The rules that govern how this platform is used, how engineering contracts are formed through it, and what each party is responsible for.
These terms apply to everyone who uses the platform, whether you are hiring engineering work, offering it, or representing a firm. By creating an account you agree to them.
Two things are worth stating at the outset. First, we are a marketplace — the engineering contract is between the client and the engineer, not with us. Second, nothing here overrides the professional disclaimer, which governs the limits of what our verification means.
You must be at least 18 and legally able to enter contracts. Accounts are personal to you; firm accounts must be created by someone authorised to bind that entity. One person may not hold multiple engineer profiles, and you may not transfer or sell an account.
You are responsible for the accuracy of everything on your profile. Qualifications, registrations, experience, software competence and completed projects must be stated truthfully. Misrepresentation is grounds for immediate removal and, where a credential has been falsified, for reporting to the relevant professional body.
This platform accepts engineering professionals, engineering firms and closely related technical practitioners on the supply side. It is not a general freelance marketplace, and listings outside engineering scope will be removed.
Clients may be any organisation or individual that needs engineering work. There is no requirement for a client to be technically qualified, which is exactly why the intake process asks structured questions rather than relying on the client to write a technical brief unaided.
When a client accepts a proposal or purchases a service, a contract is formed between the client and the engineer or firm. We are not a party to it. The contract incorporates the scope, deliverables, acceptance criteria, milestones and any stated assumptions recorded on the platform at the point of acceptance.
Supported contract models include fixed deliverable, milestone project, hourly engineering, retainer, monthly support, inspection visit, consultation, on-call support, commissioning support and managed engineering project. The model selected determines how funds are held and released.
An engineering scope may not be changed silently by either party. Work that falls outside the contracted scope must go through a change request that states the requested change, the reason, and the impact on cost, schedule and deliverables. Both parties must approve it before the work is performed.
An engineer is not obliged to perform out-of-scope work, and a client is not obliged to pay for out-of-scope work they did not approve. This protects both sides, and it is enforced by the contract structure rather than by goodwill.
Fixed-price and milestone work is funded into escrow before work on that milestone begins. Engineers should not start a milestone that has not been funded. Funds are released when the client accepts the deliverable against the acceptance criteria recorded in the contract, or automatically after the review period stated in the contract if the client does not respond.
Hourly work is time-tracked and billed on the stated cycle. Platform fees are set out on the pricing page and are deducted at the point funds are released. Fee changes are notified at least 30 days in advance and do not apply retrospectively to contracts already in progress.
A deliverable is accepted when it meets the acceptance criteria stated in the contract. Criteria must be objectively checkable; a deliverable cannot be rejected for failing a requirement that was never stated. Where a deliverable does not meet criteria, it goes to revision within the revision allowance in the contract, then to the resolution process.
Files delivered through the platform carry a revision, an uploader, a timestamp and an approval state. The revision marked approved is the authoritative one. Parties should not rely on copies exchanged outside the platform, because those carry no revision control.
Unless the contract states otherwise, deliverables and the intellectual property in them transfer to the client on final payment for the relevant milestone. The engineer retains ownership of background intellectual property — their own pre-existing methods, templates, libraries and tools — and grants the client a licence to use it to the extent embedded in the deliverable.
Clients retain ownership of input material they provide. Engineers must not reuse client input material, or deliverables produced for one client, for another client without written permission.
Portfolio use is permitted only where the client has approved publication. Case studies on this platform record their confidentiality status explicitly.
Projects may be public, private to invited engineers, or gated behind an executed non-disclosure agreement. Files carry access levels, and restricted files may be view-only with watermarked previews and downloads disabled.
Where an NDA is executed through the platform, its terms govern. Where none is executed, both parties must still treat project information as confidential and must not disclose it beyond what is necessary to perform the work.
The following are prohibited and are grounds for removal: falsifying credentials; claiming an authorisation you do not hold; offering to certify, stamp or seal work you are not registered to certify; submitting work that is not your own as your own; uploading material you do not have the right to share; circumventing platform payment to avoid fees; harassment; and using the platform to solicit work outside engineering scope.
Giving advice you know to be unsafe, or accepting work you know to be beyond your competence, is treated as a serious breach regardless of whether harm results.
Parties should first attempt to resolve disagreements directly in the workroom, where the scope, acceptance criteria, file history and change record are all available. Most disputes about engineering work turn out to be disputes about what was agreed, and the record usually answers it.
Where direct resolution fails, either party may escalate to the platform resolution process. We assess the contracted scope, the stated acceptance criteria and the delivered work. We do not form a technical opinion about whether an engineering judgement was correct — that is not something a marketplace can or should decide. Where a dispute turns on technical correctness, the parties may need independent expert determination.
We provide the platform as-is. We do not warrant that any engineer is suitable for your project, that any deliverable is fit for purpose, or that any verification is accurate at the moment you rely on it. Our liability is limited to the platform fees we received in connection with the transaction concerned.
Liability for the engineering work itself sits with the engineer or firm that performed it, under their contract with the client and their own professional indemnity arrangements. Nothing in these terms limits liability that cannot be limited by law, including liability for death or personal injury caused by negligence.
You may close your account at any time. Contracts already in progress survive closure and must be completed or formally terminated under their own terms.
We may suspend or remove an account for breach of these terms, for credential misrepresentation, or where required by law. Where funds are held in escrow at the point of suspension, they are dealt with under the resolution process rather than forfeited.
We may update these terms. Material changes are notified at least 30 days before they take effect, and superseded versions remain available on request. Continuing to use the platform after a change takes effect constitutes acceptance of it.
Changes do not apply retrospectively to contracts already formed, which continue under the terms in force when they were accepted.
