Direct Hire
Permanent engineering talent, sourced and vetted for the roles you're hiring for your own team.
Permanent
Full-time roles on your headcount
Pre-vetted
Technical screening before you interview
Retention-aware
Matched for long-term fit, not just skills
Overview
Some roles are clearly permanent from day one — a founding engineer, a platform lead, a role central enough to your product that you want them fully on your team, not engaged through a staffing arrangement.
Our direct hire practice sources and technically vets candidates for exactly these roles, reducing the time your team spends screening unqualified applicants and increasing the odds the hire is still there — and thriving — two years later.
Ideal For
- Core, long-term roles central to your product or engineering organization.
- Hiring managers who want a pre-vetted candidate pipeline instead of screening every inbound applicant.
- Roles where cultural and long-term fit matter as much as technical skill.
- Companies building out a permanent engineering team rather than augmenting an existing one.
How This Engagement Works
Define the role & profile
We work with your hiring manager to define not just the technical requirements but the working style and team fit that matter for retention.
Source & technically vet
Candidates are sourced and technically screened before you see a profile, so your interview time goes toward fit, not baseline qualification.
Coordinate the interview process
We manage scheduling and candidate communication throughout your interview process, reducing recruiting overhead on your team.
Support the offer & transition
We support offer negotiation and onboarding transition, aiming for a hire that's set up to succeed long-term, not just accept an offer.
What's Included
Technical screening
Every candidate is technically vetted before being presented, filtering out the volume of unqualified inbound applicants.
Role & culture fit matching
Candidates are evaluated for working style and team fit, not just a resume match to the job description.
Market & compensation guidance
Data-informed guidance on competitive compensation for the role and market, to avoid losing candidates late in the process.
Interview process coordination
Full scheduling and communication management throughout your interview loop.
Offer support
Support through offer negotiation, aimed at closing strong candidates without unnecessary back-and-forth.
Placement guarantee
A replacement guarantee period if a placed hire doesn't work out within an agreed window.
Frequently Asked Questions
How is direct hire priced compared to staff augmentation?
Direct hire is typically a placement fee based on the hired candidate's compensation, versus staff augmentation's ongoing billing model — reflecting that the engineer becomes your permanent employee, not an ongoing engagement.
How long does a typical direct hire search take?
It varies by role seniority and specificity, but most searches produce a shortlist of vetted candidates within a few weeks, with total time-to-hire depending on your interview process pace.
What happens if a direct hire doesn't work out?
We offer a replacement guarantee period during which we'll conduct a new search at no additional placement fee if the hire doesn't work out.
Can direct hire searches run alongside a staff augmentation engagement?
Yes — a common pattern is bringing in an augmented engineer to cover capacity while a direct hire search runs in parallel for the permanent role.
Related Engagement Models
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