How we decide
who you meet.
You meet engineers in days, not weeks — because the filtering happens before you spend any time. We can't put a percentage on an engineer. What we can do is show you exactly how we choose one — and what gets someone rejected.
What the process does
Every layer is a reason to stop. Most people we talk to never reach the bottom — which is the point.
Five questions.
Every engineer, every time.
None of them are about years of experience. All of them are about what happens when the work gets hard.
Can they build it?
A real problem, close to the work you'd give them. We read the code and the reasoning behind it — not the CV.
Can they think past the ticket?
We ask what they'd do when the requirement is wrong. Good engineers push back, with a reason.
Can they work with people?
They'll be in your standup. We interview for how they explain themselves, how they disagree, and whether they ask for help before it's late.
Do they own the outcome?
We look for people who follow their work into production and care what happens after the merge.
Do they use AI with judgment?
Everyone uses the tools now. What matters is whether they can tell when the tool is wrong.
The five stages
Each one has a way of ending. We've written those down too — they say more about the standard than the stages do.
- 01
We go looking
We start from your need, then go and find people who match it. Nobody is waiting on a bench.
Ends here ifNothing in their background touches the work you need done.
- 02
First conversation
A call about what they've built, what they chose, and what they'd do differently. We're listening for reasoning.
Ends here ifThey can't explain their own decisions.
- 03
Technical deep-dive
A real problem, their code, our questions. We go where the work would actually go.
Ends here ifThe code works but the reasoning doesn't hold up.
- 04
How they work with people
We push back on purpose. How someone handles disagreement tells you how the first sprint will go.
Ends here ifThey need a manager to translate for them.
- 05
Founder review
One question, asked by the people whose name is on the company: would we put this engineer on our own team?
Ends here ifAny hesitation.
- →
You meet them.
One engineer, with notes on what we saw and what we weren't sure about.
What ends it
more often than anything else.
Nobody fails for being nervous. These are the things we can't get past.
- Answers that get vaguer the deeper you go.
- Work they can describe but can't take apart.
- Someone who has never been pushed back on, and doesn't take it well.
- Using AI to answer questions about their own code.
- Good on the call, no follow-through afterwards.
Then you decide.
We don't send a shortlist and hope. You get the engineer we'd pick, with what we saw and what we weren't sure about.
Interview them the way you'd interview anyone joining your team. If you're not convinced, that's useful — tell us why and we'll go back.
And if it isn't working in the first few weeks, we'd rather be the ones to say so.
Experienced enough to contribute.
We look for engineers who can enter an existing product environment and contribute without needing everything explained from scratch.
Has shipped before
Real products, real users, real constraints.
Depth over breadth
Knows one stack properly rather than ten superficially.
Works independently
Can take an ambiguous task and come back with questions that matter.
Collaborates
Reviews, pairs, and asks before going three days in the wrong direction.
A senior stack
for production systems.
Decimal Tech builds modern, cloud-native software using a senior engineering stack designed for scalable production systems.
- Core
- TypeScriptNode.jsReactNext.js
- Cloud & Infrastructure
- AWSLambdaAPI GatewayDynamoDBSQSEventBridge
- Infrastructure as Code
- SSTAWS CDKTerraformPulumi
- DevOps
- GitHub ActionsDockerECSKubernetes
- Backend
- Node.jsPythonLaravelRuby on Rails
- AI
- OpenAIAnthropicAI/ML integrations
- Architecture
- ServerlessEvent-drivenCloud-nativeScalable SaaSHigh-traffic platforms
We combine modern engineering practices with AI-native development to build, modernize and scale production software.
Have the work.
Need the engineer?
Tell us what your team needs. We'll help you find the right engineer.
We're ready for the work.