs to be built. Executives get a clear decision; engineers get a direction they can implement.

Put the plan into production.

I write the code, build the infrastructure, and work through testing and deployment. You get hands-on execution from the engineer who designed the change, with documentation to support what comes next.

Independent or embedded

Own the work.
Strengthen the team.

I can own a project and ship with minimal oversight, or work inside your team. You get an engineer who can lead the work, contribute directly, and keep people aligned.

I've led and managed teams, built engineering culture, hired and trained engineers, and coached and mentored people. That experience helps me strengthen the team around the work.

Let's get
to work.

What's standing between your business and its next move? Tell me what you're buying, building, or trying to fix. Let's decide what needs to change and get to work.

Work directly with me, Daniel.
Technical assessment, architecture, and hands-on implementation. Short and long-term engagements.