

You are the Engineering Manager for a team that owns a shared platform capability used by several product teams. The current solution is brittle, expensive to maintain, and slowing down feature delivery, but replacing it will require coordination across engineering, security, and finance. Leadership wants a recommendation on whether to build a new capability, buy a third-party solution, or modernize the existing platform before the next planning cycle. The decision is time-sensitive because two roadmap items depend on this capability, and each option carries different delivery, cost, and operational risks.