Frequently asked questions

Between 15% and 20% of first-year gross compensation, and only when the hire is made. For most engineering roles it's about 18%, and up to 20% for harder ones. Volume or exclusivity can lower it, but 15% is the lowest we go. We don't require exclusivity. We invoice on the start date, with 30-day payment terms.

The monthly figure we quote is all-in: the developer's cost plus our flat 20% fee. You can cancel by serving the notice period, usually one month, with no extra fees. If you already have the person and only need us to employ them, our employer of record option is €399 per person per month, plus salary and employer costs. See contract hiring.

From €29 an hour, depending on how senior the recruiter is, billed monthly on the hours used. There's no minimum, but we recommend at least four weeks at around 40 hours a month: a recruiter needs a few weeks to get up to speed and keep candidates flowing. See RPO for developers.

Permanent placements come with a 90-day guarantee. First, we search again for free. If we can't find a replacement, you choose a refund or a credit. By default the refund steps down from 75% to 50% to 25% across the 90 days, and we often agree different terms with clients. 96% of our permanent hires since 2022 stayed beyond the 90-day guarantee.

Usually within 48 hours of the role briefing, and then 3 to 5 strong candidates a week. We care more about quality than quantity, so you hear from us when we have someone worth your time. If it's urgent, tell us and we'll prioritise it.

Four to six weeks from briefing to accepted offer is the most common. It depends on how specific the role is and how strong the offer is, both the job and the pay. After that comes the engineer's notice period.

Every candidate you see has passed a first interview with us, using a pre-approved set of technical questions we've run with thousands of candidates, so everyone is judged against the same benchmark. We also check motivation and career goals. If you want a hands-on technical test, we set one up on an online assessment platform, and you can add your own screening questions.

That's up to you. Most clients employ the developer themselves through permanent placement. If you don't have a local entity, we can employ them for you through contract hiring, in Portugal through our entity or as a contractor anywhere. You can convert a contractor to a direct hire later; the conversion fee goes down over time.

Both are legal and normal in Portugal, and contracting is increasingly common among senior engineers. A contractor costs about 20% more than the same engineer's gross salary. To keep a contract on solid ground, the contractor should use their own equipment, set their own hours and place of work, and invoice for the work rather than a fixed monthly salary. This isn't legal advice: check with a local accountant or lawyer, or let us employ the developer for you.

Our biggest network is in Portugal, followed by Brazil, the rest of Europe and the rest of Latin America. US clients often hire from Latin America for the time zone. We hire remotely, and we fill hybrid roles in Portugal only.

For the engineers we usually hire (fluent English, five to eight years or more), gross annual salaries for an employee start at about €60–80k for backend, €60–75k for frontend, €70–85k for DevOps and €50–70k for automation QA. As a B2B contractor, add about 20%. For the full picture by pay tier, role and seniority, see our software engineer salaries in Portugal guide. To compare with other countries, use our tech salary calculator.

We define the role with you, tell you what the market pays, reach out to the engineers who fit (with the salary range disclosed), interview every candidate, share the best ones and report on the numbers. We send candidates through an agency login in your ATS, over Slack or by email. We can run scheduling, the offer and salary negotiation, or support your own team. See how we work.

There are other companies called Remote Crew. We're Remote Crew at remotecrew.io: a developer-first tech recruitment agency, founded in Portugal in 2019, that helps companies in Europe and the US hire mid-level and senior software engineers and engineering leaders from Portugal, Europe and Latin America. We've placed 250+ developers at 70+ companies.

We're the agency that tells you what to do, even when it isn't us. If it's a junior role, post the job yourself. If you're hiring five or more engineers for the same role, our embedded recruiter, paid by the hour, will usually cost you less than placement fees. If your budget is under the market, you'll hear it on the first call. When a search does need us, every candidate has passed a technical interview with us, and 96% of our permanent hires since 2022 stayed past the 90-day guarantee.

Yes. Our client reviews are on G2 and Trustpilot, and we're happy to put you in touch with up to three clients.