Staff augmentation places senior engineers into your own team, under your management, on a monthly rate per engineer that starts at about $6,000. Leanware’s version is the entry point to a dedicated team: every engineer clears our own hiring bar first, you interview them before they start, AI fluency is standard, time off is not billed, and when one seat becomes a team the engagement moves onto dedicated-team terms.
Staff augmentation at a glance
Notary.io 
ElephantCPA 
Docbraces 
Groundlight 
Plannerd 
GloFlow 
Asana Rebel WHAT YOU GET
The difference between staff augmentation that works and staff augmentation that drifts is who selected the engineer and who stays accountable after the start date. Both are on our side of the agreement.
Each engineer clears the hiring process Leanware uses for its own work (technical assessment, several interview rounds, a final interview with our C-level) before you meet them. Your interview is the last gate, and nobody joins your team without it.
The engineer works in your repository, your stand-ups, your code review, and your planning cadence from the first week. You manage the work day to day. We handle selection, payroll, replacement, and the Claude Team subscription the engineer uses on your work, and time off is not billed.
When a placement is not working for either side, we surface it early and replace the engineer through the same selection process and your interview. You do not carry the cost of a bad placement.
Every engineer we place works with AI-augmented development tools, LLM APIs, and agent patterns as a matter of course. It is part of the selection bar, and it does not appear as an extra line on the invoice.
A single seat usually staffs faster than a full team; the 2 to 4 week window the dedicated line commits to is the outer bound.
Role, stack, seniority, how the engineer will be managed, and the start date you need. If the gap is really a team and a roadmap, we say so and route you to the dedicated team.
We match the brief against engineers who have already passed Leanware’s internal hiring process, so the profiles you see are people we would put on our own builds.
You interview each candidate the way you would interview a hire. The engineering check has already passed on our side, so your interview is the fit check, and nobody starts without it.
The engineer joins your repository, stand-ups, and code review in the first week. Replacement and conversion terms are set in the agreement before day one.
Most engagements on this line start with one or two placed engineers. When the roadmap needs a unit with a senior partner running replacement and composition decisions, the engagement moves onto dedicated-team terms without restarting the relationship.
A dedicated development team is a full-time group of engineers you retain month to month and direct against your own roadmap, inside your rituals, as an extension of your org. Leanware staffs one in 2 to 4 weeks, from about $6,000 a month for one full-time engineer. You interview every engineer before kickoff, AI fluency is standard, time off is not billed, and the Claude Team subscription each engineer uses on your work is covered.
COST
Rates start at about $6,000 a month for one full-time engineer and move with seniority and stack. We price per engineer per month rather than per hour, and share the exact rate on the brief call once the role is clear. Time tracking is not part of the engagement, time off is not billed, and the Claude Team subscription the engineer uses is covered.
WHAT MOVES THE MONTHLY RATE
WHY A STARTING RATE AND NOT AN HOURLY RATE CARD
Staff augmentation is usually sold by the hour, and the hourly number hides what decides whether the engagement works: who selected the engineer, who replaces them, and whether they can work in your codebase in week one. A monthly rate per engineer keeps the incentive on shipped work. We publish where it starts, and the brief call sets the rate for the role you describe.
IS THIS YOU
The common thread is an engineering leader with the management capacity to run one more person, and a gap that is real but does not need a unit.
A senior engineer left, a hire fell through, or a workstream has nobody on it. You need one person who can work in your codebase in week one, and you want to interview them yourself.
A migration, an integration, or an AI feature needs a skill your team does not have and will not need permanently. One engineer for two or three quarters closes it without a permanent hire.
The role is open, the pipeline is slow, and the roadmap will not wait. A placed engineer keeps the work moving, and if they turn out to be the hire, the agreement has a conversion path.
You never receive a timesheet. The engineer is priced per month and works full time on your team, so the incentive is shipped work.
Marketplaces hand you a feed of profiles and leave the selection to you. Every engineer we place has already cleared the hiring process we use for our own work, and a senior Leanware person stays accountable for the placement.
You manage the engineer day to day. When the gap needs a unit with a senior partner running replacement and composition decisions, that is a dedicated software development team, and we will route you there.
CLIENT VOICE
Front- & Backend Development for Energy & AI Company
I'm impressed by their quick identification and availability of capable talent.
Confidential
Executive, Ayama
San Jose, California Clutch verified
Custom Software & AI Dev & DevOps for Transportation Company
We have monthly goals to complete specific requirements, and Leanware always meets those goals quite easily.
Jesse Seger
CTO, ConnectCapable
Dearborn, Michigan Clutch verified
Custom Software Dev for Computer Vision Startup
We trust their judgment because they are extremely reliable.
Morgan Venable
Head of Product, Groundlight
Pacifica, California Clutch verified
Every placement clears the same hiring process Leanware uses for its own builds, run by the CTO and the principals below. Your interview comes after theirs.
Carlos Martinez
Founder and CEO
Jarvy Sanchez
Co-Founder and CTO
Jose Barboza
COO
FREQUENTLY ASKED
The questions we hear from people comparing staff augmentation companies, marketplaces, and a dedicated team. The answers match how the engagement runs.
Adding engineers from an outside firm to your own team, under your management, for as long as the gap lasts. The firm hires, pays, and replaces the engineer; you direct the work. It differs from outsourcing a project, where the vendor manages delivery, and from a dedicated team, where a unit of engineers comes with its own partner layer.
Staff augmentation fits one or two seats you have the capacity to manage. A dedicated team fits an ongoing roadmap that needs a unit of engineers with a senior partner running replacement and composition decisions. Managed services fit when you want the vendor to own the outcome, such as an AI agent run in production for a monthly fee. Leanware runs all three, and the brief call routes you to the right one.
Staff augmentation vs managed services, in depthRates start at about $6,000 a month for one full-time engineer and move with seniority, stack, duration, and the overlap your team needs. Time off is not billed, and the Claude Team subscription the engineer uses on your work is covered. We publish the starting point rather than a rate card because the spread between stacks and seniorities is wide; the brief call ends with the rate for the role you describe.
The engineer’s full-time attention to your team, the selection process they cleared before you met them, replacement if the fit does not hold, payroll and everything else that is not engineering, and the Claude Team subscription they use on your work. Time off is not billed. Scope changes are not an issue because you direct the work; the rate is for the person, not a scope.
A single seat usually staffs faster than a full team. The dedicated line commits to 2 to 4 weeks from signing to a fully staffed kickoff, and that window is the outer bound for one engineer. Selection does not get skipped to move faster: the shortlist only includes engineers who have already cleared our hiring process.
Yes. Funded startups with a technical leader who can manage one more engineer are the most common shape. If you have no engineering management yet, a placed engineer without direction is the failure mode, and we will suggest a dedicated team with a delivery manager instead.
You do, day to day: priorities, code review, planning. Leanware handles selection, payroll, replacement when fit does not hold, and a senior point of contact who checks in on the placement. If you find you need us to manage the work as well, that is a dedicated team.
Yes, through the same structured buyout the dedicated line uses. Conversion terms are set in the agreement before the start date and scale with how long the engineer has been on your team. Using staff augmentation as a bridge to a permanent hire is a normal outcome, and the agreement is written for it.
A recruiter finds candidates and hands them over; the employment, the risk, and the replacement are yours. A staff augmentation company employs the engineer, so a bad fit is our cost to fix, and the engineer can move on to another engagement when your gap closes.
They work with AI-augmented development tools in their own loop, and they can build with LLM APIs and agent patterns when your roadmap calls for it. It is part of the bar every engineer clears rather than a specialist tier. If your immediate work does not touch a model, you still get an engineer who moves faster because of the tooling.
A 30-minute brief call with someone who understands the engineering and the business. It ends with a shortlist plan and the monthly rate for the role, or with a straight answer that the gap is a team, not a seat.
Tell us about the role, the stack, and the start date you need. Someone who understands the engineering and the business will review it and come back with a shortlist plan and the monthly rate, or with a straight answer that the gap is a team, not a seat.