EngineeringHiringCostRun TCO

Hidden Costs

Hidden Engineering Hiring Costs You Are Not Tracking

The visible recruiter cheque is 30-40% of true hiring TCO. The other 60-70% is split across eight categories that rarely show up on the hiring P&L.

01

Onboarding ramp loss

A new engineer typically operates at 40-70% productivity for 2-4 months before reaching full output. At a fully-loaded monthly cost of ~$19k for a senior, that is $15-30k of cost rarely tracked.

Typical range

$8k-$35k

Largest hidden line

02

Cost of vacancy

Every day a senior engineering seat sits open costs the fully-loaded daily comp ($750-1,000/day). Stretch a 60-day fill to 90 days and you have added $20-30k of cost without changing your channel mix.

Typical range

$35k-$90k for senior

Often equal to recruiter fee

03

Bad-hire risk

DOL- and US BLS-cited turnover-cost studies put bad-hire cost at 30-60% of first-year salary. For a senior at $175k that is $52-105k. Probability-adjust by your year-one attrition rate to budget realistically.

Typical range

30-60% of first-year salary

Probability-weighted

04

Interview-loop time

5-8 rounds x 3-4 panellists x 60-90 min each, multiplied by 4-6 finalists per hire. At $200-300/hour fully-loaded for senior interviewers, this is the second-largest hidden line.

Typical range

$3k-$9k per hire

20-30% of TCO

05

Hiring-manager time

Engineering managers spend 10-25 hours per hire on spec writing, recruiter briefing, scheduling, debriefs, and offer calls. At $250-400/hour fully-loaded, this compounds across portfolios of open roles.

Typical range

$2-5k per hire

Rarely tracked

06

Counter-offer + comp inflation

25-40% of senior candidates receive a counter-offer. Resolving them often inflates the offer 8-15% above the originally signed-out band. The downstream cost runs through the next four years of comp planning.

Typical range

$1-6k per hire

Senior-only

07

Equipment + tooling setup

Laptop, peripherals, software licences, security setup, and IT-onboarding hours. Usually attributed to IT budget rather than hiring, which makes it invisible to engineering finance.

Typical range

$2-5k per hire

Buried in IT

08

Sourcing-tool seat allocation

LinkedIn Recruiter, SeekOut, Gem categories, ATS seats. List-priced at $170-1,000+/seat/month. Per-hire allocation drops at higher hire volume but is often invisible at low volume.

Typical range

$1-4k per hire

Allocation depends on volume

Sourcing

Where these numbers come from

  • Bad-hire cost: 30-60% of first-year salary, US Department of Labor and US BLS-cited turnover-cost studies.
  • Onboarding ramp loss: derived from typical engineering productivity curves (40-70% output across 2-4 months) multiplied by fully-loaded monthly cost.
  • Sourcing-tool pricing reflects publicly stated 2026 list pricing for the LinkedIn Recruiter / SeekOut / Gem category. Specific firms are not named.

Surface these in your TCO

The calculator includes ramp loss, vacancy cost, and interview-loop hours as first-class line items, not afterthoughts.