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Case study 09Talent marketplace · Platform engineering · Subcontractor

Toptal

Seven separate engagements across the Toptal platform, spanning core infrastructure, database work, web applications and mobile applications.

The challenge

Seven engagements, different layer each time

Toptal operates a vetted talent marketplace at scale, matching clients to screened specialists across a platform with a lot of surface area. Work arrived as discrete engagements rather than one continuous mandate, each scoped to a different part of the stack.

The recurring constraint was ramp time. Each engagement meant taking ownership of an unfamiliar area of a large production system and becoming useful in it quickly, without the luxury of a long onboarding.

Our approach

Own the layer you are handed

Across seven engagements we worked at whichever layer the scope called for, from infrastructure and data through to the web and mobile clients, taking ownership of the assigned area rather than staying advisory.

01
Core infrastructure

Platform-level work on the systems the rest of the product depends on.

02
Database work

Data layer engagements covering modelling, access patterns and query behaviour.

03
Web applications

Feature and platform work in the browser-facing product surfaces.

04
Mobile applications

Delivery against the mobile clients alongside the web surfaces.

Outcome

A repeat engagement, seven times over

Rainier was brought back across seven separate engagements over four years, spanning infrastructure, data, web and mobile. Sustained repeat selection is the clearest signal a marketplace of vetted specialists can give about delivery quality.

Engagements
7
separate scopes of work
Layers
Full stack
infra through mobile
Relationship
4 years
sustained across engagements

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