Reference
Plain-English definitions of the terms that come up in technical recruitment and engineering hiring, from forward deployed engineer to retained search. Written by the Re:Sourced team.
An engineer who embeds directly into customer environments post-sale to ship integrations and production code, often acting as the technical voice in commercial conversations. Common at AI-native and enterprise SaaS companies. Distinct from a sales or solutions engineer, who works pre-sale. Forward deployed recruitment ->
A senior individual-contributor level (typically IC5) where the engineer drives technical direction across multiple teams and owns architectural decisions, without managing people. Sits above senior engineer and below or alongside principal on the IC track. Staff engineer compensation ->
The most senior individual-contributor level at most companies, holding organisation-wide technical authority, setting architectural direction across the engineering function and mentoring staff engineers. An IC track role, distinct from engineering management.
A common framework for individual-contributor seniority: IC3 is mid-level, IC4 senior, IC5 staff, IC6 principal. Levels map to scope and autonomy rather than years, and pricing a brief at the wrong level is a frequent cause of stalled searches.
A scheme granting employees options or shares in the company, usually vesting over a period such as four years. A material part of total compensation at scale-ups, where equity can outweigh base salary on a multi-year view. Salary Guide 2026 ->
The full value of an offer: base salary plus bonus, equity (options or RSUs) and benefits. For senior and AI-native roles, total compensation often runs well above base, which is why comparing offers on base alone is misleading.
A recruitment model where the recruiter is paid only on a successful placement, with no up-front fee. The default for most permanent engineering roles. Contingent vs retained ->
A recruitment model where part of the fee is paid up front to engage a recruiter exclusively, with the balance on milestones. Suited to senior, confidential or hard-to-fill searches needing guaranteed focus. Contingent vs retained ->
The elapsed time from the start of a search to a signed offer. Re:Sourced reports a 21-day median, brief to signed, for senior IC roles. A common engineering-hiring efficiency metric.
The share of extended offers that candidates accept. Offers priced at or above the 50th percentile of the relevant salary band accept at materially higher rates; the 25th-to-50th percentile is where final-stage declines concentrate. Why offers get declined ->
An improved offer from a candidate's current employer made to retain them after they resign. A leading cause of declined offers; candidates who accept counters frequently leave within months regardless.
A defined briefing conversation at the start of a search that calibrates role scope, must-have versus nice-to-have skills, compensation band, interview process and timeline. The highest-leverage step in compressing time-to-hire. What an intake call covers ->
A commitment by a recruiter to re-run a search at no additional fee if a permanent placement leaves within an agreed window. Re:Sourced offers a 90-day replacement guarantee on every permanent placement.
An engagement where a provider embeds into a company to run all or part of its recruitment function, rather than filling individual roles. Suited to sustained, high-volume hiring. Engagement models ->
A candidate who is employed and not actively job-hunting but open to the right move. The majority of senior engineers are passive, which is why warm specialist networks outperform job-board reach for senior roles.
A small set of pre-screened candidates presented against an agreed brief, refined through feedback rather than volume. Re:Sourced delivers calibrated shortlists within 72 hours of intake, with 90% of roles filled in three CVs or fewer. How shortlists are built ->
Site Reliability Engineering (SRE) emphasises software-engineering rigour applied to operations, incident response and error budgets. DevOps emphasises delivery pipelines and developer experience. Distinct profiles that price and source differently. Cloud engineering recruitment ->
An engineer who secures software through secure development practices, code review and threat modelling, rather than only network defence. The highest-demand cyber profile in Australian financial services in 2026. Cyber engineering recruitment ->
The practices and tooling for deploying, monitoring and maintaining machine-learning models in production: feature stores, model serving, evaluation harnesses and pipelines. Roughly half of senior AI engineering work is platform-side MLOps rather than modelling. AI engineering recruitment ->
Australian government vetting levels (Negative Vetting 1 and 2, Top Secret) required for defence and government-adjacent engineering roles. Cleared engineers command 15 to 25 per cent premiums and searches run longer due to a small candidate pool. Defence recruitment ->
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