THE FLOW
Five steps. You approve every one.
No proposals to wait on, no bench-clearing, no procurement maze. The whole path is built to hand you evidence fast and to let you walk away free at the exact point most vendors would lock you in.
01
DAY 0
30 minutes
Hold a 30-minute fit call
Thirty minutes with an engineering lead, never a salesperson. Talk through your stack, where the system hurts, and what a good quarter looks like. We map it to the exact role and level that fixes it.
→You leave with a role recommendation, a seniority level, and both rates.
02
WITHIN 48H
2-3 profiles
Get a matched shortlist
We match from a bench of 150+ engineers against your system’s real risk, not resume keywords. You interview every candidate yourself, with scenarios we help you design. Nothing proceeds without your yes.
→You leave with 2-3 interview-ready engineers, picked by you.
03
DAYS 1-5
Paid trial
Run a paid one-week trial
NDA signed and access scoped before day one. The engineer joins your standup and works your real backlog in your real repo. You judge pull requests, evals, traces, and communication before anything continues.
→You leave with evidence, a fit signal, and a clean next decision.
04
WEEK 2+
Delivery
Continue month-to-month
Keep the engineer on a monthly dedicated engagement or hourly Time & Material, and switch between them as your roadmap changes. A Devlyn senior reviews everything that ships, at every level, every week.
→You get outcomes measured weekly, not hours logged.
05
ANYTIME
Flexibility
Scale, swap, or exit cleanly
Add roles as your surface area grows, request a free replacement when the fit is wrong, or transition the work back in-house with complete documentation. A partner who is easy to leave is the one you keep.
→You keep the work, the context, and zero lock-in.
WHAT YOU DO
Four light-touch decisions.
WHAT DEVLYN DOES
Everything else.
THE PAID ONE-WEEK TRIAL
What the trial week actually looks like.
A trial is only useful if it produces real evidence. This is the day-by-day shape of one, from paperwork to your decision, with a Devlyn senior reviewing behind the scenes the whole way.
BEFORE DAY 1
Setup
Paperwork and access, done first
NDA and IP assignment are signed, repo and tool access is scoped to exactly what the trial needs, and the success criteria you agreed on the call are written down. The engineer is briefed on your stack before they touch a keyboard.
DAYS 1-2
First contact
A real pull request inside 48 hours
The engineer clones the repo, runs the app, joins your standup and Slack, and opens a first scoped pull request: a real bug or a small ticket. You see their code, commit hygiene, and communication style before the week is out.
DAYS 3-4
First real slice
One backlog item, shipped to staging
They take a genuine item off your backlog and ship it to staging with tests and a short note on the tradeoffs they made. You review it exactly the way you review any teammate’s work, no special treatment.
DAY 5
Ownership
More scope, less hand-holding
The engineer runs a workstream with fewer instructions, works through review comments, and adjusts as scope moves through the week. This is where judgment under ambiguity shows, or does not.
END OF WEEK 1
Your decision
Evidence first, then a clean choice
You have merged pull requests, eval or test results, production traces, and a week of daily communication to judge. A Devlyn senior has already reviewed the work. Continue month-to-month, ask for a replacement, or stop. Either way, the work stays in your repo.
WHAT YOU ARE JUDGING
Code quality
Real PRs, tests, and review comments from your backlog, not a take-home puzzle.
Communication
Daily standups and written updates inside your working hours, in English.
Judgment
How they behave when a requirement is vague or changes halfway through the week.
Senior review
What a Devlyn senior catches before it ever reaches your main branch.
The trial is billed at the same rate as the ongoing engagement, prorated for one week. You are paying for committed work in your repo, not a demo. If the evidence does not convince you, you stop, and the code you paid for stays with you.
HOW WE COMPARE
Four ways to add capacity. Honestly compared.
Devlyn is not the right answer for every situation, and pretending otherwise would waste your time. Here is where a staffing agency, a freelance marketplace like Toptal or Turing, and a full in-house hire each stand against how we work.
| Dimension | Devlyn | Staffing agency | Freelance marketplace | In-house hire |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Time to first candidate | 2-3 vetted profiles in 48 hours | One to one week of sourcing | Hours to days, you search yourself | Six to twelve weeks to hire |
| How candidates are vetted | Senior-vetted to the sub-skill, matched to your risk | Recruiter-screened, often resume-led | Platform tests and public reviews, you verify | You run the whole loop |
| Paid trial in your codebase | Yes, one week in your real repo | Rarely offered | Sometimes a short trial window | Not before an offer |
| Who manages delivery | You direct, a Devlyn senior reviews | Agency PM layer, billed on top | You manage the freelancer directly | You manage directly |
| Senior review on every output | Yes, weekly, at every level | Sometimes, at extra cost | None by default | Only if you already have seniors |
| Contract and lock-in | Month-to-month, no conversion fee | Multi-month minimums are common | Flexible, but fees to hire direct | Permanent salary and benefits |
| Cost transparency | Rates published by role and level | Blended rate quoted per deal | Hourly, plus platform margin | Salary, plus recruiting and overhead |
| If the fit is wrong | Free replacement, documented handover | Re-staff, the clock may restart | Search again yourself | A costly re-hire cycle |
A marketplace wins when you already know exactly who to hire and want to manage them yourself. An agency makes sense when you want a whole project owned end to end on a fixed bid. Devlyn sits between the two: vetted people, your direction, senior review on the output, and the freedom to leave any month.
THE NUMBERS
The offer, in five figures you can hold us to.
48h
From discovery call to a matched shortlist
150+
Vetted engineers on the Devlyn bench today
2 wk
Paid trial in your real codebase
$0
To replace an engineer or convert to direct
AN HONEST QUALIFIER
Who this is for, and who it is not.
We would rather say no on the call than sell you a seat you do not need. If you sit clearly on the right-hand list, another route will serve you better, and we will happily point you to it.
DEVLYN FITS WHEN
LOOK ELSEWHERE WHEN
THE GUARANTEES
The risk sits with us, not with you.
48h
Shortlist after discovery
2-3 vetted profiles within 48 hours, not a multi-week sourcing cycle.
1 week
Paid codebase trial
Evaluate real work in your repo or approved data environment before month-to-month continuation.
Free
Replacement
If the engineer is not the right fit, Devlyn re-staffs without a second sourcing fee.
0
Conversion fee
Scale up, down, or transition back in-house without a long lock-in or conversion charge.
QUESTIONS
Before you book, the honest answers.
How fast can someone actually start?
After the 30-minute discovery call, you get 2-3 vetted profiles within 48 hours. The start date then depends on your interviews, access, NDA, and the scope of the paid one-week trial, typically days, not weeks.
How does the paid one-week trial work, and what does it cost?
The engineer works one paid week in your real codebase or an approved data environment, at the same rate as the ongoing engagement, prorated for the one week. You pay for real committed work in your repo, not for a sales pitch, and you judge pull requests, tests, and communication before anything continues month-to-month.
Do you bill monthly or hourly?
Both. Dedicated engineers are billed monthly. Time & Material engagements are billed hourly on tracked actuals. Every role page lists both rates by seniority level, so you pick the model that fits the work, and you can switch between them as the roadmap changes.
Do I have to sign a long contract?
No. Engagements are month-to-month after the paid one-week trial. There is no lock-in and no conversion fee, so you can scale up, scale down, or move the work back in-house whenever your roadmap changes.
How does the matching actually work?
On the call we map your stack and the real risk in your system to a role and seniority level. We then shortlist from a bench of 150+ engineers against that risk, not against resume keywords, and hand you 2-3 profiles to interview yourself, with scenario questions we help you design. Nothing proceeds without your yes.
What if the engineer is not the right fit, and how fast is a replacement?
Devlyn provides a free replacement with no second sourcing fee. Because we staff from a standing bench, a replacement is usually shortlisted within days and inherits context through a documented handover, so your roadmap does not restart from zero.
How is my code, data, and IP protected?
NDA and IP assignment are signed before onboarding. Access is scoped to what the engagement needs, everything produced belongs to you, including trial work, and AI tools are used inside your security rules, never fed your data casually.
Will the engineer work in our timezone?
Yes. Every engagement is planned with overlap windows for US, UK, European, and Australian teams. Standups, reviews, and incident response happen inside your working hours, in English, every time.
What happens if we need to scale down or pause?
You give notice at the month boundary and the engagement ends cleanly, with complete documentation and a handover of everything produced. There is no penalty for scaling down, and you can add the seat back later. A partner who is easy to leave is the one you keep.