❯ stephanzych --help
Available for select engagements
STEPHANZYCH is the Brussels, Belgium engineering studio of Stéphan Zych — technical leadership, architecture, and hands-on delivery for software that needs to move forward. Brought in to clarify, lead, ship, or rescue the work that matters.
Brussels-based · Remote-ready · Taking on a small number of advisory, leadership, and delivery engagements
problems
Not a list of services — the situations that actually get a senior engineer a call. If one of these sounds familiar, the next move is a conversation.
legacy
Every change feels risky, so the team slows down to avoid breaking something nobody fully understands. I clarify the system, reduce the risk of touching it, and ship improvements without pausing the business.
delivery
The plan exists; the delivery doesn't. More features will not fix an unclear delivery process. I find where work actually stalls, tighten how things get built and shipped, and get reliable progress back.
scale
What got you here is now the thing slowing you down. I evolve the architecture so it can carry the next stage — without a full-stop rewrite or a six-month freeze.
direction
The decisions are real, but a permanent hire is too much. I provide senior direction and decision-making at the level you actually need, for as long as it's useful.
partner
A complex engagement needs someone senior who can own the technical side and represent it well to your client. I work as an extension of your team, not a black box.
rewrite
A rewrite is not always the answer. Sometimes the answer is finally understanding what exists. I assess the system honestly and tell you whether to rebuild, refactor, or leave it alone.
capabilities
A small number of things, done at a senior level — from technical direction down to the code itself.
leadership
architecture
product
audit
enablement
how-engagements-work
Same senior person, three commercial shapes. It comes down to two questions: do you need me ongoing or for a defined piece of work, and do you need something built or assessed? The first conversation works out the fit — it doesn't force a package.
embedded
Ongoing · retainer or set days per week
I join your team as its senior engineer and technical lead — and stay. Think fractional CTO or interim lead: I set direction, make the hard calls, and keep shipping alongside the team, for as long as it's useful and without a permanent hire. You're buying direction and continuity, not a single deliverable.
Best for
project
Fixed scope · defined timeline
You have one specific thing that has to get built. I scope it, own it end to end — architecture to launch — and hand back a working product, with a clear plan up front instead of a pile of unknowns. It has a start and an end.
Best for
advisory
Fixed scope · days to a few weeks
You need an independent expert read before a decision — not a long build. I assess the codebase, architecture, team, or proposed plan and give you findings and recommendations you can act on straight away.
Best for
track-record
Delivered with and for
Leading full-stack delivery and technical direction on enterprise platforms, engaged through STEPHANZYCH.
Built the studio and its engineering team from zero to acquisition.
Interactive and campaign work for international brands.
0 → exit
Cherry Pulp
A studio that grew from zero to a successful acquisition in 2024, with an engineering capability that outlasted any single project.
Enterprise scale
CBTW
Reliable senior delivery on platforms where the margin for error is small — and a higher engineering bar for the teams involved.
Held under COVID peaks
eFarmz
The new platform carried eFarmz through the unprecedented order peaks of the COVID crisis with real-time ERP sync intact — work that contributed to an E-commerce of the Year award and recognition at the BeCommerce and Feweb awards.
Scaled with the traffic
MyTribuNews
Magazines kept generating within hours as usage grew exponentially, and the platform held performance and availability through its peaks.
Landmark-scale clients
Climespace
Building owners got a single place to manage cooling budgets, consumption, and equipment, with their installations rendered as a clear schematic rather than a spreadsheet.
Tens of thousands of runners
20km de Bruxelles
A trilingual home that carried runners from sign-up to finish line — registration, practical info, and results in one place — for one of Belgium's largest races.
what-they-say
Mon Climespace won the Public Prize at ENGIE France Réseau's Innovation Trophies — voted by staff who loved its content, features, and usability. Wonderful collaborative work across the CLIMESPACE, Cherry Pulp, ENGIE IT and Bonne Pioche teams throughout this award-winning project.
We were able to keep our deadline and produce a quality website that has already recorded new automatic client on-boarding.
I couldn't leave the office without thanking you and your team for your flexibility and availability. As I often say, it's a genuine pleasure to work with you and to be able to count on a fantastic team.
The "20km of Brussels" are our child — and you understood that perfectly. Thank you for our new website: it's elegant, radiates simplicity, and shines.
operating-principles
A rewrite is not a strategy. Sometimes it's necessary; more often it's a way to postpone understanding the system that already exists. The assessment comes first.
Good architecture should make change cheaper, not make diagrams prettier. If it isn't helping the team ship, it isn't doing its job.
Progress and safety aren't a trade-off. The goal is to make things better without pausing the business or betting it on a big-bang release.
The hard part is rarely choosing a framework. It's seeing clearly what's actually there. Naming the real constraints is most of the work.
Not the cleverest, not the trendiest — the one a real team can operate, change, and reason about under pressure.
Senior engineering is not adding meetings around a problem. It's taking responsibility for the decisions and their consequences.
Work that only one person understands isn't finished. What I deliver is meant to be operated and changed by your team, not just by me.
The best outcome of an engagement is a team that needs me less afterwards, not more.
about
Stéphan Zych is a senior engineer and technical lead who works the whole stack across agency, product, and enterprise environments. Co-founder and CTO of Cherry Pulp through its acquisition; now lead developer at CBTW, engaged through STEPHANZYCH.
The work sits between business needs, delivery pressure, and engineering quality — taking ownership of complicated problems, making the calls, and implementing the difficult parts. The more experimental, personal side of the work lives at stephan.zych.be.
faq
Difficult ones — complex web platforms, delivery that's stalled, architecture that needs to evolve, and decisions that hinge on the real state of the code. Less interesting: generic builds that any team could do.
Remote by default, from Brussels, and set up for it. On-site across Belgium and nearby is no problem for kickoffs, workshops, or when a team simply works better in the room.
Yes — that's a lot of the work. I embed as a senior engineer or technical lead, work the way your team works, and represent the technical side well to stakeholders and clients.
Yes. Clarifying and evolving systems that have grown complicated is core to what I do. Usually the first job is understanding what's really there before changing anything.
Both. The advice is more useful because I still write the difficult parts. I take responsibility for decisions and then help make them real.
Yes. I act as a trusted lead engineer on complex engagements — an extension of your team that you can put in front of a client, not a black box.
Yes. A fixed-scope assessment that tells you honestly whether to rebuild, refactor, or leave it alone — before you spend the budget.
All three, depending on the problem. Project work is usually fixed-scope; leadership and advisory work runs on a retainer or day rate. Agreed up front, in writing.
You do. Everything is delivered to you, documented, and yours to keep. I'm glad to sign an NDA before you share anything sensitive.
A short call to understand the situation, then a clear proposal — scope, approach, and price, or an honest "not the right fit." Work starts against a plan you can hold me to.
start
Bring the technical situation, the delivery pressure, or the thing that currently isn't working. The first conversation is for working out whether STEPHANZYCH can make a useful difference — not a sales pitch.
Discuss a project Start with a technical assessment
In your first message, a few lines help: who you are, the organisation, what you're trying to move forward, and — if you have them — budget, timeline, or a preferred engagement type. Usually a reply within a day.