Calculator
Engineering Hiring Cost Calculator
Pick a role level and hiring channel, tweak your interview loop, and see the full TCO ledger update live. All figures are mid-market US ranges, fully-loaded daily comp at 1.3x base.
TCO Ledgerv.2026.04
$115,309 per hire / 66% of baseInputs
External agency, no-placement-no-fee. Fee 15-25% of first-year base.
$
Output
Total per hire
$115k
66% of base
Cost / day vacant
$910
65 days projected
Ramp-up window
2.5 mo
Ramp loss $16k
Cost stack
30%
14%
51%
- Recruiter / channel fee
- Sourcing tools
- Interview-loop hours
- Job board ad spend
- Ramp-up productivity loss
- Cost of vacancy
| Line item | Amount | Share |
|---|---|---|
| Recruiter / channel fee | $35,000 | 30% |
| Sourcing tools | $600 | 1% |
| Interview-loop hours | $3,353 | 3% |
| Job board ad spend | $800 | 1% |
| Ramp-up productivity loss | $16,406 | 14% |
| Cost of vacancy | $59,150 | 51% |
| Total per hire | $115,309 | 100% |
How the model works
Six lines, one ledger
- Recruiter / channel fee. Contingency at 15-25% of base, retained at 25-33%, in-house and RPO at allocated per-hire flat. Referral bonus at $1k-$10k.
- Sourcing tools. LinkedIn Recruiter, SeekOut, Gem, ATS seats. Allocated per hire by channel.
- Interview-loop hours. Loop hours x onsites per finalist x fully-loaded interviewer rate.
- Job-board ad spend. Allocated against a hire, kept conservative.
- Ramp-up productivity loss. Months at sub-full output multiplied by monthly fully-loaded cost.
- Cost of vacancy. Daily fully-loaded comp at 1.3x base, multiplied by days the seat is open.
Defaults and sources
Where the ranges come from
- Recruiter fees: 15-25% contingency, 25-33% retained are widely cited industry norms (SHRM, Robert Half hiring guides).
- Bad-hire estimate (used in /hidden-costs): 30-60% of first-year salary, derived from US DOL and BLS-cited turnover-cost studies.
- Sourcing-tool seat pricing: LinkedIn Recruiter, SeekOut, Gem categories at public list prices in the $170-$1,000+/seat/month range.
- Time-to-fill defaults from US engineering hiring benchmarks (mid 45-55 days, senior 60-70 days, staff 80-110 days).
See cost by experience level
The same TCO model, applied at junior, mid, senior, staff, and principal level, with full per-line breakdown.