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Hire software engineers who see the whole product.
TekRecruiter is a software engineering recruiting agency focused solely on technology and engineering roles at tech and SaaS companies. We’re technical people who screen for engineers who can walk a product from requirements to production, so you hire builders who design, ship and scale it, not people who can only name the stack. Beyond skills and experience, we look for HEARTThe HEART standardHHigh agencyEExecutionAAccountabilityRResourcefulnessTTransparencyWhat we look for, beyond skills →.
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What is a software engineer?
A software engineer designs, builds, tests and maintains the software a product runs on: the services and data layer behind it, the interface customers use, and the path that carries every change to production. The title is often used interchangeably with software developer. In practice, an engineer is expected to own design decisions and trade-offs across a system, not only write code to a spec.
- Back-end engineer
- Builds the services, APIs and data layer: business logic, databases, queues and the performance of everything behind the interface.
- Front-end engineer
- Builds the interface customers use, usually in React and TypeScript: state, accessibility, performance and the design system.
- Full-stack engineer
- Ships whole features across the interface and the services behind it, trading some depth for end-to-end ownership.
What companies hire software engineers to do.
Job posts list languages. The hire is really for one of these outcomes, and each one calls for a different engineer.
01 · Product features
Ship the roadmap, not just the ticket.
Senior engineers who take a feature from a rough requirement to production, with the product sense to push back when the spec is wrong.
- Scoping with product and design before the first line of code
- Feature flags, telemetry and a rollback plan on every release
- TypeScript
- React
- Node.js
- Python
- PostgreSQL
- LaunchDarkly
02 · Back-end and APIs
Services that hold up at ten times the load.
The services and data layer your product runs on: API design, data modeling, queues and caching, measured against latency and uptime targets.
- Versioned APIs and schema migrations that don’t break clients
- The slow query found and fixed before it becomes an outage
- Java
- Go
- C#/.NET
- Python
- Kafka
- Redis
03 · Front-end
An interface that stays fast as it grows.
Front-end and full-stack engineers who own the product customers touch: component architecture, performance budgets and accessibility.
- One shared design system instead of one-off components
- Core Web Vitals and accessibility treated as release criteria
- React
- TypeScript
- Next.js
- Vue
- Storybook
- Playwright
04 · Founding engineer
The first engineer, from zero to product-market fit.
At a seed or Series A startup, the founding engineer picks the stack, ships the first version with the founders and sets the habits the team inherits.
- Speed now, without choices that force a rewrite at scale
- Direct work with founders and the first customers
- TypeScript
- Python
- Next.js
- PostgreSQL
- AWS
- Vercel
05 · Modernization
Retire the monolith without stopping the business.
Engineers who break a legacy system into services piece by piece, keeping it running and shippable the whole way through.
- Strangler-fig migrations behind stable interfaces
- Test coverage added before the risky refactor, not after
- Java
- C#/.NET
- Docker
- Kubernetes
- Terraform
- AWS
06 · Staff and principal
Raise the bar for every engineer on the team.
Staff and principal engineers who set architecture, review designs and make the calls a growing codebase depends on.
- Written design reviews and architecture decision records
- Mentoring that shows up in how the whole team ships
- GitHub
- OpenTelemetry
- Datadog
- Terraform
What to know before you hire a software engineer.
Whether you hire through us or on your own, settle these six questions before the first interview.
What does a software engineer cost in 2026?
In TekRecruiter’s 2026 placements, senior software engineers averaged a $240,000 base in New York and about $170,000 in Miami ($165,000–$190,000). Back-end engineers averaged $210,000 in Boston, $203,000 in New York and $168,000 in South Florida. Contract software engineers billed $105 an hour in South Florida, $112 in Boston and $115 in New York. Full tables: 2026 Salary & Rate Guide.
How do you interview a senior engineer when AI can answer the questions?
AI tools can now answer coding scenarios in real time, so they no longer tell you much. Ask for a product they built instead: how it worked, which features they owned, why the architecture looked the way it did, and how a change got from requirements to production. Then ask a second and third question about their own code. Real experience holds up; borrowed answers don’t.
Direct hire, contract-to-hire or contract?
Use direct hire when the role is core to the product and the headcount is approved. Use contract-to-hire when you want to see someone ship in your codebase before committing a salary, or while headcount clears. Use a contract engineer for a defined release, migration or rebuild. Many teams mix all three.
What should a founding engineer cost?
In our 2026 placements at VC-backed startups, founding engineers earned $190,000–$240,000 in base salary in New York and $170,000–$180,000 in Miami, plus equity. The job is breadth and judgment: picking a stack, shipping fast with the founders and building habits a future team can live with. Ron Smith, our founder, started his own career as a founding engineer.
Should you hire in the US or nearshore?
Product and platform roles that run on your hours work well nearshore. Through TekRecruiter, senior front-end engineers in Latin America cost about $39–$50 an hour all in and senior back-end engineers about $39–$53, against $105–$115 for a US contract engineer. Roles that need on-site presence, US clearance or frequent customer visits usually call for a US hire.
How do you choose a software engineering recruiter?
Ask who talks to the candidates, and whether they can explain what a candidate built rather than list the stack. Ask for their own pay data by city, not a national survey. Check the terms: a contingent fee paid only when your hire starts, and a guarantee if it doesn’t work out. Ours is 90 days on direct hire.
Why software engineering searches go wrong.
Most failed engineering hires looked right on paper and in the first interview. These are the gaps we hear about most.
- 01
Answers from a copilot.
The candidate aced the technical questions. An AI tool answered them.
- 02
A stack match, not a builder.
React and Node on the résumé, but no feature they can walk through end to end.
- 03
Seniority by years, not scope.
Eight years in, still working behind someone else’s spec.
- 04
An offer priced for the wrong city.
Senior pay in New York runs about 41% above Miami. Borrow the wrong number and you lose the hire or overpay.
- Software engineering placements in 2026
- 50
- Senior engineer base, New York vs. Miami
- $240K vs. ~$170K
- US contract bill rate per hour, South Florida to New York
- $105–$115
We screen the product, not the stack.
Scenario-based coding questions stopped being a reliable signal once AI tools could answer them live. So we walk every engineer through a product they built: how it worked, what went into the architecture, the path from requirements to release, and why the problem mattered to the business. How much of that picture they can explain tells us more than any coding quiz, and every engineer we put forward also meets our HEART standard.
- The whole product: how it worked, who used it, and which features they built themselves.
- Architecture and trade-offs: the design they chose, the options they rejected, and what they would change now.
- Build to ship: requirements, review, testing and release, and where they sat when the customer’s real need was worked out.
- Problem and impact: the technical and business result of what they solved, in numbers where they have them.
| A generalist IT staffing firm | TekRecruiter |
|---|---|
| Screens on language and framework keywords | Screens on a product the engineer built and shipped |
| Relies on coding questions AI can answer live | Walks through past work that AI can’t fake |
| Reads seniority from years on the résumé | Reads seniority from the scope they owned |
| Prices offers from national survey averages | Prices from our 2026 placements in New York, Boston and South Florida |
| Offers US contractors only | US engineers or nearshore engineers in Latin America, on your hours |
The HEART standard
What we look for beyond skills and experience, in every candidate we present.
- 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 we screen out.
The patterns that separate an engineer who builds products from one who closes tickets.
Stack answers, no product answers
Can list every framework, but can’t say what the product did or who paid for it.
Only ever worked from tickets
Never sat in a requirements conversation, so they can’t push back on a wrong spec.
Polished first answer, thin follow-ups
The textbook answer is perfect; the question about their own code falls apart.
“We” with no “I”
Can’t separate what they built from what the team built.
No decision they would revisit
Every call was right, which usually means someone else made the calls.
Never saw it in production
Handed code off at merge, with no idea how it performed, failed or got fixed.
Senior, staff and principal software engineers.
The difference between levels is the size of the problem an engineer owns. Here is the scope of each, and what it pays.
Senior
Owns features and services end to end.
- Takes a feature from requirement to production without hand-holding
- Makes sound design calls inside an existing system
- Reviews code and mentors mid-level engineers
2026 base pay
$170K–$240K
Average base, TekRecruiter’s 2026 senior placements: about $170K in Miami, $240K in New York.
Staff
Owns technical direction across several teams.
- Designs systems that span teams and services
- Writes the technical decisions others build on
- Spots the architecture problem before it turns into a rewrite
2026 base pay
10–30% above senior
Usually 10–30% above senior pay, in our experience.
Principal
Shapes how the whole company builds software.
- Multi-year bets on architecture and platforms
- Advises the CTO on technical risk, cost and build versus buy
- Sets the engineering standard across the organization
2026 base pay
$210K–$300K
US range in our experience; depends on company, stage and market.
Founding engineers are their own case: $190K–$240K base in New York and $170K–$180K in Miami, plus equity, in our 2026 placements. See the 2026 Salary & Rate Guide.
Software engineer pay: New York vs. Boston vs. South Florida vs. Latin America.
TekRecruiter’s 2026 placements. Latin America shows the market base salary and our all-in hourly rate. A dash means we don’t have enough placements to publish that cell.
| New York | Boston | South Florida | Latin America | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Senior software engineer | $240K avg base | — | ~$170K avg base (Miami) | $55K–$97K market base |
| Back-end engineer | $203K avg base | $210K avg base | $168K avg base | $57K–$97K market base |
| Founding engineer | $190K–$240K + equity | — | $170K–$180K + equity (Miami) | — |
| Contract engineer, per hour | $115 | $112 | $105 | $39–$53 all in |
What clients say.
Across multiple companies, I’ve hired more than six senior software engineers through TekRecruiter, and every one of them has been an impressive builder.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
How to hire software engineers with us.
Direct hire
Permanent engineers for the core product team. No fee until they start, and a 90-day guarantee.
Direct hireContract-to-hire
Watch an engineer ship in your codebase before you commit a salary. 98% of our contract-to-hire engineers convert.
Contract-to-hireStaff augmentation
Add engineers for a release, a migration or a rebuild. For one fintech, we staffed 30 MERN engineers in under two weeks.
Staff augmentationNearshore
Senior engineers in Latin America who work US hours, at about $39–$53 an hour all in.
Nearshore
Software engineer hiring questions, answered.
How much does a senior software engineer cost in New York vs. Miami?
In TekRecruiter’s 2026 placements, senior software engineers averaged a $240,000 base salary in the New York area and about $170,000 in Miami, where offers ran $165,000–$190,000. That is roughly a 41% New York premium for the same level. Miami employers often asked for at least two years of pre-2020 experience. See the 2026 Salary & Rate Guide.
What is the hourly rate for a contract software engineer?
Contract software engineers placed by TekRecruiter in 2026 billed an average of $105 an hour in South Florida, $112 in Boston and $115 in New York. A bill rate is what you pay per hour; it covers the engineer’s pay and our fee. Contract engineers can start in as little as three days.
What do founding engineers get paid at startups?
Founding engineers we placed at VC-backed startups in 2026 earned $190,000–$240,000 in base salary in New York and $170,000–$180,000 in Miami, plus equity. The roles were on site and called for TypeScript and Python.
How do you screen software engineers now that AI can answer technical questions?
We moved away from scenario-based technical questions, because AI tools now answer them for anyone. We take each engineer through their past work instead: how the product worked, which features they built, the architecture decisions, a build-to-ship walkthrough, where they sat in requirements, and the business impact of the problems they solved. For staff and principal engineers, a broad view of the product decides it.
Is there still demand for software engineers in 2026?
Yes. The US Bureau of Labor Statistics projects software developer jobs to grow 10% from 2025 to 2035, with about 106,100 openings a year. The demand is shifting, though. Engineers who work siloed behind narrow requirements are the most exposed, because AI does much of that work well. Companies want engineers who understand the whole product, since they are the ones who get the most out of AI.
Can we hire software engineers nearshore?
Yes. Senior engineers in Latin America earn about $55,000–$97,000 in market base salary. Through TekRecruiter, senior front-end engineers cost about $39–$50 an hour all in and senior back-end engineers about $39–$53, and they work US hours. See Nearshore.
Have you placed senior software engineers?
Yes. eMed’s former CTO has hired more than six senior software engineers through TekRecruiter across multiple companies. Carewell’s VP of Technology & Engineering hired a TypeScript engineer from our shortlist, and NortonLifeLock hired a Java automation framework engineer and then senior software engineers. For one fintech we staffed 30 MERN engineers in under two weeks (case study).
How do you charge for software engineer recruiting?
Direct hire is contingent: there is no fee until your engineer starts, and the placement carries a 90-day guarantee. Contract and contract-to-hire engineers are billed by the hour, with no conversion restrictions if you bring them on full time.
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.
1 TekRecruiter 2026 placement data (see the 2026 Tech Salary & Rate Guide), and the (U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Occupational Outlook Handbook (software developers, 2025–35 projections)), reviewed September 2026. Directional, not an offer benchmark.
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Specializations that sit next to software engineering.
Let's find the engineers who ship your roadmap.
Tell us the product, the stack and the team. You'll talk with our founder, Ron Smith.
