Free hiring tool
Compare Ways to Hire an Engineer
Neutral 12-month cost and risk comparison of US employee, US contractor, freelancer, agency, staff augmentation and international contractor/EOR, on your own numbers. Published by Ruzora, a staff augmentation firm; every option uses the same formula.
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What it produces
- A 12-month table: cash cost, start date, months lost to delay, productive months, cost per productive month, your management hours, exit terms and top risk, for all six options.
- Break-even prices for every option you have no quote for, so a blank becomes a number to negotiate with.
- How each option fails, the check that catches it, and three conditions that would flip the answer.
- Two options worth pricing for real, with the numbers to collect. Not a verdict. You decide.
Worked example
From the Engineer Hiring Cost Compare playbook this tool uses.
From a run on a fictional example. The input: a 9-person seed-stage logistics software company with about 20 months of runway, hiring a senior Python engineer to own carrier integrations. Four numbers: a $175k salary offer in Denver, a $110/hr contractor, a $95k fixed bid for a 4-month phase 1, and a $9,500/month staff augmentation quote for an engineer in Colombia.
What it needs
| Input | What to give it |
|---|---|
| Rolerequired | Role and level |
| Numbersoptional | Salary or quotes you have per option, location, start-by date, how long you need the person |
Call it from your assistant
In any assistant connected to Ruzora's MCP server, the tool is compare_hiring_models. Your assistant fills the arguments from the conversation; this is the shape:
{
"role": "..."
}Frequently asked questions
- Is "Compare Ways to Hire an Engineer" free?
- Yes, it is free. Run it in Sol, Ruzora's hiring assistant, or in Claude, ChatGPT or any assistant that connects to Ruzora's MCP server, with no API key.
- What does "Compare Ways to Hire an Engineer" need from me?
- Role (required): Role and level. Numbers (optional): Salary or quotes you have per option, location, start-by date, how long you need the person.
- How does "Compare Ways to Hire an Engineer" work?
- The tool hands your details and Ruzora's Engineer Hiring Cost Compare playbook to the AI you run it in, which follows the playbook to write the result. Ruzora's server does not run a model for it.
- Does it make the hiring decision?
- This organizes evidence for you. It is not a hiring decision: you make the call.