How to Hire a Dedicated Developer Without Getting Burned

"Dedicated developer" is used to describe three quite different arrangements, which is why the experience varies so wildly. Worth being precise before you buy one.

What it should mean

A dedicated developer works full-time on your product, as part of your team — your repository, your standups, your tracker, your code review — billed monthly through a provider who sourced, vetted and manages them. You direct the work. They are not juggling three other clients, and you are not managing payroll, equipment or recruitment.

That is distinct from a freelancer (a direct contract with one individual, where their availability and vetting are entirely your risk) and from project outsourcing (you buy a delivered outcome, not capacity, and you do not direct the day-to-day). All three are legitimate. They are not interchangeable, and the differences are worth reading properly in staff augmentation vs outsourcing.

Vetting that actually predicts anything

CVs and take-home tests are weak signals. What correlates with how the engagement actually goes:

• Live coding on a realistic problem. Not algorithm puzzles — a small feature in the kind of codebase they will be working in, with you watching how they think when stuck.

• System design conversation. Ask them to design something adjacent to your product and probe the trade-offs. You are listening for whether they can explain why, not whether they reach your preferred answer.

• Written communication. Remote engineering is a writing job. Ask for a written approach to a problem before any call. If the writing is unclear, the standups will be too.

• A paid trial. One to two weeks inside your real workflow. This is the only signal that reliably predicts the engagement, because it is the engagement.

Insist on interviewing the actual person

If a provider will not let you interview the specific engineer before you commit, they are allocating whoever is free rather than matching someone to your role. That is the single clearest warning sign in this market. You should see a shortlist, interview it, and choose.

The contract terms that matter

• IP assignment and NDA, signed before anyone starts. Work happens in your repositories under your accounts. Do not leave ownership to be discussed at the end.

• Overlap hours, stated numerically. "Flexible" means nothing. Agree the hours of daily crossover in the role brief — four is a workable minimum, full-shift is available and costs more.

• Replacement terms. What happens if the fit is wrong, and who pays for the replacement's ramp-up. It should not be you.

• Notice period. Thirty days is normal and fair in both directions. Annual lock-ins on a staffing arrangement are a flag.

• Who manages quality. Ask whether an engineering lead reviews the work, and whether that costs extra. If nobody is reviewing, you have hired a freelancer with a margin on top.

When a low rate is about to get expensive

Rates vary legitimately with geography and seniority. They also vary illegitimately, and the usual mechanisms are: a mid-level engineer presented as senior, one person split across several clients, no code review, or a hand-off to someone cheaper after the first month. The honest tests are a trial period and the right to interview — both of which cost a provider nothing if their claim is true.

The real cost of a bad hire is not the rate. It is a quarter of work that has to be redone, by which point the saving is irrelevant.

What good looks like after month one

They are shipping without being unblocked constantly. They ask clarifying questions in writing before building the wrong thing. Their pull requests are reviewable in size. They have opinions about your codebase, expressed as suggestions. If none of that is happening by week four, the trial told you something and you should act on it.

Frequently Asked Questions

What does a dedicated developer cost?

Our dedicated engineers start at ₹1.2L a month for a full-time senior developer, all-in — no recruitment fee, no equipment cost, no payroll overhead. Rate moves with seniority, stack and how much timezone overlap you need.

How fast can someone start?

Typically within a week for common stacks, because the vetting has already happened. Compare that with a quarter for a direct hire, plus a fee.

Can I hire them permanently later?

Often, yes, and you should ask about the terms up front rather than discovering a large conversion fee eighteen months in.

What if we need a whole team, not one person?

Then you probably want a managed pod — engineers, QA and a technical lead owning a whole workstream — rather than several individuals you have to coordinate yourself.