Most technology recruitment agencies charge a percentage of the hire’s first-year salary — typically 15% to 30%, with senior and hard-to-fill engineering roles at the higher end. There are three common ways to structure that fee: contingency (you pay only when someone starts), retained (you pay in instalments across the search), and increasingly risk-share models that spread the fee over time and pause it if the hire leaves. The right structure depends less on the headline percentage and more on how the role, your cashflow and your appetite for risk line up.
By Mark Hurren, Co-Founder, Hurren & Hope
I’ll be straight with you, because the fee is the part of this conversation most agencies tiptoe around — and I’d rather not. I’ve spent 25 years on both sides of it, so here’s how the money actually works, where it’s worth it, and where it isn’t.
What do tech recruitment agencies actually charge?
The fee is almost always a percentage of the candidate’s first-year base salary (sometimes total first-year cash including a guaranteed bonus). For a £90,000 engineer at 20%, that’s £18,000. For a £180,000 VP of Engineering at 25%, it’s £45,000. A few things move the number:
- Seniority and scarcity. A mid-level full-stack engineer is easier to find than a staff ML engineer or a first Head of Sales, so specialist and leadership roles command higher percentages.
- Exclusivity. Giving one agency the role exclusively often lowers the percentage — the consultant isn’t racing three others to the same shortlist.
- Location. Salary bands differ sharply between London, New York and San Francisco, so the same percentage produces very different absolute fees. (Our salary benchmarks for London, New York and San Francisco exist precisely because those gaps are wide.)
- Volume. Hiring a team rather than a single role usually brings the per-hire rate down.
The percentage matters. But for a scale-up watching its runway, how and when you pay it matters more.
What are the main fee models, and how do they compare?
Three structures, plus the risk-share variants that have grown up around them. None is inherently “better” — they suit different situations.
| Model | When you pay | Best for | Trade-off |
|---|---|---|---|
| Contingency | A single fee, only when the hire starts | Roles where you want zero commitment until someone’s in the door | All the risk sits in one upfront payment; usually a short rebate window if they leave early |
| Retained | In instalments across the search | Senior, confidential or hard-to-fill roles needing a dedicated, thorough search | You commit before the hire is confirmed, in exchange for priority and depth |
| Pay While They Stay™ | Spread over 12 monthly instalments — and payments stop if the hire leaves | Founders protecting cashflow and tying the fee to the hire actually staying | A longer payment relationship rather than one clean invoice |
| Risk-share (Aligned™) | Structured to share hiring risk, built for VC-backed hiring | Investors and founders managing hiring risk while they raise | A different commercial model suited to the VC context |
Contingency and retained are well understood and we offer both — permanent and contract on contingency, and retained search for the searches that warrant it. The risk-share models simply give you an alternative when the lump-sum mechanics don’t fit your stage. For VC-backed hiring, our sister brand Aligned™ takes that principle further.
Why do fees feel so high — and what are you actually paying for?
A fee can look steep next to a job advert that costs a few hundred pounds. The comparison is misleading, because the two things do completely different jobs. The strong candidates you most want — the staff engineer who’s quietly excellent, the ML lead three companies have already tried to poach — are not reading job boards. They’re employed, busy, and only move for the right approach. What you’re paying for is:
- Access to people who never apply. Proactive, relationship-led sourcing, not inbound CVs.
- Time you don’t have to spend. Founders and engineering leaders sifting CVs is one of the most expensive ways a company can spend its week.
- Calibration. A consultant who’s placed dozens of comparable hires knows what “great” looks like at a level you may be hiring for the first time.
- A higher chance the hire sticks. Across our placements, 94% are still in role at 12 months — and a hire that lasts is the only one that was ever worth paying for.
Set against a slipped roadmap, a bad hire, or months of leadership time, a well-placed fee is usually the cheaper option. Since 2013 we’ve made over 6,906 placements, at a roughly 23-day average time to hire, drawing on 25+ years of founding-team experience.
How can a scale-up hire senior talent without straining cashflow?
This is the real question for most companies under ~200 people, where every pound of runway is doing a job. A single large fee landing the month a senior hire starts can sting — precisely when you’re also absorbing a big new salary. That’s the gap Pay While They Stay™ is built to close: instead of one invoice, the fee spreads across 12 monthly instalments, and if the hire leaves, the payments stop. It lines up what you pay with the value you’re getting — a person who stays — keeps cash free for product and growth, and puts our incentive squarely on a hire that lasts, not just one that starts.
A few practical ways to keep fees proportionate:
- Match the model to the role. Contingency for roles you can fill with reasonable volume; retained for the senior, confidential or genuinely scarce ones.
- Spread the fee where cash is tight. Pay While They Stay™ turns a lump sum into a manageable monthly line and protects you if it doesn’t work out.
- Be exclusive when it earns a better rate and a deeper search. One committed partner usually beats three half-committed ones.
- Get the brief right first time. Re-running a search because the brief was vague is the most expensive fee of all.
How do recruitment fees compare to the cost of a bad or slow hire?
Do the arithmetic. A senior engineering seat left empty for an extra two months can quietly cost more in delayed roadmap and overloaded teammates than the entire fee to fill it well. A mis-hire at leadership level — someone who sets the wrong bar and then leaves — can cost a multiple of their salary once you count lost momentum and re-hiring. The fee is not the expensive part of hiring. The expensive parts are speed lost, hires that don’t last, and leadership time spent recruiting instead of building. The right fee structure is the one that minimises all three for your situation.
Frequently asked questions
How much does a tech recruitment agency charge?
Most charge a percentage of the hire’s first-year salary, typically 15%–30%, with senior and hard-to-fill engineering and leadership roles at the higher end. The structure — contingency, retained or a risk-share model spread over time — often matters more to a scale-up than the headline percentage.
What’s the difference between contingency and retained recruitment?
With contingency you pay a single fee only when a candidate starts, so the agency carries the risk until then. With retained search you pay in instalments across the search in exchange for a dedicated, prioritised and usually more thorough process — better suited to senior, confidential or genuinely scarce roles.
Do you have to pay a recruitment fee if the hire leaves?
It depends on the model. Standard contingency placements usually include a short rebate window. With Pay While They Stay™, the fee is spread over 12 monthly instalments and the payments stop if the hire leaves — so you stop paying when the value stops.
How can a startup afford recruitment fees on a tight runway?
Spreading the fee is the most direct route. Pay While They Stay™ turns a one-off invoice into a manageable monthly cost that pauses if the hire departs, keeping cash free for product and growth while still giving you access to senior talent you couldn’t reach with a job advert.
Weighing up how to fund your next senior hire? Talk to us — we’ll be straight about which model fits, even when it’s the cheaper one for us.
