Software that stands up to the real world.

I provide fractional technical leadership, Azure architecture and hands-on .NET delivery for teams on the Microsoft stack, especially where security, reliability and compliance can’t be an afterthought. I help you make sound technology decisions and build software that lasts, from strategy through shipped code.

Start a conversation See how I can help

How I can help

Six ways to work together, from a two-week assessment to ongoing fractional leadership.

01

Fractional CTO & Advisory

Senior technical leadership without a full-time hire: technology direction, Azure roadmaps you can act on, team structure and hiring, and practical guidance on bringing AI into your engineering team.

02

Technical Assessments

A focused review of your code, architecture, security and dependencies, usually in two to three weeks. You get a clear picture of where things stand and a prioritized plan, with estimates and the skills needed to carry it out.

03

Architecture & Design

Secure, resilient, cloud-native designs on Azure, including microservices and event-driven systems, sized to your team, budget and compliance needs.

04

Team Enablement

DevOps practices, workshops and mentoring that speed delivery and raise your engineers' skills, including how to use AI coding tools without lowering the bar on quality.

05

Modernization

Step-by-step migration to Azure that keeps the business running — modernizing what you have instead of risking a full rewrite.

06

Custom Development

Well-built, well-tested .NET and Azure software. I’ve shipped it for decades, and today I build with AI-assisted development and the same testing and review discipline.

AI in practice

How I use AI on client work.

I use Claude Code, GitHub Copilot and Codex every day. They make the work faster, but a person stays accountable for every decision.

  1. 01

    Research

    AI reads the documents and data and distills what matters. I make the decisions.

  2. 02

    Plan

    I drive the plan, with AI assisting, and review it before any code is written.

  3. 03

    Build

    AI helps carry out the approved plan, including the tests and documentation.

  4. 04

    Verify

    I verify everything that’s written. AI can help review, but never has the final word.

Helping your team adopt AI

I help engineers move past both the hype and the skepticism: choosing tools, setting conventions and building review habits so AI output is code you’d ship.

Guardrails for AI tools

I help decide what code and data AI tools can see, and put sensible policies around their use, sized to your security and compliance needs.

Selected work

A few recent projects.

Cloud migration · Leadership · Advisory

Migration, interim leadership and a trusted seat with the CIO

I joined a global test-equipment rental company’s Azure Landing Zone migration when it was at least two months behind schedule, with the application team struggling to move everything to the new Landing Zone. I led the fully remote development team until a permanent manager was hired, while staying hands-on with Azure Functions, DevOps and .NET integration. Along the way, I became a trusted advisor to the CIO on architecture and team structure, and helped interview candidates for the permanent role.

By the time I left, the two-month gap was closed and the migration was back on schedule.

Previous consulting role

Insurance · AI-assisted

A suite of SaaS products for benefits administration

I joined as the first senior engineer, on a team that has since grown to five senior engineers and a business analyst. The team builds multi-tenant SaaS applications for TPAs and brokers, covering eligibility, payroll, tax withholding and client self-service, with the security underneath: Entra ID sign-in, permissions, tenant isolation and audit trails. I’ve built many of the core pieces, including authentication.

With AI-assisted development, that small team has delivered 16 major product capabilities in about seven months, with more to come.

Current work

Healthcare · Assessment

An assessment that became the roadmap

A national healthcare regulatory organization brought me in to plan how to merge two APIs and standardize authentication. My assessment also found more than a dozen NuGet packages with critical vulnerabilities, another dozen several versions behind, and a Node.js version several major releases out of date.

My plan put security and stability first, then the requested work, with an estimate, the skill sets needed and a process for keeping dependencies current.

Two weeks of close collaboration led to a multi-month engagement to secure and stabilize the system.

Previous consulting role

About

Senior experience, small-firm attention.

Validus is my consultancy, so you work directly with me, with no layers and no hand-offs. When a project needs more hands or a specialist skill, I bring in trusted experts from my network and stay accountable for the result.

Experience across healthcare, health benefits and insurance, state government, manufacturing and consumer goods.

Portrait of Michael Eaton

Michael Eaton, founder

I’m a technology leader and architect with 30+ years of building software, designing secure, resilient, cloud-native solutions on Microsoft Azure. I bridge business strategy and technology execution, and mentor teams toward engineering excellence.

More about me: mjeaton.net · LinkedIn

Contact

Let’s talk about what you’re building.

Send a short note about your project or challenge. You’ll hear back from me, not a ticket queue — usually within one business day.