Founder, Five Sisters Digital
Alastair is a software engineer and technical leader based in West Lothian, with over 15 years of experience designing and delivering production systems — from websites to internal tools to complex software platforms. He has served as CTO and Head of Engineering at technology companies in London and remotely, delivering for clients ranging from early-stage startups to Big Four professional services firms. Five Sisters Digital brings that depth of experience directly to the work — without the overhead or handoffs of a larger agency.
Most clients come through referrals — former colleagues, earlier clients, people who've seen the work land. Projects range from small websites at one end through multi-month platform builds at the other. The common thread: a fixed scope, a fixed price, and a single senior engineer doing the actual delivery.
Background
Approach
Three principles run through every project:
Most projects we can scope upfront — we'll agree what's being built, what's not, and what it costs before anything starts. Day rates work too for exploratory or shape-shifting work. Either way, you'll know what you're getting and what you're paying. No open-ended billing without alignment, no surprise invoices.
Every project is built so you can maintain it, bring in another developer, or leave it untouched for two years and pick it back up — whichever suits you. Clean code, documented decisions, your hosting, your domain, your data. No vendor lock-in, no dependency on me being around in six months.
The person you meet at the first call is the person writing the code. No account manager, no offshore team, no juniors learning on your project. That's the trade-off of working with a smaller operation — you get depth of experience on the actual work, not a cast of characters between you and the outcome.
What others say
"One of those rare engineers who can both solve tough, intricate tech problems and design systems that scale elegantly. He brings a calm, methodical approach and usually finds a smarter way to do it than anyone expected."
CEO, technology company