Fixed-price engagements

From the problem
to the proof.

Engineering leverage, AWS cost, security and governance, or a six-pillar Well-Architected Review. We turn the problem you can feel into a plan you can use in two weeks, then a result you can measure in six.

Book a 15-minute call with Charles Explore the engagements

A two-week diagnostic is $25,000. A six-week engagement is $35,000, with half the fee riding on the measured result.

Railway tracks at blue hour running to a vanishing point in haze, one amber lamp glowing beside the line.
One accountable senior engineerDefined scope and hoursEvidence at the finish

Half of every six-week fee is invoiced only on the measured result.See how each is measured.

Start here

What sounds like your week?

Choose the pressure point. Each path has the same fixed-price structure and a different measure of success.

Engineering LeverageYour board asked what the company is getting from Claude Code, and the honest answer is faster autocomplete.Any cloud, language, or repository hostAWS Cost Analysis & OptimizationThe AWS bill grew faster than the business, and nobody can say who owns which line.One AWS bill of $50,000 a month or moreAWS Security, Compliance & Governance AuditAn audit is coming, a customer sent a security questionnaire, or nobody can say for certain who can reach production.One AWS organization of up to 50 accountsAWS Well-Architected Framework ReviewA critical production workload has grown under deadline pressure, and nobody has reviewed its reliability, security, performance, and cost together.One production workload across up to 50 accountsAWS Multi-Account FoundationProduction, staging, and the intern’s experiment share one account, and your auditor just asked how you separate them.One AWS organization of up to 50 accounts

The five engagements

Choose the problem.
The method is already clear.

Every engagement begins with a verified baseline and a written plan. The six-week version carries that plan into your systems and measures what changed.

A hydroelectric turbine hall at night, massive steel casings receding along a polished floor with an amber stripe.
AI-native engineeringAny cloud, language, or repository host

Engineering Leverage

More usable engineering capacity, from the team you already have. We give agents the codebase context they need, define repeatable workflows, and verify results with tests and review. Then we measure the change in your team.

In two weeks · $25,000

The Assessment

A measured baseline, an agent-readiness audit of your repositories, one live ticket, and the installation plan.

In six weeks · $35,000

The Embed

The constraint graph, gates, and agent workflows installed in your repositories, and measured at week six.

Half the fee rides on this result

The measured lift at week six is at least 3× your week-one baseline.

View the full engagement
A canal lock at blue hour, massive steel gates holding back still water, one amber lamp on the lock wall.
AWS costOne AWS bill of $50,000 a month or more

AWS Cost Analysis & Optimization

Lower recurring AWS spend, measured on your own bill. The six-week result condition is at least $105,000 in annualized savings against a fixed $35,000 fee. You keep every dollar saved.

In two weeks · $25,000

The Analysis

The spend baseline, the waste register, rightsizing and commitment plans, and the savings roadmap, every estimate with its evidence.

In six weeks · $35,000

The Optimization

The savings put in place through your own change process, the guardrails that keep them, and every change measured on your bill.

Half the fee rides on this result

The annualized savings in place at week six are at least three times the fee.

View the full engagement Read the StrataForge sample case study Read the Seatlark sample case study Read the Copperwick sample case study Read the Tidepost sample case study
An air traffic control tower at blue hour, its glass cab glowing amber above rows of blue taxiway lights.
AWS security · compliance · governanceOne AWS organization of up to 50 accounts

AWS Security, Compliance & Governance Audit

A breach can cost far more than the work to close known gaps. We audit your AWS organization, verify the findings, and fix the criticals through your repositories and review process.

In two weeks · $25,000

The Audit

A verified findings register, the identity and governance reviews, the compliance map, and the remediation roadmap.

In six weeks · $35,000

The Hardening

Every critical finding fixed as code, guardrails and detection on in every account, and the same scan run again at week six.

Half the fee rides on this result

Every critical finding from the audit is closed by week six, verified by the same scan; a critical you accept in writing counts as closed.

View the full engagement Read the StrataForge sample case study Read the Tidepost sample case study
A wet walkway beneath twin bridge decks at blue hour, rows of massive concrete piers receding over still dark water, lit by one amber lamp.
AWS architecture · Six pillarsOne production workload across up to 50 accounts

AWS Well-Architected Framework Review

One production workload, reviewed against all six pillars of the AWS Well-Architected Framework from live configuration, telemetry, and code, then remediated through your pull requests.

In two weeks · $25,000

The Review

A verified AWS Well-Architected Tool workload assessment across all six pillars, an evidence-backed High- and Medium-Risk Issue register, target-state diagrams, and the remediation roadmap.

In six weeks · $35,000

The Remediation

Every agreed High-Risk Issue fixed as code through your repositories and pipeline, operational runbooks and alarms in place, and a week-six milestone recorded in the AWS Well-Architected Tool.

Half the fee rides on this result

Every High-Risk Issue agreed at the week-two readout is closed by week six, verified in the AWS Well-Architected Tool.

View the full engagement Read the sample case study
A container terminal at blue hour, steel containers stacked in ordered blocks with clear aisles between them, one amber lamp on a gantry crane.
AWS multi-account · Organizations · Control TowerOne AWS organization of up to 50 accounts

AWS Multi-Account Foundation

Your AWS accounts organized the way AWS recommends: a landing zone, every account in its place, guardrails every new account inherits, and one way to make the next one. In an organization you keep, or a new one we move you into.

In two weeks · $25,000

The Blueprint

The inventory and foundation scan, the target OU tree and account map, the policy set as code, the move plan, and the risk register.

In six weeks · $35,000

The Build

The landing zone enrolled, every in-scope account in its target OU, guardrails inherited, people on single sign-on, account vending in place, and the same scan run again at week six.

Half the fee rides on this result

Every agreed check of the foundation scan passes at week six, verified by the same scan, with every in-scope account in its target OU.

View the full engagement Read the sample case study
Charles Sieg, founder of Vantalect

Charles Sieg does every engagement himself.

AWS Certified Solutions Architect — ProfessionalAWS Certified DevOps Engineer — ProfessionalAWS Certified Security — Specialty

Read Charles’s story See all six credentialsLinkedIn

A clear commercial shape

Know the scope before you sign.

The weeks, hours, deliverables, and result measure are written into the statement of work. You can stop with the plan or bring us in to execute it.

Two weeks

The two-week diagnostic

We measure where you are, verify what we find, and hand you a written plan you can run yourselves. If you stop here, the plan and everything we measured are yours.

$25,000
Charles’s time
Up to 40 hours, about 8 live
Invoiced
As its statement of work sets out
Beyond the cap
$450 per hour, by written change order
Six weeks

The six-week engagement

The diagnostic runs in the first two weeks. Then we carry out the plan inside your systems with the engineers who own them and take the same measurement again at week six.

$35,000
Charles’s time
Up to 110 hours, about 38 live
Invoiced
Half at signature, half on the measured result
Beyond the cap
$450 per hour, by written change order

The acceptance measure

How we know it worked.

The EmbedEngineering Leverage
The measured lift at week six is at least 3× your week-one baseline. Measured with Fulcrum, week one against week six.
The OptimizationAWS Cost Analysis & Optimization
The annualized savings in place at week six are at least three times the fee. Measured with your Cost and Usage Report, change by change.
The HardeningAWS Security, Compliance & Governance Audit
Every critical finding from the audit is closed by week six, verified by the same scan; a critical you accept in writing counts as closed. Measured with the same scan, week one against week six.
The RemediationAWS Well-Architected Framework Review
Every High-Risk Issue agreed at the week-two readout is closed by week six, verified in the AWS Well-Architected Tool. Measured with your AWS Well-Architected Tool workload milestone, week two against week six.
The BuildAWS Multi-Account Foundation
Every agreed check of the foundation scan passes at week six, verified by the same scan, with every in-scope account in its target OU. Measured with the foundation scan, week one against week six.

The AWS Engagement Bundle

Two AWS engagements, 10% off each.
Three or more, 15% off.

Cost, security, Well-Architected, and multi-account work read the same accounts, so they run well together: one access setup, one kickoff, one Pavilion workspace, and starts two weeks apart. Engineering Leverage is not part of the bundle.

Any two10% off each engagement

Two six-week engagements
$63,000 instead of $70,000
Two two-week diagnostics
$45,000 instead of $50,000

Three or more15% off each engagement

Three six-week engagements
$89,250 instead of $105,000
Three two-week diagnostics
$63,750 instead of $75,000
  • Any mix of shapes. Each engagement can be its two-week diagnostic or its six-week engagement, and the discount applies to whichever you choose. It is set at signature and does not change, unless you cancel an engagement before it starts.
  • One start. One read-only role, one kickoff, and one Pavilion workspace, and the engagements start two weeks apart, so the findings of one inform the next.
  • Every guarantee stands. Each six-week engagement keeps its own half-on-result invoice, and no threshold moves: the cost guarantee stays at $105,000 a year in measured savings.
  • The add-on is already net. The Build after a Security Audit (four weeks, $25,000) is priced for the work the Audit already did, so it takes no bundle discount and does not count toward one.

AWS Cost Analysis & Optimization AWS Security, Compliance & Governance Audit AWS Well-Architected Framework Review AWS Multi-Account Foundation The bundle terms

Book a call about the bundle

What comes with every engagement

Senior work.
All the way through.

The person who scopes the work is the person in your systems doing it. The operating details are settled up front and documented for your team.

A glass-and-steel pavilion at blue hour on a still lake, one warm light glowing inside.Pavilion, your private engagement workspace

Charles, personally

Every engagement is delivered by Charles Sieg, inside your systems, with your engineers. There is no hand-off to a junior team.

Hours in writing

Up to 40 hours in a diagnostic and 110 in a six-week engagement, capped in the statement of work. Beyond the cap, $450 per hour, agreed before the hour is spent.

Pavilion, the workspace

A private workspace set up in week one: the calendar, every recording, the documents your sponsor accepts, the decisions, and the action items. At the close, one archive of all of it, yours.

Every session recorded

Meetings on Zoom, recorded with your permission, with transcripts and recaps, so the people who were not in the room get the whole meeting.

Everything left with you

Every deliverable lands in your repositories or your inbox, and you own it outright. Nothing of ours is left behind that you do not own.

A start within two weeks

Each engagement starts within two weeks of signature, once the access it needs exists. The calendar is set before week one.

Samples

See the work
before you buy it.

Eight complete engagements for four fictional clients, every report as delivered, and the brief for each engagement. Start with the readout a sponsor would read.

See every sample, by engagement

Before you choose

Good questions deserve direct answers.

If a detail matters to your decision, ask Charles. You will get the answer from the person doing the work.

Why fixed price?

Because each engagement has the same shape every time, and because hourly engagements go through procurement. A fixed-price engagement with defined deliverables is a purchase a VP can make this week.

What does “measured” mean?

Each six-week engagement ends with the same measurement it started with: Fulcrum for engineering leverage, the same scan for security, your own Cost and Usage Report for cost, and your AWS Well-Architected Tool milestone for the Well-Architected Review. Half the fee rides on that result, so the number is not ours to shade.

Can we stop after the two weeks?

Yes. Every diagnostic ends in a written plan you can run yourselves, and you keep everything it produced. The six-week engagement is there if you want the plan carried out with us.

Can we run more than one?

Yes, one after another. Each is its own statement of work and starts within two weeks of its signature.

Do we need to be on AWS?

For the security, cost, and Well-Architected engagements, yes: they are built on AWS’s own services and on fifteen years of AWS work. The leverage engagement works on any cloud, language, or repository host.

Who does the work?

Charles Sieg, personally, on every engagement. That is why the hours are capped in writing and the calendar is set before week one: they are real hours, and they are his.

Claude Code is a trademark of Anthropic, PBC. AWS is a trademark of Amazon.com, Inc. or its affiliates. Zoom is a trademark of Zoom Video Communications, Inc. Vantalect is not affiliated with or endorsed by any of them.

The next conversation

Let's define the result.

Tell Charles which challenge is in front of you. He'll scope the diagnostic or six-week engagement and make the acceptance measure clear before you sign.

Book a 15-minute call with Charles
charles.sieg@vantalect.com 847.331.3649

Remote engagements nationwide.
Serving clients since 2020.