Extend Your Engineering Team Without the Overhead

Understanding the Team Extension Model

Team extension—sometimes called staff augmentation or dedicated teams—is an engagement model where external engineers work as part of your team, following your processes, using your tools, and reporting to your leadership.

Unlike traditional outsourcing where you hand off a project and wait for delivery, team extension gives you full visibility and control. The engineers feel like your employees—they just happen to be on our payroll.

For mid-market companies, this model offers several advantages:

• Speed: Add capacity in weeks instead of the months it takes to hire
• Flexibility: Scale up or down based on project needs
• Cost efficiency: Senior talent at 40-60% of US costs
• Zero HR overhead: No recruiting, benefits, or management burden
• Expertise access: Specialists you couldn't justify hiring full-time

Team Extension vs. Traditional Hiring

When evaluating team extension against building your own team, consider the full picture:

Traditional Hiring Challenges

• Time to fill: 3-6 months average for senior engineers
• Full costs: Salary + 30-40% for benefits, taxes, equipment
• Recruiting overhead: Job posts, screening, interviews, offers
• Turnover risk: Average engineer tenure is 2-3 years
• Scaling friction: Hard to scale down without layoffs

Team Extension Advantages

• Rapid onboarding: 2-4 weeks to productive engineers
• Predictable costs: One monthly rate, no hidden expenses
• Zero HR burden: We handle everything administrative
• Guaranteed replacement: If fit is wrong, we swap at no cost
• Elastic capacity: Scale up or down with a month's notice

The math often favors team extension, especially when you factor in the hidden costs of full-time employment and the opportunity cost of slow hiring.

Our Integration Process

A successful team extension depends on seamless integration. Here's how we ensure our engineers become true team members:

1. Requirements gathering: We understand your tech stack, processes, culture, and specific needs.
2. Engineer matching: We select engineers based on technical skills, experience, and cultural fit.
3. Technical onboarding: Access to repos, environments, tools, and documentation.
4. Process integration: Engineers join your standups, ceremonies, and communication channels.
5. Ramp-up period: First 2 weeks focused on codebase familiarity and smaller tasks.
6. Full productivity: By week 3-4, engineers are contributing like full team members.

We also assign an engagement manager who ensures smooth communication, addresses any issues early, and serves as your single point of contact for team management.

Flexible Engagement Models

We offer several engagement models tailored to different needs:

Dedicated Team Extension

Engineers work exclusively on your projects, fully integrated with your team. Best for ongoing development needs with consistent capacity requirements. Typically 2+ engineers for 3+ months.

Staff Augmentation

Individual engineers with specific skills join your team for project-based work. Ideal for filling skill gaps or adding capacity for specific initiatives. Flexible duration from 1-12 months.

Managed Pods

Cross-functional teams (3-8 engineers) with a tech lead, operating as a semi-autonomous unit. You set priorities; we handle execution. Best for companies wanting outcomes with less management overhead. Learn more about our Pod model.

Project-Based Delivery

Fixed-scope projects with defined deliverables and timelines. We take ownership of delivery while you focus on other priorities. Ideal for bounded initiatives with clear requirements.

Quality & Security Standards

Enterprise clients expect enterprise quality. Our SPARK™ framework ensures consistent quality across all engagements:

Code Quality

• Mandatory code reviews for every merge request
• Automated testing with 80%+ coverage targets
• Static code analysis and linting
• Documentation requirements for new features

Security Practices

• Security scanning in CI/CD pipelines
• OWASP guidelines for secure development
• SOC 2 and HIPAA compliance support
• NDA and security training for all engineers

Process Governance

• Regular progress reporting and metrics
• Sprint reviews and retrospectives
• Escalation paths for issues
• Quarterly business reviews for long-term engagements

Scaling Your Extended Team

One of team extension's biggest advantages is elastic capacity. Here's how our clients scale effectively:

Scaling Up

• Project surge: Add engineers for major releases or new product lines
• Post-funding growth: Rapidly expand capacity after raises
• New initiatives: Staff up for new business units or products

We can typically add 2-3 engineers within 2-4 weeks. For larger scale-ups, we work with you on phased ramp-up plans.

Scaling Down

• Project completion: Reduce team after major deliverables
• Budget adjustment: Flex down during conservation periods
• Seasonal patterns: Match capacity to business cycles

Standard notice is one month. We ensure proper knowledge transfer and documentation during transitions.

Getting Started with Salt

Ready to extend your engineering team? Here's how to begin:

1. Consultation call: Schedule a call to discuss your needs, tech stack, and team structure.
2. Requirements alignment: We document specific skills, experience levels, and cultural fit criteria.
3. Engineer selection: We present qualified candidates for your review and approval.
4. Onboarding: Engineers get access to your systems and begin integration.
5. Ramp-up: First 2-4 weeks of guided onboarding and initial contributions.
6. Full velocity: Ongoing development with regular check-ins and reviews.

Most companies see productive contributions within the first week and full velocity by week 4.

Schedule a consultation to discuss how Salt can help your team deliver more, faster.