The True Cost of a Vacant Engineering Role
Every month an engineering position stays unfilled costs your company EUR 15-25K in lost productivity, delayed features, and team burnout. Here is the math.
Monthly Cost of Vacancy (Senior Engineer)
The Hidden Costs
- Team burnout: Existing engineers pick up the slack, leading to fatigue and potentially more departures
- Technical debt: Shortcuts taken due to understaffing compound over time
- Competitor advantage: While you search, competitors ship
- Hiring spiral: The longer a role is open, the more desperate the hire — increasing misfit risk
The Math: Recruiter Fee vs. Vacancy Cost
A typical senior engineering role in Germany pays EUR 85K. At 22% success fee, the recruiter cost is EUR 18,700.
The average time-to-hire in Germany is 7.7 months. That is 7.7 months of vacancy cost: roughly EUR 140K-270K in lost productivity and opportunity cost.
By comparison, our average time-to-hire is 3 weeks. That reduces the vacancy cost to EUR 4,500-8,750 — saving you EUR 135K-261K compared to waiting for the right candidate to appear on their own.
The Bottom Line
A EUR 18,700 recruiter fee that saves 6+ months of vacancy is not a cost — it is an investment with 10-15x return.
Stop Losing Money to Vacancies
We fill engineering roles in 3 weeks, not 7 months. Zero upfront cost. Zero risk.
Start Hiring Now