A senior PostgreSQL hire in Seattle costs $240,324 a year. Octogle: $63,350.
That's the median advertised salary for data & ai engineers in Seattle plus the employer costs you're legally required to pay — before benefits, equipment, office space or a 22.5% recruiter fee ($49,005 on a senior hire). Hiring locally typically takes 44 days; Octogle sends a shortlist in 48 hours.
| Level | Seattle salary | Employer costs | Loaded cost / yr | Octogle / yr | You save |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Mid-level | $189,200 | $22,109 | $211,309 | $39,594 | $171,716 (81%) |
| Senior | $217,800 | $22,524 | $240,324 | $63,350 | $176,974 (74%) |
| Staff / lead | $268,300 | $23,256 | $291,556 | $87,106 | $204,451 (70%) |
Employer costs: Social Security + Medicare (FICA) $14,597 · Unemployment tax (FUTA + state) $42 · Health cover (employer share, single) $7,885 (senior). Octogle is our published hourly rate × 173 hours a month, all-in. Salaries are median advertised base pay; see sources below.
Working hours that overlap Seattle
Shared hours between a 09:00–17:30 day in Seattle and an engineer's local working day, in winter.
1099, W-2 and overseas engineers
US workers are W-2 employees or 1099 independent contractors depending on the IRS common-law test of behavioural control, financial control and the type of relationship, not on what the contract says. Misclassifying an employee leaves the company liable for back employment taxes, and from payments made in 2026 a 1099-NEC is needed only once a contractor is paid $2,000 or more in a year. A non-US engineer working entirely outside the US earns foreign-source income: it is not wages, is not subject to US withholding, and no 1099 is filed. The company should collect a Form W-8BEN to document the engineer's foreign status, and local employment and misclassification law in the engineer's country still applies.
General information, not legal advice. Octogle handles contracts and payroll for every placement.
The Seattle market
- BLS OEWS May 2025: 92,770 software developers employed in the Seattle-Tacoma-Bellevue metro, median annual wage $167,280; 44.5 per 1,000 jobs (location quotient 4.10 vs the US average of 1.00).
- Levels.fyi 2025 regional report: Seattle median software-engineer total compensation $250,000, +5.1% YoY.
Pick the PostgreSQL problem. See who we would send.
Thu PhamSenior Data Engineer96/ 100
Divya MenonBackend Engineer91/ 100
Nour El-SayedBackend Engineer87/ 10025,000 applied. 1,000 got in.
Five scored stages, all finished before a profile reaches you. Nobody skips a stage to hit a deadline.
From $19 an hour. That is the whole pricing page.
One hourly rate with our margin printed on every invoice, billed monthly. No placement fee and no notice period beyond two weeks.
$14,202/ monthEquivalent to $82 an hourThe engagement, as a spec sheet
How OctogleHire compares
Vetting
Resume screening only
Self-reported skills
5-stage technical vetting (1 in 25 pass rate)
Time to Hire
6–12 weeks
Weeks of filtering
48 hours to first match
Cost
$20K–$40K placement fees
Low rates, variable quality
40–60% less, no placement fee
Compliance
You manage it
You manage it
Fully managed (30+ countries)
Replacement
30–90 days (if any)
None
14–30 day replacement guarantee
Support
Account rep (9-5)
Ticket system
Dedicated account manager
“We in need of a handful of developers for our internal CRM build after speaking with multiple agencies and receiving some quotations we sat down with Yaseen from Octogle and we were pleasantly surprised to see what was available for us within their talent pool. we took on three developers saving upwards of circa £6000 per month and developing the software in record time exactly how we wanted it. Highly suggest anyone to use octogle hire if you’re looking for a cost-effective high-quality software development solution.”
Questions engineering leaders ask
The median advertised salary for a senior data engineer in Seattle is about $217,800. With statutory employer costs (social security + medicare (fica), unemployment tax (futa + state), health cover (employer share, single)) the loaded cost is about $240,324 a year, before benefits, equipment and a 22.5% recruiter fee.
An Octogle senior engineer costs about $63,350 a year at our published hourly rate — about 74% less than a loaded Seattle hire — with no placement fee, a 14-day replacement guarantee and two weeks' notice.
Latin America — Colombia and Mexico overlap almost all of a Seattle working day, Brazil and Argentina most of it. Octogle matches engineers with at least 4–6 hours of overlap with your team.
US workers are W-2 employees or 1099 independent contractors depending on the IRS common-law test of behavioural control, financial control and the type of relationship, not on what the contract says. Misclassifying an employee leaves the company liable for back employment taxes, and from payments made in 2026 a 1099-NEC is needed only once a contractor is paid $2,000 or more in a year. A non-US engineer working entirely outside the US earns foreign-source income: it is not wages, is not subject to US withholding, and no 1099 is filed.
Hiring a software engineer locally typically takes around 44 days. Octogle shares a scored shortlist of 3–5 vetted PostgreSQL engineers within 48 hours of your brief.
You'll receive 3–5 vetted candidate profiles within 48 hours of your demo call. Most companies go from first intro to signed contract in under 5 business days — compared to 6–12 weeks with traditional agencies.
Every developer passes a 5-stage process: application screening, stack-specific technical assessment, live system design interview, soft-skills evaluation, and reference checks. From over 25,000 applicants reviewed, only 1,000 have been accepted into our network.
OctogleHire engineers start at £15/hr (about $19), with senior engineers at about £24/hr. That is roughly 50–65% less than the loaded cost of an equivalent in-house hire in the UK, US or Australia — a senior UK hire costs about £48/hr once employer costs are included. There are no upfront fees or placement commissions; you pay one published hourly rate once your engineer starts.
Sources
- Indeed Seattle: Software Engineer pay (base median, postings, past 36 mo, updated Oct 2026)
- Indeed Seattle: Senior Software Engineer pay
- Indeed Seattle: Staff Software Engineer pay
- Indeed Seattle: Front End Developer pay
- Indeed Seattle: Back End Developer pay
- Indeed Seattle: Mobile Developer pay
- Indeed Seattle: iOS Developer pay
- Indeed Seattle: Android Developer pay
- Indeed Seattle: DevOps Engineer pay
- Indeed Seattle: Data Engineer pay
- Indeed Seattle: Machine Learning Engineer pay
- BLS OEWS May 2025, Seattle-Tacoma-Bellevue metro (SOC 15-1252 software developers)
- Levels.fyi 2025 US Regional Report (median total comp by metro)
- IRS: Independent contractor (self-employed) or employee?
Send the brief. Meet PostgreSQL engineers on Thursday.
Twenty minutes with an Octogle engineer, then three to five scored profiles inside 48 hours. Free to post, with a replacement guarantee on every placement.
Mexico
Colombia
Argentina
Brazil
Portugal
Egypt
India
Pakistan
Philippines
Poland
Romania
Ukraine