--- title: "Senior developer role still open? What to do next" description: "Why small companies keep losing senior developer hires, what each empty month costs, and how to keep the roadmap moving while you recruit." url: https://www.fluff.software/guides/senior-developer-role-still-open/ updated: 2026-10-23 publisher: Fluff Software --- # Your senior developer role has been open for months. What now? Why smaller companies keep losing senior hires to better-funded rivals, what each empty month really costs, and how to keep the roadmap moving while you keep looking. By **Scott Gulliver**, founder of Fluff Software Published 11 November 2026 _Image: Three colleagues talking at a shared desk_ ## Short answer Keep recruiting, but stop waiting for the hire before the roadmap moves. A senior developer outside London costs about £88,000 in year one and takes months to land, and from January 2027 a hire that doesn’t work out is harder to undo. A fractional team can start within a week or two and run alongside the search. ## Why the role is still open If you’ve lost two offers to better-funded companies, you’re not doing anything unusual wrong. Senior developers are expensive and in demand, and a 30 to 50 person company is bidding against rivals with far deeper pockets. The median advertised salary for a senior developer outside London is £65,000 ([IT Jobs Watch](https://www.itjobswatch.co.uk/jobs/uk%20excluding%20london/senior%20software%20developer.do)), and the strongest candidates have several offers at once. Smaller firms are feeling it across the board. New UK companies created an average of 2.7 jobs each in 2025, about one fewer than when records began in 2017, and business groups point to the cost and risk of permanent hires ([Bloomberg, via Insurance Journal](https://amp.insurancejournal.com/news/international/2026/02/19/858673.htm)). ## What each empty month costs - **The roadmap slips.** Whatever the hire was meant to build is a month later, and so is everything queued behind it. - **Your seniors do junior work.** Integrations and customer tweaks still arrive, and the people who should be on the core product pick them up. - **You become the review process.** If you’re the only person who checks work properly, quality depends on how tired you are at 11pm. - **Interviews eat the week.** Hiring lands on the busiest technical person in the company, usually you. ## Your options while you search | | Time to start | Rough cost | Employment risk | |---|---|---|---| | Keep waiting for the hire | Months, plus a notice period | About £88,000 in year one | Yes | | Contractor | Days to weeks | About £550 to £850 a day | Low, but you manage them | | Agency project | Weeks, after scoping | £75 to £150 an hour, quoted per job | None | | Fractional product team | Usually a week or two | £30,000 or £48,000 a year | None | The year-one hiring figure includes employer National Insurance, pension and a recruiter fee. [How it’s worked out](https://www.fluff.software/guides/real-cost-of-hiring-a-developer-uk/). ## Why a January hire carries more risk in 2027 From 1 January 2027 the qualifying period for unfair dismissal falls from two years to six months, and the cap on compensation is removed ([BCLP](https://www.bclplaw.com/en-US/events-insights-news/employment-rights-act-2025-key-changes-to-unfair-dismissal-from-1-january-2027.html)). Anyone hired since 1 July 2026 gains that protection on the day it starts ([Penningtons Manches Cooper](https://www.penningtonslaw.com/insights/when-six-months-is-too-long-reduced-qualifying-service-period-for-unfair-dismissal-claims/)). In practice, a rushed hire made in January is much harder to put right by July. That’s a fact about hiring rather than legal advice, so speak to an employment lawyer about your own situation. None of that is a reason not to hire. It’s a reason not to hire in a hurry because the roadmap is on fire. ## Keep hiring, and stop waiting The teams that cope best take the pressure off the search. A second team picks up the integrations, customer requests and well-defined features, so your developers get the roadmap back and you can hold out for the right person. That’s what our subscription is for. Embedded Plus gives you two tracks working through your queue, senior review on every release, and a half-day CTO and planning session each month, for £48,000 a year against roughly £88,000 for a first-year hire. It isn’t one person’s hours: it’s a team that ships through your queue, paced by tracks. If the hire lands, you can keep us on the work they don’t need to touch. [How we work with stretched CTOs](https://www.fluff.software/for/stretched-ctos/). ## Questions Can we use a subscription while we keep recruiting? Yes, and many teams do. We take the integrations, customer work and well-defined features, so your team keeps the roadmap and you can wait for the right hire. Is the subscription the same as hiring a developer? No, and we’d rather not pretend it is. You get a team working through your queue with senior review and planning time, paced by tracks. Compare the cost and what ships, not the headcount. How quickly can you start? Usually within a week or two of signing, with a short onboarding session to sort access, understand how your product is built and agree what goes first. ## Sources 1. [IT Jobs Watch, senior software developer salaries, UK excluding London](https://www.itjobswatch.co.uk/jobs/uk%20excluding%20london/senior%20software%20developer.do) 2. [Insurance Journal, reporting Bloomberg: UK startups are hiring fewer people](https://amp.insurancejournal.com/news/international/2026/02/19/858673.htm) 3. [BCLP, Employment Rights Act 2025: unfair dismissal changes from 1 January 2027](https://www.bclplaw.com/en-US/events-insights-news/employment-rights-act-2025-key-changes-to-unfair-dismissal-from-1-january-2027.html) 4. [Penningtons Manches Cooper, when six months is too long: the reduced qualifying period for unfair dismissal](https://www.penningtonslaw.com/insights/when-six-months-is-too-long-reduced-qualifying-service-period-for-unfair-dismissal-claims/) ## Keep reading [The real cost of hiring a developer in 2026 Salary, 15% employer NI, pension, recruiter fees and months of hiring time, plus the January 2027 dismissal changes: what a senior UK developer really costs.](https://www.fluff.software/guides/real-cost-of-hiring-a-developer-uk/) [Sales sold a feature you haven’t built. Now what? A customer signed because of a feature that doesn’t exist yet. How to find out what was really promised, ship it in small pieces the customer can see, and stop it pulling your whole team off course.](https://www.fluff.software/guides/sales-sold-a-feature-you-havent-built/) [Fractional CTO or product team? A fractional CTO gives strategy and leadership; a product team ships the work. When you need which, how they fit together, and the questions to ask before choosing.](https://www.fluff.software/guides/fractional-cto-vs-product-team/) --- Fluff Software, a senior product team embedded in your business. Book a call: https://www.fluff.software/contact/ or email contact@fluff.software. Agents: see https://www.fluff.software/llms.txt and https://www.fluff.software/AGENTS.md.