Platform problems look organizational. The friction, the low adoption, the stalled initiatives — they feel like people problems. But the root cause is almost always structural: architecture that forces human intervention, platforms not designed for self-service, decisions made without understanding the technical cost.
That's where I work — at the point where the technical reality and the business decision meet. My job is to give you the outside view that holds both.
Who this is for
I work with CTOs and VPs of Engineering at mid-sized companies — large enough to have a dedicated platform team, small enough that the CTO still makes real architectural decisions — who feel the pressure of getting those decisions right.
You’re probably dealing with at least one of these:
- Your team wants to buy a product or service — but the real problem is friction, and no tool fixes that
- Developers still open tickets to get things done — self-service is a goal, not a reality, and the toil is becoming impossible to ignore
- Your AI initiatives are stalling because the platform wasn't designed for agent workloads
- You're about to make a significant architecture decision and want one conversation with someone who has seen this before
- You've just been promoted or joined a new company and are trying to make sense of the platform situation — what's broken, what matters, and where to start
If none of that fits, we’re probably not a match — and that’s fine.
How it works
Every engagement follows the same sequence. There are no surprises and no pressure to continue at any step.
We talk briefly to confirm your situation fits the format and the timing works for both of us. No pitch, no deck. If it's not a fit, I'll tell you — and point you somewhere better if I can.
A paid, structured conversation focused on one real decision. Written summary delivered within three business days. No obligation to continue.
For leaders who want continued access to judgment. Only available after a diagnostic. Not assumed — discussed if and when it makes sense.
Start with a diagnostic session
Every engagement begins here. It's a fixed-price, time-boxed conversation — typically 90 minutes — focused on one real decision or problem you're facing right now.
I ask questions. You talk. I don't come with slides or a framework to sell you. By the end, you'll have a clear articulation of what's actually in conflict and a written summary you can use internally.
The diagnostic is a standalone engagement. No obligation to continue, and no pitch at the end.
Advisory retainer
For leaders who want ongoing access to judgment, I offer a monthly retainer. This isn't a consulting project with deliverables and milestones. It's a relationship.
In practice: we talk regularly, you bring decisions as they arise, and I give you my honest read — including when I think you're about to make a mistake. Between sessions you have async access for questions that can't wait.
The retainer is intentionally limited in scope. I work with a small number of clients at a time. That's by design — it's how I stay useful rather than becoming another vendor to manage.
What I bring
Twenty years of platform engineering gives me a particular kind of pattern recognition. I’ve seen the same decisions play out in many different organizations, and I know which ones look right in the short term and cause pain later.
My specific area is GitOps-first, Everything as Code platform architecture. Not as a religious commitment to a particular tool — as a structural answer to the problem I’ve seen consistently for twenty years: platforms that generate friction rather than reduce it.
When a platform requires a ticket to deploy, a meeting to approve infrastructure, a specific person to run a manual step — developers route around it. Adoption fails. The platform team builds something nobody uses. GitOps and an API-driven, code-managed approach remove those gates. Developers get self-service. Changes are reviewable, auditable, and reversible. The platform becomes something engineers trust.
That’s the direction I push. Not because it’s fashionable — because I’ve seen what happens when friction accumulates, and I’ve seen what good looks like on the other side.
I also work at the intersection of platform engineering and AI agent infrastructure. Most platforms being built today weren’t designed for agentic workloads, and that gap is going to create real problems over the next two years. If your organization is moving toward AI agents in production, your platform strategy needs to account for this now.
How this is different
I’ve spent twenty years doing the implementation work — building platforms, writing infrastructure code, delivering training, architecting Kubernetes clusters from scratch. I’m not an outside observer. That hands-on depth is what makes the advisory useful.
But I don’t implement for clients. Not because I can’t — because mixing implementation with advice creates a conflict of interest. If I’m building your platform, I have an incentive to make it more complex than it needs to be. As an advisor, my only incentive is a good decision.
I don’t staff teams. I don’t take vendor commissions. I don’t have a methodology to sell.
If you need someone to build, I can refer you to people who do that work well. That’s a different engagement — and a different relationship.
I have no political stake in your org chart. That's rarer than it sounds.
— Tomasz CholewaA note on how I work
I’m most useful when you want a second opinion, not a validator. If you’ve already decided and you want someone to confirm it, I’m probably not the right person. Clients who get the most value from this relationship are the ones who genuinely want to be challenged — and who can handle a direct answer.
I’m based in Warsaw. I work with clients in Europe and the Middle East. Engagements are conducted in English.
How to start
Book a diagnostic session. Use the link below to schedule a short introductory call first — 20 minutes — so we can both decide whether the diagnostic makes sense. No pitch, no proposal, no deck.
If after that call it’s clear we’re not a fit, I’ll tell you. And if I know someone better suited to your situation, I’ll refer you there.