Available for remote contracts · EU & US

Senior Full-Stack Engineer. Software that just works.

  • React · Node
  • DevOps
  • RAG · AI / LLM
  • Full-stack · Backend
  • 10y Banking
  • Remote contracts

  Click · 45 seconds · sound on

Meet your senior engineer

Hi, I’m Cosmina. I ship products that work from day one.

Not mockups. Not prototypes that need “one more sprint”. Working software, in production, from the first release: tested, fast, secure and polished down to the last screen.

I learned that standard over 10+ years in enterprise banking and fintech, where bugs cost money. Today I bring it to founders and scale-ups: I write the code, design the flow and architect the system, so you get one senior owner, a demo every week and a product your customers can use the day it launches.

For recruiters & hiring teams

Hiring a senior engineer? Here’s the short version.

Everything you need to decide in 30 seconds, and three ways to reach me directly. I reply within one business day.

Role
Senior Full-Stack Engineer
Stack
React · Node · TypeScript, DevOps, RAG / AI on LLMs
Experience
10 years, enterprise banking, fintech and SaaS
Engagement
Remote contracts: fractional (2 days/week), project builds or retainer
Location & languages
Romania (EET), EU & US teams · English, Romanian
Published author
The Architect Protocol, 2 more books coming
Services

Services

Six ways to turn your product into revenue

One senior engineer under one roof: code that ships, design that converts, architecture that scales. No agency drag, no junior rotations. Every engagement starts in weeks, not months.

01 · Web builds

Ship a product that sells on day one

MVPs and production web apps on architecture that scales and UI that converts. Live in weeks, not months.

For founders ready to launch

02 · AI & RAG

Put your data to work with LLMs

RAG search, assistants and automations on top of your own data, built with the same production standards as the rest of your stack.

For teams adding AI to a real product

03 · UI/UX design

Turn “meh” into “take my money”

Conversion-first redesigns and Figma design systems built on real user flows. Your product finally looks as good as it works.

For products that underperform their price

04 · Fractional engineer

Senior delivery at 30% of the cost

Two days a week of hands-on senior engineering for 3–6 months: roadmap, code, architecture and a team that moves again.

€20–50K · 2 days/week

05 · Maintenance

Your product, kept sharp and fast

Senior engineering on call every month: bugs fixed before customers notice, performance and security kept high, features shipped weekly.

Monthly retainer

06 · Advisory

Don’t spend six figures before this call

Go/no-go reviews and sharp second opinions before you commit to a build, a hire or a vendor.

Pay by the hour

Not sure which fits?

30 minutes and an honest recommendation, even if it’s none of the six.

Book the 30-min call

Products

My own products, live and shipping

Three products running in production. I eat my own cooking. Leadership diagnostics, a coaching platform, and clinic coordination. Try them before we ever talk.

Live

Leadership diagnostics

Architect Dashboard

See where your energy leaks and what to do about it, in 2 minutes.

For: leaders and architects who are busy every minute but feel stuck, and teams losing momentum.

  • Quick Quiz: 2-minute diagnostic with an action plan
  • Deep Quiz: 8-minute leadership blind-spot analysis
  • TEAMS: 5-question diagnostic for up to 10 members
  • Dashboard: objectives and progress over time

First 3 quick quizzes free · 27€ per full profile

Visit architectdashboard.com →
Live

Coaching platform

CNT Coach & CoachMind

Engineering rigor in a warm space, with a clear trajectory from first to last session.

For: coachees who want a concrete development plan, and coaches tired of handwritten notes.

  • 1:1 Coaching with Cosmina, CNT-certified
  • CoachMind: roadmap builder for coaches
  • Client evolution tracker and session memory
  • Structure and clarity without losing the human part

Free 30-min discovery call

Visit cntcoach.com →
Live

Clinic coordination

MedCoord

Clinics and medical practices, coordinated in one place.

For: clinics and practices juggling appointments, doctors and patients across departments.

  • Appointments: scheduling in one shared view
  • Doctors & patients: coordination without the phone tag
  • Departments: workflows that hand off cleanly
  • Built with the same senior engineering as my client work

Live at medcoord.net

Visit medcoord.net →

Books

Published author

The same systems thinking, applied to people: books on burnout, psychological reconstruction and the CNT coaching methodology.

Veins of Gold by Cosmina Palade, book cover
Coming October 2026

Veins of Gold

A Protocol for Conscious Reconstruction

The second book introducing the psychological reconstruction protocol. The philosophy that breaks become the most valuable parts of your story.

The Narrative-Transformational Coach by Cosmina Palade, book cover
Coming soon

The Narrative-Transformational Coach

When You Change Who You Are, Everything Changes

The complete CNT methodology: 5 pillars, 3 original protocols (N.O.W. Framework, Mental Basement Protocol, Decoding the Invisible), case studies and the CoachMind platform. 132 pages.

Case studies

Real problems, measurable results

The starting pain, the mechanism I used, and the outcome you can verify. No vanity metrics, no hand-wavy “strategic impact”.

  • 90% fewer critical vulnerabilities in 6 months, enterprise banking
  • 4h → 15m deploy time after a zero-downtime Kubernetes migration
  • 4–8 wks to ship a feature, down from 3–6 months
Reviews

Reviews

What managers and teams actually wrote

Real words from managers and teammates, not testimonials written by a copywriter. Verbatim reviews from 2018–2026 across enterprise banking, fintech and SaaS, anonymized out of respect for NDAs.

“Over the last 3 months you managed to solve many problems for the teams and on top of that help with problems that were not even on our chart. You currently are the go-to person for the wider organization.”

Engineering Manager

Enterprise Finance · Security & Delivery · 2023

“Cosmina is without a doubt one of the most energetic, enthusiastic members of our organization. She brings a level of commitment that is unparalleled, a real asset in any role where attention to detail, perseverance and determination are needed.”

Product Manager

Pre-trade Platform · React framework

“She consistently breaks down tricky issues and gets things done efficiently. More than just her coding skills, she’s been a great teammate who’s always ready to help others. Having her on the team really boosts everyone’s productivity.”

Senior Developer

Financial Services · Application development

“Her focus and drive for personal-growth made her highly adaptable and not afraid to dive into unknown Angular or React codebases. Curiosity-driven mindset, an extraordinary ability to connect, and always focused on going beyond her limits.”

Direct Manager

Global SaaS Platform · Machine Learning · 2020

“Cosmina has been one of the best team leads it was my pleasure to work with. She always brings the right expertise to deliver great results, listens to product owners, and implements the good ideas.”

Colleague · Same team

Retail Banking Platform · 1+ year

“It is very easy communicating with her, things are so straight forward. It makes you want to push yourself more and be better at what you are doing just talking or working with her.”

Colleague · Different team

Cross-team observation · 2021

“Through her curiosity and engagement, Cosmina has quickly become a key player for different projects spanning multiple teams. Any team would be lucky to have her.”

Colleague · Different team

Global SaaS Platform · Cross-team · 2020

“We worked together for Raiffeisen Luxembourg in 2016, a very challenging project, handled very professionally. Excellent listener, easily connecting with people, highly talented front-end developer.”

Colleague · Same team

European Bank · Edge Connect · 2016

“You’ve been more deliberate in ensuring no unexpected issues arise from your changes: reduction in known QA issues. You’ve delivered technical presentations (SonarQube, Security, Aura) to attendees outside your immediate team.”

Senior Engineer

Investment Bank · Application Security · 2023

“You improved a lot: got to know our products better, helped a lot with styling and infrastructural things like OSS, AURA package updates. Good in digging into issues where it seems there is no solution; you will find it.”

Colleague · Same team

Investment Bank · 2-year collaboration

“High determination in doing the job right, problem-solving skills, management and organization skills, demonstrated in daily tasks and in communication with others.”

Colleague · Same team

Investment Bank · Daily collaboration · 2023

“For any non-compliance identified on SAST, Open Source, Server or Crypto, Cosmina takes ownership, prioritizes and delivers on time. She works closely with central governance, RTB, DevOps and App Security to triage and resolve.”

Senior Manager · Central Governance

Investment Bank · Compliance SME · 2023

“Your problem-solving and debugging skills have been outstanding. Your ability to focus on a problem, analyze it, and come up with effective solutions is truly commendable. It consistently contributes to the success of your team’s productivity.”

Manager · Different team

Investment Bank · Cross-team · 2023

“The key improvement has been representation of ROSE for security issues: you are now the go-to person for the group, and you’re extending that reputation to other groups, helping other teams out.”

Direct Manager

Investment Bank · Security & DevOps · Dec 2023

“You really stand out on the DevOps side. You’ve grasped a variety of knowledge that is obscure to most members of the team, and willing to share it both formally (presentations, Confluence) and informally.”

Senior Engineer

Investment Bank · DevOps SME · Dec 2023

“You have made noticeable upgrades to the team’s SDLC processes: improving UI package security compliance, investigating GitLab actions, monitoring QA migration to compute fabric. Your role: SDLC & DevOps subject matter expert.”

Direct Manager

Investment Bank · SDLC & DevOps · Jan 2024

“Autonomous and manages tasks without much intervention. Very collaborative: works with multiple teams to reach common goals. Overall, it is a pleasure working with an individual like herself.”

Manager · Same team

Investment Bank · Jan 2024

“You’re more open to challenges and willing to learn new things, solving more complex issues. In football terms I would describe you as ‘attacker’. You’re on the front lines in the wide meaning of this sentence.”

Colleague · Same team

Investment Bank · Jan 2024

“You currently are the go-to person with all of our Infrastructure teams. Your role is between UI developer and DevOps person, and you can decide how to progress.”

Direct Manager

Investment Bank · CARA → ROSE · Jan 2024

“Her strength is she is on top of her issues. Always keeps everything up to date and keeps track on it. She understands what needs to be done and does it quickly.”

Colleague · Different team

Investment Bank · Cross-team · Feb 2024

“You’ve taken ownership of the migration to compute fabric and effectively aided the team in the appcode migration (TBY0 → J300) for all our applications and connected systems. Your role: DevOps & SecOps subject matter expert.”

Senior Engineer

Investment Bank · DevOps & SecOps · May 2024

“You have full control over security, what takes it off from the team. The team can always count on your help in solving various issues.”

Colleague · Same team

Investment Bank · Security Master · May 2024

“You’ve successfully completed the first application Helios pipeline for DEV & QA. You continue to expand your knowledge of key tools in other areas of DevOps (e.g. CI/CD).”

Senior Engineer

Investment Bank · Helios + Compute Fabric · Aug 2024

“You assisted with the migration preparation of our application UIs (Data & Notes) to the cloud. You especially keep the team informed of new updates within the wider tech organization (GitHub Actions, Copilot etc.).”

Senior Engineer

Investment Bank · Cloud Migration · Nov 2024

“Open person, brave to speak out when something is unclear. A person going for their goals, when stepping out in meetings to clarify things that are ambiguous.”

Colleague · Same team

Investment Bank · Nov 2024

“From the onset, she gave the impression of a dependable, thoughtful and knowledgeable teammate. She’s proven herself to be someone willing to take on challenges and acts as a wonderful team player.”

Senior Engineer

Investment Bank · Multi-year collaboration

Showing 6 of 26 verbatim reviews  ·  8+ years (2018–2026)

Read newer reviews on LinkedIn →
Work

Process

How a project runs

A four-step rhythm that respects your runway: free discovery in week one, everything scoped and priced before you commit, weekly demos, and a clean handover your team can run with.

1

Discovery

Week 1

  • 30-min intro → 2h assessment
  • Audit architecture, interview team
  • Output: 20-page System Assessment
2

Proposal

Week 2

  • Problems ranked by impact
  • Solutions with timeline
  • Investment proposal
  • You decide: Go/No-go
3

Execution

Months 1-6

  • 2 days/week (Mon + Wed)
  • Hands-on (I code, not just advise)
  • Weekly updates, pair programming
  • Result: Foundation built
4

Handoff

Final Month

  • Documentation complete
  • Your team trained
  • Monitoring established
  • Optional: Monthly retainer

Investment

Clear pricing, no surprises

Most engagements land between €20–50K, depending on scope and timeline. No “phase 2” bait-and-switch, no hidden fees. You see the number before you sign.

Senior Full-Stack Engineer (Fractional)

Engagement: 2 days/week × 3-6 months · Code + UI/UX + architecture

Full-time senior hire

€120K+

Per year, before benefits and recruitment fees.

Typically 60–70% less than a full-time senior hire.

FAQ

Questions, answered

The questions people ask before committing, answered in plain English. Still unsure? A 30-minute call closes the gap, with no commitment.

Cost: Full-time senior developer = €120K + €40K benefits + €15K recruitment ≈ €175K/year. Fractional ≈ €48K/year (73% savings).

Speed: I start in 2 weeks. Full-time hire takes 3-6 months.

Flexibility: Scale up/down as needed. No firing awkwardness if priorities shift.

Best for: Companies that need senior full-stack execution but not 40 hours/week of it.

My specialty: Systems thinking, not language-specific coding. I've worked with Node.js, Python, Java, PHP, Go across banking, fintech, e-commerce.

What matters: Architecture patterns (microservices, event-driven, CQRS), security principles (OWASP, zero-trust), infrastructure (Kubernetes, cloud, CI/CD) are universal.

Learning curve: I get productive in new codebases within 1 week. Your patterns/frameworks in 2-3 weeks.

Yes, always. Standard mutual NDA before discovery call. Happy to review your template.

What I protect: Your architecture docs, code, business logic, customer data, roadmap.

What I share (anonymously): General lessons in blog posts (e.g., "How to migrate to Kubernetes" without naming clients).

Consulting firms: Send junior consultants (€800-1,200/day) supervised by senior partner you never meet. Deliver PowerPoint decks, not code.

Me: You work directly with me (no juniors). I write code, not just strategy docs. Hands-on implementation, not just advice.

Also: No upselling. No "phase 2" bait-and-switch. Fixed daily rate, transparent scope.

Short answer: Not my focus, but I can help indirectly.

What I do: Train your existing team, document systems so they self-serve, pair program to upskill juniors.

What I don't do: Conduct interviews, write job descriptions, manage performance reviews, be a line manager.

If you need that: You need a fractional CTO/Head of Engineering (different role). Happy to refer specialists.

Flexible options:

  • 3 days/week: Available for critical projects (e.g., pre-funding security audit, urgent migrations)
  • Full-time sprint: 4-6 weeks for intensive buildouts (rare, scheduled months ahead)
  • Team scaling: I can bring trusted contractors for execution while I handle architecture

Typical pattern: Start 2 days/week → spike to 3 days during critical phase → drop to 1 day/week for maintenance.

Let’s talk

Get started

Let’s talk. Ready to build, redesign, or stabilize your product?

Three ways to start, zero pressure: take the free 2-minute quiz, book 30 minutes for a concrete direction, or email me directly.

Step 1 · 2 minutes, free

Take the Quick Quiz

Feel exhausted, unproductive, busy but not moving? In 2 minutes you get a diagnostic + action plan. No email wall on the first quiz.

Take the 2-min quiz →

Step 3 · One reply

Send a private note

Prefer writing? Email me directly. I reply in one business day with a concrete next step, not a sales sequence.

Email Cosmina →

This is a good fit if you:

  • Need a site, app, or redesign that feels premium enough to justify the price
  • Want visitors to trust your offer faster and say yes sooner
  • Need senior direction before wasting money on the wrong build
  • Have an existing product that needs polish, speed, clarity, or stronger UX
  • Want hands-on implementation, not vague strategy and pretty decks
  • Value quality over speed, and revenue over vanity metrics