One senior engineer. A team of AI. Weeks, not quarters
DBHQ takes the problems draining your business - manual processes, systems that don't talk, stalled builds, waste - and ships robust, production-grade fixes fast. AI does the heavy lifting; 26 years of engineering judgment decides what to ask, what to build and what ships.
Why AI alone hasn't fixed it
The missing piece is rarely the tools: it is senior judgment. AI multiplies output only when someone experienced directs it, checks it and refuses what should not ship. That is the DBHQ model - a seasoned engineer in command of AI, applied to your actual systems: the CRM, the finance stack, the twenty-year-old database.
- of enterprise AI pilots deliver no measurable return
- 95%
- of UK businesses using AI see a positive return
- 31%
- from scoped problem to running system, fixed price
- 2-4 wks
Sources: MIT, State of AI in Business (2025); UK adoption surveys (2026)
Built where it had to work
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UK defence healthcare
First engineer on a restricted national programme rebuilding clinical infrastructure for 700,000+ service personnel - the cloud foundations, built from zero
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Regulated banking
Lead architect of an FCA-regulated remediation platform at a tier-1 UK bank, processing 100,000+ cases and over £1 billion
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National digital identity
Sole cloud architect behind the first UK identity platform certified against all five national trust-framework roles
Hands, not a hire
Senior engineering without the recruitment cycle - two ways in. A fixed-price build when you know what you need, or a fractional engineering lead when you need someone senior to own the technology and ship it. Either way, you know the cost and the deliverable before we start.
Delivery Blueprint
The paid, fixed-fee diagnostic - automation, integration or cloud. Your systems mapped, the highest-return fixes ranked, a costed plan for the first sprint, and the fee credited against the build it leads to.
MoreDelivery Sprint
One outcome, shipped: an AI workflow in production, an integration built and running, a manual process automated, a stalled build rescued. Acceptance criteria, warranty, clean handover.
MoreFractional Engineering Lead
For teams with no CTO or lead engineer and the technology starting to drift: senior leadership that owns the decisions and does the build, on call without the full-time hire. Ongoing integration, automation and AI operations, cancellable any month.
MoreConsultancy overflow
Fixed-scope delivery capacity for consultancies and agencies, under your brand or ours - when your bench is short a senior engineer for a defined package of work.
MoreHow an engagement runs
The discipline is the product. Four rules, every time.
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Scope in days, not months
A Blueprint week ends with a fixed-price plan you can act on, with or without us.
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One outcome per sprint
A single, testable deliverable with acceptance criteria. New ideas become the next sprint, not scope creep.
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Your systems, not a rip-and-replace
We connect what you have. Everything we build stays with you - code, docs, data, tooling.
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Senior eyes on the AI
AI accelerates the build. Twenty-six years of judgment decides what ships.
The engineer you get
DBHQ is Daniel Grimes - 26 years building software where failure was expensive, across UK defence, banking, energy, commodities and digital identity. When you hire DBHQ, you get him: no juniors, no hand-offs, no forty-page decks. A working system and a clean handover.
Fifteen minutes will tell you if this fits
Bring the problem - the stalled pilot, the systems that don't talk, the manual process eating your team. You will get a straight answer on whether it is sprint-shaped, what it would cost, and when it could be running.
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