A freelance senior software engineer for London teams, on UK hours
Laravel, Next.js, AI features and fractional CTO work for London scale-ups and agencies, with your whole morning in my afternoon.
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Why London teams bring me this work
This page is for London scale-ups and agencies with a Laravel or Next.js platform that grew faster than its architecture, an AI feature to add without betting the roadmap on it, or a gap in technical leadership between hires. Laravel is my main stack, AI features come with an evaluation set behind them, and as a fractional CTO I can own the architecture and the roadmap for a few days a month until you hire.
What teams across the United Kingdom bring me
- Your platform has grown faster than its architecture, and every release now carries risk.
- You need to show that personal data is handled properly under UK GDPR, with the right terms for every processor.
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The hours we share with London
London's 09:00 is 14:30 in Mumbai in winter and 13:30 during British Summer Time, so your morning falls in my afternoon and a daily stand-up early in your day is easy. India doesn't change its clocks, so the shared window moves by an hour twice a year, when the UK does; the table below shows both seasons.
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 |
|---|---|---|
| LondonUTC+0 / UTC+1 | 14:30–23:30 | 13:30–22:30 |
Clocks British Summer Time (UTC+1): the clocks go forward one hour at 1am on the last Sunday in March and back one hour at 2am on the last Sunday in October; GMT (UTC+0) the rest of the year. GOV.UK: When do the clocks change?
Bank holidays
England and Wales have eight bank holidays, including Easter Monday and a summer bank holiday on the last Monday of August (30 August in 2027). Scotland's bank holidays differ.
Source: GOV.UK: UK bank holidays
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Rules a London team's software meets
Legal system
London is in the jurisdiction of England and Wales. Under Article 19 of the 1707 Treaty of Union, Scotland kept a separate legal system, so the law of England and Wales and Scots law remain separate and distinct.
Source: GOV.UK: 'Two jurisdictions, a shared inheritance' (Attorney General's speech)
Across the United Kingdom: UK GDPR and the Data Protection Act 2018 · Data (Use and Access) Act 2025 · Off-payroll working rules (IR35)
This is engineering guidance, not legal advice: confirm what applies to your business with your counsel.
Further reading
- Article: Working with an engineer in India: hours, contracts and data transfers · 10 October 2026
What a US, UK, European, Gulf or East Asian team should sort out before working with an independent engineer in India: the shared hours, the contract, and how personal data may move.
- Article: Laravel performance in 2026: a production playbook · 10 October 2026
What actually makes Laravel applications fast in production, from queries and caching to queues and Octane.
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Contracts and invoicing
Invoices in pounds sterling, monthly or per milestone, paid through Wise or Payoneer. I can work under your services agreement, plus a data processing agreement wherever I handle personal data.
More on working with teams in the United Kingdom is on the United Kingdom page.
Tax and legal treatment depends on your company and country: confirm it with your accountant or counsel.
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Where London teams usually start
Laravel development and upgrades
Laravel applications and APIs built, upgraded and kept current by an engineer whose main stack is Laravel.
- Price
- Fixed quote per stage after reading the code
- Timeline
- Scoped on a first call; upgrades are planned one major version at a time
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: TopGear India CMS · CMS migration and modernization
- page load time, before → after
- 1–3 min → 3 s
- Case study: Exhibit Social · B2B SaaS platform
- influencers indexed
- 10,000+
- Case study: Digital Wardrobe · AI pipeline
- average time per image, upload to result
- 3–8 s
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Questions from London teams
What hours do we share with London?
Your 09:00 is 14:30 in Mumbai from late October to late March, and 13:30 while the UK is on British Summer Time. Your whole morning falls in my afternoon, so a daily stand-up at the start of your day is easy, and each day closes with a written update.
Which rules apply to a London team's app?
UK GDPR and the Data Protection Act 2018 apply across the UK, as amended by the Data (Use and Access) Act 2025; the United Kingdom page sets them out with their sources. Remote access from India counts as a restricted transfer, so our data processing agreement covers it. Confirm what applies with your counsel.
Which bank holidays does a London team keep?
England and Wales have eight, including Easter Monday and the summer bank holiday on the last Monday of August, and Scotland's differ. Name the calendar your team keeps when we agree delivery dates, and the plan is built around it.
Do you have an office in London?
No. I work remotely from Mumbai, with no office or address in London, and I don't offer in-person meetings there. Your morning is my afternoon, so video calls and a written update each day carry the work.
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