Company

Apprentice builds manufacturing software that helps pharmaceutical companies produce critical drugs and vaccines more effectively. The company operates in one of the most highly regulated industries in the world, where compliance audits are constant and software requirements are exceptionally demanding.

The Challenge

In 2021, as global vaccine distribution accelerated during the pandemic, Apprentice faced an existential deadline: rebuild their entire platform in 45 days or miss the opportunity to support hundreds of millions of vaccine doses. Their existing staff couldn't handle a complete platform overhaul on this timeline, especially given pharma manufacturing software's rigorous regulatory requirements. The technical complexity multiplied because Apprentice's systems spanned multiple tech stacks—back end, front end, native iOS mobile, and augmented reality headsets used during actual fabrication. Without additional engineering capacity, Apprentice would lose their window to scale during a global health crisis.

The Solution

A.Team assembled a multidisciplinary engineering team that could operate across Apprentice's complex technical requirements and hit the aggressive deadline. Within two weeks, nearly 20 engineers integrated directly into Apprentice's core technical team, eventually scaling to 50 builders working across IoT, intelligent batch execution, augmented procedures, and immersive training. The A.Team engineers onboarded quickly and embedded so thoroughly that they became indistinguishable from Apprentice's internal team, attending standups and working as full members of the organization. This wasn't a separate contractor team—it was a seamless expansion of Apprentice's engineering capacity with builders who could navigate both the technical complexity and regulatory demands of pharma software. The combined team delivered the new platform version in 45 days, meeting the deadline that had seemed impossible.