Research and evidence
What evidence should exist before a senior technical hire
Before committing to a senior technical hire you should be able to show four things in writing: why the role exists and what changes if it is filled, that the salary and employer costs are funded for at least twelve months, how you will assess the specific judgement the role needs, and that the statutory duties are handled. If any of the four is missing, the gap usually turns up later as a failed hire rather than as a failed search.
In short
Before committing to a senior technical hire you should be able to show four things in writing: why the role exists and what changes if it is filled, that the salary and employer costs are funded for at least twelve months, how you will assess the specific judgement the role needs, and that the statutory duties are handled. If any of the four is missing, the gap usually turns up later as a failed hire rather than as a failed search.
Published 2026-08-15 · Last reviewed 2026-08-15 · Reviewed by Joseph Edney, Managing Director, Humand Talent Solutions
The four cases
Senior technical hires are the ones where a vague brief costs the most, because the candidate pool is small and the mistakes are expensive. These are the artefacts we ask for before starting a senior search.
| Case | Evidence that should exist | Who should be able to produce it |
|---|---|---|
| Role case | A written statement of the outcomes in twelve months, and what stays undone without the hire | Founder or the hiring manager |
| Funding case | Twelve months of salary plus statutory employer costs plus the recruitment cost, modelled against runway | Whoever owns the budget |
| Assessment case | The specific judgement calls the role must make, and how each will be tested | The most technical person in the decision, or an external technical reviewer |
| Legal case | Right to work check planned, employment particulars ready, selection compliant with the Equality Act 2010 | Whoever runs your employment admin |
Seniority raises the cost of a definition error
A senior hire tends to change how other people work, which means a mis-defined senior role does damage beyond the salary. That is the argument for spending disproportionate time on the role case and the assessment case before any candidate sees the job.
- Write the twelve-month outcomes before writing the job advert.
- Separate must-haves from learnable skills explicitly, and be able to justify each must-have.
- Decide who has the final say before the first interview, not after a split decision.
- Model the funding case across at least twelve months, including the employer costs that recur monthly.
Evidence
Each statement below is linked to the source it came from, with the publisher and the date we last checked the link.
1.Employer National Insurance and workplace pension contributions for eligible staff recur monthly from the start date, so a twelve-month funding case must include them alongside salary.
- National Insurance rates and categories — GOV.UK (HM Government), Rates shown for the tax year 6 April 2026 to 5 April 2027. Checked 2026-08-15.
- Set up and manage a workplace pension scheme — GOV.UK (HM Government). Checked 2026-08-15.
2.A right to work check must be completed before employment begins, and selection is subject to the Equality Act 2010.
- Checking a job applicant's right to work — GOV.UK (HM Government). Checked 2026-08-15.
- Equality Act 2010: guidance — GOV.UK (HM Government). Checked 2026-08-15.
3.The service described on this site is operated by Humand Talent Solutions Limited, company number 12379847, which can be checked on the Companies House register.
- Companies House register: Humand Talent Solutions Limited (12379847) — Companies House. Checked 2026-08-15.
- Startup Staffing website and service terms — Startup Staffing. Checked 2026-08-15.
What this page does not say
These are the numbers a page like this is often expected to carry. We hold no evidence we would stand behind for any of them, so they are left blank rather than estimated.
- Failure rates or cost-of-a-bad-hire figures for senior technical roles — widely quoted, rarely sourced, not published here.
- Salary benchmarks for senior technical roles in any market — deliberately blank.
- Average search duration for senior or specialist roles — we hold no dataset.
Questions this raises
- What is the most common reason a senior technical hire fails?
- We cannot give you a sourced answer, so we will not invent one. What we can say from the way we run searches is that the failures we see most often trace back to an unwritten or contested definition of the role rather than to the assessment.
- How far ahead should the budget be secured?
- At least twelve months of salary plus the recurring employer costs, modelled against runway, before the search opens. The recurring statutory elements are cited in the evidence section.
Every source on this page is listed together on the research index.