Yeah… I’ve worked with part time engineers in the past and been one myself several times too. The main problem is that people flake. Your part time position is

Yeah… I’ve worked with part time engineers in the past and been one myself several times too. The main problem is that people flake. Your part time position is not as important to them as their other job, their degree, their time off. Lots of people think they can be productive for 10-15 hours of their usual Netflix time and then find out that they have no energy or motivation. Part-time engineers have a way of falling off the map, getting behind on work. You don’t give your important work to someone who clocks in for a few hours randomly every week, and it’s too much trouble to bother if they’re only doing unimportant work. Of course some people thrive in this role, but joining an engineering team part time is a skill by itself, just as important as raw engineering ability. People with backgrounds in project management, for instance, tend to have the organization and follow through to pull this off.