Shopify and Shopify Plus developers for your team
Dedicated Shopify engineers
A dedicated OUXP engineer is a senior Shopify and Shopify Plus developer who joins your Slack, sprints and repositories and works through your roadmap as part of your team. It suits brands whose roadmap keeps a senior engineer busy every week but who don’t want to wait for a hire. Choose one engineer or a dedicated team, full-time or half-time, or the $9,500/month Dedicated tier. You meet the engineer before you commit, the OUXP team covers absences and specialist work, and you own all the code.
Is a dedicated engineer right for your team?
It fits when your development needs have outgrown one-off projects and someone on your side sets the priorities. If not, a retainer, a fixed project or a store audit will serve you better – the list below says which.
A good fit if…
- You set your own product direction, and the roadmap keeps a senior engineer busy every week
- Your team plans releases weeks ahead and works in its own sprints, stand-ups and code review
- You want one engineer who knows your codebase, not a new face on every task
- You need senior capacity now, without a hiring cycle – or until your own hire starts
Not the right fit if…
- Work arrives in bursts and nobody has time to direct an engineer – a monthly retainer buys outcomes from our team instead
- You have one project with a clear finish line – we quote it as a fixed-price project after reading your store and code, for example a Shopify Plus development build
- You want someone to put on your payroll – this is a way of delivering work, not a recruitment service
- You don’t yet know what’s wrong with the store – a store audit ($2,500 flat, report in 5 business days) comes first
What a dedicated engineer works on
- Theme features, sections and templates, and fixes when an app or theme update breaks something
- Discount, shipping and payment logic in Shopify Functions, and checkout extensions on Shopify Plus
- Custom apps and automations for the jobs your team repeats
- Connections to your ERP, CRM, PIM or 3PL – see commerce integrations
- Page speed and Core Web Vitals work
- A/B test builds, with winning variants shipped as production code
- Reviews of app and theme updates before they reach the live store
- Code reviews for your in-house developers, and documentation for whoever comes next
Three ways to get a dedicated engineer
Choose by how much of the week your roadmap fills – for one engineer or a dedicated team. Full-time and half-time are priced after the fit call; the Dedicated tier is a fixed $9,500 a month with weekly strategy calls, CRO and 24/7 coverage included.
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01
Full-time dedicated
One named senior engineer works only on your store, every working day, inside your sprints – and your stand-ups, if you hold them.
- Best for
- A roadmap that keeps a senior engineer busy all week
- Price
- Quoted in writing after the fit call
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02
Half-time dedicated
One named engineer for half of the working week – continuity on your codebase without a full-time commitment.
- Best for
- Steady work that doesn’t fill a whole week
- Price
- Quoted in writing after the fit call
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03
Dedicated retainer tier
Our top retainer plan at a fixed monthly price: 90 engineering hours a month or a dedicated engineer, plus weekly strategy calls, CRO and A/B testing and integration maintenance.
- Best for
- A fixed monthly price, with strategy calls, CRO and 24/7 coverage included
- Price
- $9,500/month
- Terms
- Month-to-month, 30 days’ notice
- 24/7 emergency
- Included
Full-time and half-time quotes are based on the working hours and overlap you need and whether you add 24/7 coverage.
Every option includes
- Senior engineers only – no juniors learning on your store
- A meeting with your engineer before you commit
- Cover for vacations and sick days from another OUXP engineer
- OUXP specialists behind your engineer when a task needs them
- A first response within 30–60 minutes during business hours (Mon–Fri, 9 AM–9 PM ET)
- A monthly review with OUXP leadership
- All code yours, in your repositories
- Terms agreed in writing before work starts
24/7 emergency coverage – a first response within 2 hours outside business hours – is included on the Dedicated tier and can be added to full-time and half-time engagements. See how emergency support works.
Dedicated engineer, retainer or your own hire?
A retainer buys outcomes from our team. A dedicated engagement buys a specific person embedded in yours. A hire buys a person on your payroll. Here is how they compare.
| Question | In-house senior hire | Monthly retainer | Dedicated engineer |
|---|---|---|---|
| What you’re buying | A person on your payroll | Outcomes from the OUXP team, in monthly hours | A specific senior engineer embedded in your team |
| Cost | $120K+ a year before benefits and recruiting | $2,500, $5,000 or $9,500 a month for 20, 45 or 90 hours | Dedicated tier $9,500/month; full-time and half-time quoted after the fit call |
| Before work starts | Recruiting, interviews and ramp-up | An onboarding week: access, documentation, a backlog of priorities | You meet the engineer first; the first tickets ship in the embed week |
| Who does the work | One person, with one person’s skills | Whichever OUXP engineers fit each task | The same named engineer, plus OUXP specialists when needed |
| Vacations and sick days | Work waits | The team covers | Another OUXP engineer covers |
| Who sets priorities | You | Agreed with OUXP each month | You, in your own sprints and tracker |
| Scaling up or down | Hiring or letting people go | Change tier; month-to-month, 30 days’ notice | Add engineers for peak season or a big build, scale back afterwards |
| Best when | You need one engineer for years and can recruit and manage them | The work never stops, but doesn’t need the same person every day | You set your own product direction and need consistent senior capacity |
Retainer prices and hours as on our retainer plans. The in-house figure is a typical US base salary for a senior Shopify engineer, before benefits and recruiting costs.
Honest note
A dedicated engineer is rarely the cheap option. The Dedicated tier comes to $114,000 over 12 months – 90 engineering hours a month or a dedicated engineer, with weekly strategy calls, CRO and integration maintenance – against $120K+ in base salary for a full-time senior in-house hire in the US. Beyond the hours, the fee buys everything around a salary: no recruiting or ramp-up, cover when your engineer is away, specialists behind them and the freedom to scale down after a big build.
If you need one engineer for years and can recruit, manage and keep a senior Shopify developer, hiring may be the better long-term choice. A dedicated engineer can carry the roadmap until your hire starts.
Can an outside engineer really work as part of your team?
Five things usually go wrong when an outside developer joins a team. Each has a fixed answer in how we run dedicated engagements.
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They don’t know your codebase or your way of working
How we handle it
The first week is an embed week: access, a review of your documentation and code, and the first tickets shipped. From then on the engineer works in your repositories, tracker and chat, and follows your conventions – branching, code style and your definition of done.
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Changes reach the live store without review
How we handle it
Every code change goes through a branch and a pull request in your repositories, reviewed by your team – or by a second OUXP senior engineer if you have no reviewer in-house. Theme work is built and checked in a preview theme and published only after approval. Access runs through Shopify collaborator accounts and your own tools, never shared passwords.
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Work stops when the engineer is away
How we handle it
Vacations and sick days are covered by another senior OUXP engineer, who picks up from the same tickets, code history and notes. Your sprint keeps moving instead of waiting for one person to come back.
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One engineer can’t know everything
How we handle it
No single hire covers frontend, backend, integrations and performance equally well. Your engineer stays your point of contact and brings in OUXP specialists when a ticket needs them – an ERP sync, a Core Web Vitals problem, a Shopify Functions build.
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The wrong person – or knowledge that leaves with them
How we handle it
If the engineer isn’t a fit, tell us and we re-match. Because the engagement is with OUXP and the documentation lives in your repositories, a swap doesn’t restart the work or lose context.
From first call to first shipped ticket
Two conversations before you commit, then one week to get the engineer working in your tools.
- 1
Fit call
The strategy call you book from this page: your stack, your workflow and what you need shipped first. We recommend full-time, half-time or the Dedicated tier – or tell you if a retainer fits better.
- 2
Engineer match
You meet the actual engineer who will work with you. Price, working hours and terms are agreed in writing before work starts.
- 3
Embed week
Access, a review of your documentation and code, and the first tickets shipped.
- 4
Sprints and monthly reviews
Sprint work, stand-ups if you want them and a monthly review with OUXP leadership. The Dedicated tier adds weekly strategy calls.
Ready for step 1? The fit call covers your stack, your workflow and what you need shipped first.
What clients say about our engineers
Dedicated work depends on continuity and senior judgment. Two long-term clients and one large Shopify Plus store, quoted word for word from the Shopify Partner Directory.
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“I have worked with Vitali & OUXP team over several years and have always found his work and attention to detail a major asset to our team.”
Transient Specialistsvia Shopify Partner Directory (external site)Ongoing support -
“Vitali was a reliable contributor throughout the year when we needed help with Shopify's backend. He completed each task to spec and was especially helpful in solving unexpected problems when they came up.”
Golightly Cashmerevia Shopify Partner Directory (external site)Ongoing support -
“We are large shopify plus store and Sean managed to deliver our most complicated tasks.”
ADDICTvia Shopify Partner Directory (external site)Shopify Plus
Reviews sometimes name our engineers – everyone named is part of the OUXP team.
Emergency support
Store down? Checkout broken?
- Store down or showing errors
- Checkout or payment failures
- A theme or app update broke something
- ERP, inventory or fulfillment sync stopped
Commerce engineers, not a help desk. Every request gets a first response within 30–60 minutes during business hours. Retainer clients with the 24/7 emergency add-on are covered around the clock. Not a client yet? Call anyway.
+1 (818) 651-3226 Emergency line 24/7 · Business hours Mon–Fri, 9 AM–9 PM ET
Dedicated engineer questions
Something else? Ask an engineer – first response within 30–60 minutes during business hours (Mon–Fri, 9 AM–9 PM ET).
How much does a dedicated Shopify engineer cost?
The Dedicated retainer tier costs $9,500/month and includes 90 engineering hours or a dedicated engineer, weekly strategy calls, CRO and A/B testing, integration maintenance and 24/7 emergency coverage. Full-time and half-time engagements are quoted in writing after the fit call, once we know your stack and workload. For comparison, a senior in-house Shopify engineer in the US costs $120K+ a year before benefits and recruiting.
How is a dedicated engineer different from a retainer?
A retainer buys outcomes from the OUXP team: priorities are agreed each month, and whichever engineers fit each task do the work. Dedicated engineering buys a specific person embedded in your team – in your sprints, your tracker and your code review – with the OUXP team behind them. Dedicated fits teams with their own product direction that need consistent senior capacity; a retainer fits when the work never stops but doesn’t need the same person every day.
Can the engineer work in our time zone and tools?
Yes. We align the engineer’s working hours with your team’s for daily overlap, and the exact hours are agreed in writing before you commit. The engineer works in your repository host, project tracker and chat – Slack or whatever your team uses – and follows your branching and review conventions. Separately, OUXP’s business hours for first responses, Mon–Fri, 9 AM–9 PM ET (6 AM–6 PM PT), run from the start of the Eastern working day to the end of the Pacific one.
What if the engineer isn’t a fit?
Tell us and we re-match. The engagement is with OUXP, not with one freelancer, so a new engineer starts from the documentation, tickets and code history in your repositories – the swap doesn’t restart the engagement or lose context. You also meet the engineer before committing, so you can judge the fit before any work starts.
Who manages a dedicated engineer day to day?
You do. The engineer takes priorities from your product owner or tech lead, in your sprints and your tracker, and their pull requests are reviewed like anyone else’s on your team. OUXP handles everything around the person: cover for vacations and sick days, specialists when a ticket needs them, a re-match if the fit is wrong and a monthly review with OUXP leadership. If nobody on your side has time to set priorities, a retainer fits better.
Can we scale a dedicated engagement up or down?
Yes. You can add OUXP engineers for peak season or a big build and scale back afterwards, without hiring anyone or letting anyone go. The Dedicated retainer tier is month-to-month with 30 days’ notice, like every OUXP retainer. Terms for full-time and half-time engagements, including notice, are agreed in writing before work starts.
Do we own the code a dedicated engineer writes?
Yes – all of it, always. The engineer works in your repositories, your Shopify store and your accounts, so every commit, theme change and piece of documentation stays with you. Access goes through Shopify collaborator accounts and your own tools, with no shared passwords. When an engagement ends, you remove access and keep everything.
Add senior Shopify capacity without the hiring cycle
Tell us about your stack, your team and what’s on the roadmap. An engineer replies within 30–60 minutes during business hours, and you meet your dedicated engineer before you commit.