About NextLink Labs
Engineering for companies that run on software.
Custom Software, our largest practice. Cloud and DevOps. AI. Agent governance runs across all three.
Built in your environment. You own the code. Fixed price when the scope is clear, a dedicated squad when it isn't.
Who we are
Tools alone don't fix problems.
NextLink Labs is a Pittsburgh-area software, cloud, and AI engineering consultancy founded in 2014 by Jordan Saunders, a former software architect and DevOps engineer at Booz Allen and Red Hat, to bring enterprise-grade engineering to mid-market companies that run on software but don't have an engineering organization to build it.
The firm's founding premise has not changed: tools don't fix problems, and the work is making people, process, and technology fit. For most of its history NextLink has built the software that runs companies internally (operations platforms, ERP integrations, custom applications) and the cloud and platform engineering underneath it, on the view that software is only valuable if it has somewhere reliable to run.
NextLink has been putting SDLC guardrails in place for clients for years. The clients who invested in them are the ones moving fastest on AI now, which is why NextLink's AI practice is built on the same discipline: find where the value is, set the guardrails, build into the client's existing systems, and leave the client able to run it.
NextLink embeds senior engineers with business sense in the client's own systems and repositories, starting with one principal and growing to a squad only as the business case justifies it. The client owns the code. The firm is about thirty people, largely remote with its largest concentration in Pittsburgh, with US and LATAM engineers mixed per engagement. It is an Anthropic Partner Network member, an AWS Partner, and a GitLab Select and Premium Partner, and works with Docker and Grafana.
Why NextLink exists.
I have been writing software since I was twelve. Before NextLink I was a software architect and DevOps engineer at Booz Allen and Red Hat, which means I spent years inside large organizations watching how software actually gets built, shipped, and kept running, and watching what happens when it doesn't.
I started NextLink in 2014 to bring that level of engineering to the rest of the market: the companies that run on software but don't have a Red Hat-sized engineering organization to build it. The premise was simple and I have not seen a reason to change it. Companies buy tools and expect the tools to fix their problems. I have never seen that work. Tools are a means to an end. The work is getting people, process, and technology to fit, and making sure the process fits before the technology is bolted on.
Five years ago we were the company telling clients to put SDLC guardrails in place: pipelines, controls, observability, documented process. Half of them said yes, yes, but it costs money. The ones who did it are the ones moving fastest on AI today. Their governance programs became the enabler. That is not a coincidence, and it is why we treat AI the way we treat everything else we have ever built.
We have been running what people now call the forward-deployed engineer model for years. It was never a strategy; it was just how we worked. Put technical people on the client's project who also have business sense, so they understand what is being asked for and not just what was written down. One principal first. A squad when there is work for one. The client's systems, the client's code. If we leave, nothing leaves with us.
I still sign off on everything. We are not a body shop and we are not a strategy deck.
Jordan SaundersFounder and CEO
Three practices. One team.
Custom Software
Our largest practice. The software that runs companies internally: operations platforms, ERP integrations, custom applications.
Cloud and DevOps
The cloud and platform engineering underneath it: CI/CD, infrastructure as code, observability and alerting, so what ships keeps working.
AI
Find where the value is, set the guardrails, build into the systems you already own, and leave you able to run it.
Agent governance, across all three
Data boundaries, approval rules, agent identity, cost controls, logging, and the ability to shut any system off.
Leadership team
Meet the experts leading our mission
Founder. Former software architect and DevOps engineer at Booz Allen and Red Hat.
Connect on LinkedIn
10+ years of experience leading cloud, DevOps, and high-performing engineering teams.
Connect on LinkedInOne principal first. A squad when there is work for one.
- Discovery first, results fast. Every engagement names a first visible deliverable inside the first two weeks.
- One principal first, a squad when there is work for one. A squad is two to four named people on a monthly fee, with a configuration you can change quarter to quarter.
- Fixed price only when requirements are clear. Where requirements are not clear, it is a squad.
- Squads, not hourly, and never staff augmentation. You get a team with an outcome, not a résumé with an hourly rate.
- Your systems, your code. Built in your repositories and cloud, with no NextLink subscription or licensing fees. If we leave, nothing leaves with us.
- Your people on the team from day one. We train the two or three people who will own the work. The goal is a smaller team from us over time, not a larger one.
Partnerships
Who we work with.
Anthropic
GitLab
Docker
Grafana
How we work
Embed. Ship. Measure.
Embed
Senior engineers join your team — your repos, your stack, your security model.
Ship
Production in weeks, not quarters. Human-in-the-loop until the accuracy data says otherwise.
Measure
Success is a number you already track — cycle time, win rate, hours saved — agreed up front.
Tell us what you are trying to fix.
We will tell you where we can help, and where licensing a tool would be cheaper than building one.