A freelance senior software engineer for Lisbon startups
Fixed-price MVP sprints, Next.js builds, AI features and fractional CTO help for Lisbon startups, on Western European time, the same clock as London.
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Why Lisbon teams bring me this work
If you're building a startup in Lisbon with a small, international team, what's usually missing is senior engineering judgement for a few months: someone to lay the foundations of a first version, add AI features that are measured rather than hoped for, and own the technical decisions until you hire a CTO. I work in English, at a fixed price for the first version, and leave everything documented for whoever comes next.
What teams across the European Union bring me
- You need senior capacity for a few months without adding headcount.
- You're adding AI features and need to meet the AI Act's transparency duties: people must know when they are dealing with an AI system.
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The hours we share with Lisbon
Lisbon keeps Western European Time, not Central: your 09:00 is 14:30 in Mumbai in winter and 13:30 in summer, an hour later than Madrid's, although the two cities are neighbours. Your morning is my afternoon, and a written update closes each of your days.
Each city's 09:00–18:00 working day on the clock in Mumbai (UTC+5:30), in January and in July, so daylight saving is accounted for.
| City | In January | In July |
|---|---|---|
| LisbonUTC+0 / UTC+1 | 14:30–23:30 | 13:30–22:30 |
Clocks Western European Time (UTC+0) in winter, UTC+1 from the last Sunday of March to the last Sunday of October, under Directive 2000/84/EC; clocks change at 01:00 UTC.
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Rules a Lisbon team's software meets
The supervisory authority and the national act
The National Data Protection Commission (Comissão Nacional de Proteção de Dados, CNPD) is Portugal's national supervisory authority. It monitors compliance with the GDPR and with Law No. 58/2019 of 8 August, Portugal's GDPR implementing law.
Source: CNPD: O que somos e quem somos
Accessibility law
Portugal transposed the European Accessibility Act through Decree-Law No. 82/2022 of 6 December. It applies from 28 June 2025 to products placed on the market and services provided to consumers from that date; the 112 emergency-call duties follow on 28 June 2027.
Across the European Union: GDPR · European Accessibility Act · AI Act, Article 50
This is engineering guidance, not legal advice: confirm what applies to your business with your counsel.
Further reading
- Article: How long a SaaS MVP takes: the method, not a number · 10 October 2026
Why any single number for an MVP is a guess, what actually decides the time, the published time-boxes product teams use, and how to fix dates you can keep.
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Contracts and invoicing
Invoices in euros, per milestone, paid through Wise or Payoneer. I can work under your contract, with a GDPR Article 28 data processing agreement and Standard Contractual Clauses for any transfer of personal data to India.
More on working with teams in the European Union is on the European Union page.
Tax and legal treatment depends on your company and country: confirm it with your accountant or counsel.
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Where Lisbon teams usually start
MVP Sprint
A production-grade first version of your product, at a fixed price and on dates fixed after the scoping week.
- Price
- Fixed price, agreed at the end of the scoping week
- Timeline
- Set at the end of the scoping week
Next.js development and migration
Fast, indexable front ends: new Next.js builds, and migrations from single-page React or PHP templates without losing search traffic.
- Price
- Fixed quote after the inventory
- Timeline
- Planned after an inventory of routes and templates
AI features in your product
LLM features that work on your real data, measured before they ship.
- Price
- Fixed-price scoping sprint, then a fixed-scope quote
- Timeline
- A scoping sprint first, then a timeline agreed per project
Fractional CTO
Senior technical leadership a few days a month, without a full-time executive hire.
- Price
- Monthly retainer
- Timeline
- Ongoing; days per month agreed with you
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Case studies
- Case study: Digital Wardrobe · AI pipeline
- average time per image, upload to result
- 3–8 s
- Case study: Exhibit Social · B2B SaaS platform
- influencers indexed
- 10,000+
- Case study: InfluencerX · Real-time voting platform
- users over the campaign
- 1.6M+
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Questions from Lisbon teams
What hours do we share with Lisbon?
Your 09:00 is 14:30 in Mumbai in winter and 13:30 in summer: Portugal keeps the same clock as London and Dublin, an hour behind Spain. Your morning is my afternoon.
Which Portuguese rules apply to our product?
GDPR, with Law No. 58/2019 as Portugal's implementing law, supervised by the CNPD. Decree-Law No. 82/2022 applies the accessibility rules to services provided to consumers from 28 June 2025. Confirm what applies with your counsel.
Do you have an office in Lisbon?
No. I work remotely from Mumbai, with no office or staff in Portugal, and I don't offer in-person meetings in Lisbon.
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