Hire software developers who join your repo and stay
You get senior engineers, not a recruiting process. They work in your repository under your review, and they stay on after launch under an agreed service level.
What you are getting
4 things that decide this
- 01Senior engineers only, each with production systems already running that you can read about on this site.
- 02You interview every engineer before they join, using your own process, and you can decline any of them.
- 03They work in your repository and your review process. Your team approves the pull requests, not ours.
- 04They stay on after launch under an agreed service level, or they hand over to your team with documentation and a walkthrough.
You need developers, not a hiring pipeline
Running a hiring process for one or two roles costs weeks you do not have. Job posts, screens, take-home tests, and still a coin-flip on whether the person who interviewed well can actually ship. Staff augmentation skips that. Describe the work, and we propose engineers who have already done it. You interview them the same way you would interview an in-house hire.
The difference from a marketplace or a job board is what happens after the interview. WAIQ runs a multi-site operations platform where roles and permissions had to be right from the schema up. SmartREI's investment analysis tool went from a spreadsheet-bound workflow to a product real estate investors log into daily. Our engineers built both inside the client's own repository, not a black box handed back at the end.
You are still the one deciding what gets built. An engineer joins your standups and your board. The priorities stay yours, sprint by sprint.
- 01You interview the specific person, not a profile matched by an algorithm.
- 02Code lands in your repository from the first commit.
- 03One engineer, or several, depending on what the work needs.
- 04Ending the engagement costs nothing extra if the fit turns out wrong.
What decides whether a hire works out
Seniority, proven rather than claimed
Every engineer we put forward has shipped a production system you can read about, not a portfolio of side projects.
The stack that fits the product
Python, Node.js, React, mobile, or the AI layer on top of any of them. We match the engineer to what the codebase actually needs, not to whichever profile is free this week.
A review process that stays yours
Nothing merges because an outside lead approved it. Your engineers review the pull requests, same as any hire.
A plan for after launch
A service level you agree in advance, or a documented handover to your own team. Both are decided before anyone starts, not negotiated after the invoice.
- ScopeFree call. What the work needs.
- MatchWe propose named engineers.
- InterviewYou meet them. You can say no.
- EmbedYour repo, your standups, your board.
- StayService level, or a trained handover.
The interview step is the one a marketplace skips. A rating and a filter percentage are not the same as meeting the person who will write the code.
Some of the systems we have shipped
“They will treat your vision like their own and build it that way.”
Ron Klabunde · Founder, SmartREI ↗
Stack
Backend
- Python
- FastAPI
- Django
- Node.js
- Laravel
- PostgreSQL
- Supabase
Frontend and mobile
- React
- Next.js
- Vue.js
- React Native
- TypeScript
AI, where the product needs it
- Claude API
- OpenAI API
- MCP
- Agent frameworks
Run
- AWS
- Docker
- Vercel
- CI/CD
- or whatever you run
Against the usual options
Three ways to get a developer working on your product. They fail differently.
Who you meet
A marketplace or job board
A profile, a rating and a filter percentage.
An embedded engineer from us
The engineer, in an interview you run. Decline anyone.
Where the code lives
A marketplace or job board
Sometimes theirs until the contract closes.
An embedded engineer from us
Your repository, from the first commit.
Who reviews the work
A marketplace or job board
Nobody, or someone you have never met.
An embedded engineer from us
Your engineers, in your pull request process.
Evidence they can do the job
A marketplace or job board
Hours billed on the platform.
An embedded engineer from us
Named systems in production, with the client and the work described.
After launch
A marketplace or job board
The contract ends and so does the availability.
An embedded engineer from us
An agreed service level, or your team trained to run it.
Tell us what the role has to cover
A free scoping call about the work, the stack and the timeline. Where we need to read an existing codebase to answer honestly, a paid two-week diagnostic sets a fixed price for what follows.
01How is hiring through you different from a freelancer or a job board?+
You get an engineer backed by a team, not one person's availability. If they go on leave or the project needs a second set of eyes, there is someone to call. A freelancer found on a marketplace is a single point of failure with no one checking the work before it reaches you.
02What if the developer turns out not to be the right fit?+
You interview them before they start, so most mismatches never get that far. If a problem shows up after they join, tell us and we replace the engineer. That is our cost to fix, not something you are locked into for the length of a contract.
03Which time zones do your developers work?+
We agree a real working overlap with your team before anyone starts, not after. Standups, reviews and anything urgent happen inside that window, live rather than handed off overnight.
04Who owns the code once it is written?+
You do, completely, from the first commit. Source code, infrastructure configuration and any AI prompts or models are yours, in your own accounts. Nothing about ending the engagement depends on our cooperation.
05What does it cost to hire a developer this way?+
Scoping calls are free, and you leave with a written scope before committing to anything. A paid two-week diagnostic applies only when we must go into an existing codebase first, and it sets a fixed price for what follows. We are not the cheapest bid and do not try to be.
06Can you staff one developer, or do we need a full team?+
One engineer is the right answer more often than agencies admit. A team earns its cost only when several parts must agree with each other, like TankAware's sensor data, dashboard and field app across five permission levels. Say what you are building on the call and we will size it honestly, not upsell it.
Read next
- staff augmentation →The service behind this page, in full.
- staff augmentation against outsourcing →People you direct, or an outcome you buy.
- the best IT outsourcing companies →How the packaged option stacks up, honestly.
- hire a dedicated development team →When the product needs several roles working as one unit.
- hire full stack developers →One engineer who owns a feature end to end.
