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Software engineering staffing for teams that build and ship.
TekRecruiter is a software engineering staffing and recruiting agency focused solely on technology and engineering roles at tech and SaaS companies. We’re technical people who screen every engineer on a product they actually built, so you hire the people who ship elite software, not the ones who interview well. Beyond skills and experience, we look for HEARTThe HEART standardHHigh agencyEExecutionAAccountabilityRResourcefulnessTTransparencyWhat we look for, beyond skills →.
Trusted by teams at
Software Engineering
Full-stack, back-end and front-end engineers who ship product.
Learn moreAI Engineering
Engineers who build LLM and agent features into products.
Learn moreAI Platform Engineering
The infrastructure that runs AI in production.
Learn moreForward Deployed Engineering
Engineers who deploy your product inside customer environments.
Learn moreDevOps, SRE & Cloud Infrastructure
Cloud, reliability and platform teams on AWS, GCP and Azure.
Learn moreData & Analytics Engineering
Pipelines, warehouses, analytics and data science.
Learn moreSDET & Test Automation
SDETs who build test frameworks, not click-through QA.
Learn moreCybersecurity Engineering
Pen testers, IAM, cloud security, AI security and GRC.
Learn moreHardware & Robotics Engineering
Hardware and robotics engineers, including humanoid robotics.
Learn moreQuant Developers & Researchers
Quant analysts, researchers and developers for investment banks.
Learn moreWhat does a software engineering staffing agency do?
A software engineering staffing agency recruits engineers for technology companies on permanent, contract or contract-to-hire terms. It reaches engineers who aren’t applying to jobs, tests their technical depth before you meet them, and presents a shortlist that fits your stack, your product and your team. Your engineering leaders spend their interview time on people worth hiring.
Match the problem to the engineering role.
Many searches go wrong at the job description. Start from the problem you need solved; each role page goes deeper. Pay is from our 2026 placements and searches, detailed in the 2026 Tech Salary & Rate Guide.
| Hire them when | What they own | 2026 pay, TekRecruiter data | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Software Engineering | You need product features designed, built and shipped end to end. | Product code, architecture, the build-to-ship path. | Senior: $240K avg base, New York area; ~$170K, Miami |
| AI Engineering | You are putting LLMs and agents into your product or operations. | LLM integrations, agentic systems, retrieval pipelines. | Principal engineers with AI: $170K avg base, South Florida |
| AI Platform Engineering | Your AI needs infrastructure to run on reliably. | Model serving, retrieval infrastructure, evaluation, agentic engineering platforms. | $190K avg base across 21 agentic AI platform placements |
| Forward Deployed Engineering | Customers need your product deployed inside their own stack. | Integration and production deployment at the customer, and the outcome. | $220K avg base, New York; $170K, South Florida and remote |
| DevOps, SRE & Cloud Infrastructure | Releases, uptime or cloud cost are the problem. | CI/CD, Kubernetes, Terraform, observability, AWS, Azure and Google Cloud. | Contract: about $109–$120/hr bill rate by market |
| Data & Analytics Engineering | Your data is not trusted, or not used to decide. | Pipelines, warehouses, data models, machine learning. | Data scientists: $155K avg base, South Florida |
| SDET & Test Automation | Manual testing has become the release bottleneck. | Automation frameworks and testing wired into CI/CD. | ~$170K base, New York area; $155K–$160K, South Florida |
| Cybersecurity Engineering | You face an audit, an exposure or an identity project. | Penetration testing, remediation, IAM, network, cloud and AI security, GRC. | Scoped by specialty |
| Hardware & Robotics Engineering | You are building a robot or a physical device. | Hardware design, build and test; humanoid robotics. | $120K–$130K base out of school, up to $170K (2026 searches, Austin) |
| Quant Developers & Researchers | Your desk needs models built, validated or run in production. | Pricing, risk and research models, and the systems that run them. | Senior quant analysts: $170K base Miami, $200K Boston |
Every engineer we present meets the HEART standard.
Skills get an engineer considered. HEART is what makes them the hire: people who take ownership, turn ideas into shipped results and move the product forward.
- High agencyPeople who see what needs to be done and act without waiting to be told.
- ExecutionPeople who turn ideas into results.
- AccountabilityPeople who own the outcome, not just their piece of the work.
- ResourcefulnessPeople who figure things out when the answer isn’t obvious.
- TransparencyPeople who communicate clearly, honestly, and early.
What clients say.
The hiring team needed someone who could build a Java automation framework from scratch, and we had worked the search for six straight months with at least 12 or 13 vendors. TekRecruiter sent one candidate, and he got the job.
We needed to hire a senior IAM engineer with deep SOC 2 knowledge, and the role had been open for more than three months. Within a week of speaking with Ron, his team sent over three very solid profiles, and we finally found the right fit in just two weeks.
Across multiple companies, I’ve hired more than six senior software engineers through TekRecruiter, and every one of them has been an impressive builder.
I got a firsthand look when I needed a software engineer with strong TypeScript skills to join my team. I was happy with the candidates, and I was able to make a hiring decision.
A former colleague referred me to TekRecruiter, and I was very impressed by the caliber of the senior DevOps engineers they presented. I identified two senior DevOps engineers who were exceptional fits for my team.
He said he would share three to four candidates within a week, and that’s exactly what he did. We hired a senior software engineer we’re confident in, and we’ve been thrilled with how well things have worked out.
The few times I’ve hired over the last five years, I’ve always been vendor neutral, and TekRecruiter has been the staffing partner that filled every one of those open engineering roles.
Their ability to quickly supply highly skilled software and DevOps engineers who blend in well with our existing teams continues to amaze me. They are highly technical at the account management level and transparently propose different solutions, whether staff augmentation or nearshore outsourcing.
Engineering hiring questions, answered.
What kinds of engineers does TekRecruiter recruit?
We recruit software engineers, AI engineers, AI platform engineers, forward deployed engineers, DevOps, SRE and cloud infrastructure engineers, data engineers and data scientists, SDETs, cybersecurity engineers, hardware and robotics engineers, and quant developers and researchers, for tech and SaaS companies from startups to enterprises.
How do you screen engineers when candidates can use AI to answer technical questions?
We moved away from scenario-based technical questions, because AI now answers them easily. Instead, engineers walk us through a product they built: how it works, the architecture, the path from build to ship, where they sat in the requirements, and the technical and business impact of the problems they solved. A broad view of the whole product is what separates strong senior engineers.
How fast can you deliver engineering candidates?
Contract consultants can start in as little as three days, and 82% of the candidates we submit are interviewed. On one fintech rebuild, we hired 30 MERN engineers in under two weeks.
What does it cost to hire an engineer in 2026?
It depends on the role and the market. In our 2026 placements, senior software engineers averaged a $240,000 base in the New York area and about $170,000 in Miami, and contract software engineers billed $105–$115 an hour depending on the market. Every role and market is in the 2026 Tech Salary & Rate Guide.
Should we hire engineers on contract, contract-to-hire or direct hire?
Contract fits a deadline or a project, with consultants starting in as little as three days. Contract-to-hire lets you work with an engineer before converting, and 98% of our contract-to-hire consultants convert. Direct hire is for permanent roles and carries a 90-day guarantee. Compare the models.
Can we hire engineers nearshore in Latin America?
Yes. We have placed over 130 nearshore engineers to date, most in Brazil and Argentina. They have worked for US companies, speak English with confidence, work US hours and cost about $39–$57 an hour all in, about half the rate of a US contract engineer. See nearshore engineering.
What is the HEART standard?
HEART is the standard we screen every candidate against, beyond skills: high agency, execution, accountability, resourcefulness and transparency. It describes people who take ownership, turn ideas into results and move the business forward. See the standard.
Let's find your next engineer.
Tell us the product and the problem. You'll talk with our founder, Ron Smith.
