Software consulting in Austin built for regulated data and real delivery.
Veteran-owned, SDVOSB-certified engineering for Texas state agencies, the Austin tech corridor, semiconductor operations, and the growing local defense-tech bench.
Austin has more software demand than it has senior engineers willing to finish the work.
The Austin market looks healthy from the outside: state agencies modernizing under DIR vehicles, a thick commercial tech ecosystem, fabs running 24/7, and a defense-tech bench growing around places like Capital Factory and the Army Futures Command footprint. Underneath that, the same problems show up over and over. Vendors pitch with principals and deliver with juniors. Modernization projects stall halfway through because nobody documented the COBOL or the SSIS packages. RAG pilots run against the wrong data and quietly die. Procurement cycles eat six months of runway before a line of code gets written.
- DIR-procured projects that get re-staffed with junior engineers after award, blowing the original timeline
- Salesforce, ServiceNow, and Workday integrations stitched together with brittle middleware nobody owns
- AI pilots that demo well on cherry-picked data and fall over on the real corpus and the real access controls
- Legacy state systems where the last engineer who understood the schema retired two years ago
How we deliver in Austin: small senior teams, paid down risk, written-down decisions.
- STEP-01
Two-week technical discovery
We read the code, the IAM policies, and the runbooks before we write a proposal. Output is an architecture diagram, a risk register, and a phased plan with named deliverables — not a deck of stock icons.
- STEP-02
Pilot on a real workflow
First increment ships to production behind a flag within 30-45 days. We pick a workflow that matters — a TxDOT data pipeline, a Salesforce-to-ERP sync, a wafer-yield report — and prove the pattern before scaling it.
- STEP-03
Senior engineers, no rotation
The engineers on the discovery call are the engineers writing the code. No bait-and-switch to junior staff after signature. Typical team is 2-4 senior engineers plus a delivery lead, working in your repos and your Slack.
- STEP-04
Handoff with documentation that holds up
We leave architecture decision records, runbooks tested by someone other than the author, and a 90-day support window. Your team owns the system at the end — not a vendor lock-in dressed up as a managed service.
# Example: Austin engagement intake — what we ask before quoting
engagement:
client_type: [state_agency, commercial, defense_prime, semiconductor]
data_classification:
- public
- cji # Criminal Justice Information (TX DPS)
- phi # HHSC, Medicaid contractors
- cui # DoD / defense-tech primes
- itar # export-controlled
hosting_constraints:
cloud: [aws_govcloud, azure_gov, commercial, on_prem]
region_lock: us-only
fedramp_required: conditional
procurement_vehicle:
- DIR-CPO-XXXX # Texas DIR cooperative contract
- SDVOSB_set_aside
- GSA_MAS
- direct_commercial
team_shape:
senior_engineers: 2-4
delivery_lead: 1
rotation_policy: none
first_increment:
target_days: 30-45
must_ship_to: production_behind_flag
exit_criteria:
- adrs_committed_to_repo
- runbooks_tested_by_client_engineer
- support_window_days: 90
The intake form we actually use for Austin engagements. Data classification and procurement vehicle drive almost every downstream decision.
Field FAQ.
→ Are you actually based in Austin, or just claiming a local presence?
VooStack is a US-based, veteran-owned firm with engineers who work on Central Texas engagements on-site and hybrid. We're not a satellite sales office with delivery offshored to a different time zone. When the work calls for in-person time at a TxDOT facility in Austin, a fab in north Austin, or a defense-tech office near Mueller, our engineers show up. Travel and on-site cadence are written into the SOW.
→ What does SDVOSB certification actually get me as an Austin buyer?
If you're a federal agency or a prime subcontracting under federal awards, SDVOSB-certified spend counts toward small business and SDVOSB goals under FAR 19.14. For Texas state buyers, it doesn't trigger a state-level set-aside, but it signals a vetted business with federal compliance discipline. For defense-tech primes in Austin working on DoD awards, routing scope through an SDVOSB sub is often the cleanest way to hit subcontracting plan targets.
→ Do you work through the Texas DIR cooperative contract?
Yes. The Texas Department of Information Resources cooperative contracts are the standard procurement vehicle for state agencies, public universities, and many local governments in Texas. We can sell directly or through partners holding DIR vehicles depending on the specific NIGP codes and contract scope. Tell us the agency and the type of work, and we'll map the cleanest procurement path before you spend cycles on an RFP response.
→ How do you handle regulated data — CJI, PHI, CUI, ITAR?
We design for the highest classification in scope from day one. That means AWS GovCloud or Azure Government when warranted, US-person-only access controls, FIPS 140-2 validated crypto, audited logging into a tenant you own, and documented data flow diagrams. For ITAR engagements we sign a Technology Control Plan. We will not co-mingle regulated data with commercial workloads to save infrastructure cost — that's how breaches happen.
→ What kinds of AI integration work are you doing for Austin clients?
Practical RAG over internal documents, Claude and GPT integrations behind enterprise SSO, agent workflows that touch Salesforce or ServiceNow, and evaluation harnesses so you know when a model upgrade silently breaks a workflow. We're skeptical of demos. Every AI engagement starts with a measurable baseline — handle time, accuracy, deflection rate — and we won't ship to production until the eval scores beat that baseline.
→ Can you support a semiconductor or hardware-adjacent software project?
Yes. Austin's fab ecosystem runs on a stack of MES systems, yield analytics, supplier portals, and a lot of custom integration code. We've done data pipeline modernization, yield-report automation, and supplier-facing portal builds. We respect the constraints — change windows are tight, downtime is expensive, and the people who know the existing system are usually too busy to babysit a vendor. We work accordingly.
→ How is staff augmentation different from a typical body-shop arrangement?
Our augmentation engineers are senior — typically 10+ years — and they're VooStack employees, not marketplace contractors we found last week. They embed in your team, follow your code review standards, and stay long enough to actually understand the domain. Minimum engagement is usually three months. If you need a warm seat for six weeks, we're not the right call. If you need someone who can own a service, we are.
→ What's a realistic timeline and budget for a modernization project?
Legacy-to-cloud modernization for a single bounded system typically runs 4-9 months and lands somewhere between $250K and $1.5M depending on data volume, compliance scope, and how much institutional knowledge has already walked out the door. We give fixed-scope phases with fixed prices rather than open-ended T&M, so you can stop after any phase without owning a half-finished migration.
→ Why work with a smaller firm instead of a large systems integrator?
Large integrators staff with whoever is on the bench. You get a partner on the proposal and a rotating cast of junior engineers on the delivery. Our model is the inverse: the senior engineers who scope the work do the work. We turn down engagements we can't staff with senior people. That constrains our growth and it's deliberate — it's the only way the quality story actually holds up.
Continue recon.
Service lines
Custom builds, AI integration, modernization, and senior staff augmentation.
REL-02Past engagements
Sanitized writeups of regulated-data, modernization, and AI integration work we've shipped.
REL-03Fixed-scope packages
Discovery, RAG pilots, and modernization phases priced as fixed deliverables.
REL-04Start a conversation
Tell us the system, the constraint, and the deadline. We'll respond with substance.
Got a project in Austin that needs senior engineers, not a pitch deck? Let's talk.
Talk to a VooStack operator. We respond within one business day.