Senior engineers,
inside your team.
IT staff augmentation for UK companies: experienced Magora developers, QA and DevOps engineers join your existing team, work in your backlog and your stand-ups, and scale up or down month by month. From £49/hour per developer.
More capacity,
without a hiring round.
Staff augmentation suits teams that already have an engineering lead and a process, and need more senior hands or a skill they lack — for a launch, a migration or a backlog that keeps growing. Magora's own engineers join your team from its London office, billed monthly.
From £49/hour per developer
About £390 a day per developer; £65–£70/hour for a full team with QA and product ownership.
Four weeks, then monthly
Minimum four weeks, then monthly rolling — scale up or down month by month.
Your code, your IP
NDA on day one; engineers commit to your repository and IP transfers on payment.
When staff augmentation
makes sense.
Staff augmentation works best when you already know what needs building and who decides priorities. Typical reasons UK teams add engineers:
A launch date that will not move
Extra senior capacity for the months before a release, without a permanent hire.
A skill your team lacks
iOS, DevOps, test automation or AI for as long as the work needs it.
A backlog that keeps growing
More hands on features and fixes while your own team stays on the core.
A migration or upgrade
Framework upgrades, cloud moves and legacy rewrites that would otherwise stall the roadmap. See legacy modernisation.
While you recruit
Senior engineers in the seat while a permanent hire is found and onboarded.
Cover for absence
Capacity while a team member is on extended leave.
The roles you
can add.
Engineers who have shipped production software, not candidates we still have to find.
Web & back-end developers
PHP and Laravel, Node.js, Python, and React or Vue on the front end.
Mobile developers
iOS / Swift, Android / Kotlin, React Native and Flutter engineers who have been through store review.
QA engineers
Manual and automated testing that slots into your release process.
DevOps engineers
CI/CD pipelines, cloud infrastructure on AWS, Azure or Google Cloud, and monitoring.
UX / UI designers
Product designers who work in your design system and with your developers.
Staff augmentation,
dedicated team or contractor?
Three ways to add engineering capacity. The right one depends on who manages the work and how long you need it. More in IT contractors vs outsourcing teams.
| Staff augmentation | Dedicated team | Freelance contractor | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Who manages the work | Your engineering lead | Magora (tech lead / Product Owner) | You |
| Best for | An existing team that needs more senior capacity or a missing skill | A product or roadmap that runs for months | A few days or weeks of a specific skill |
| Commitment | Four weeks, then monthly | Four weeks, then monthly | Usually by the day or week |
| Scaling | Add or release engineers monthly | Grow into a larger team | Find another contractor |
Need the whole outcome delivered rather than more hands? See the dedicated development team.
What staff augmentation
costs.
Our 2026 prices in GBP. Billed monthly for the hours worked; no recruitment or placement fee.
About £390 a day. Depends on role and seniority.
Developers with QA and product ownership included, if you need more than hands.
Then monthly rolling, scaled up or down month by month.
A working prototype of a piece of your product in 5–10 working days, so you judge the engineers on real code.
From first call
to first commit.
Brief
Day oneSkills, seniority, time zone overlap, tools and how long you need the engineers.
Shortlist
Matched to the briefEngineers from our team whose experience fits your stack and domain.
Meet & prototype
Before you commitYou meet the engineers; if you want, they build a free working prototype in 5–10 working days.
Onboard
First sprintAccess to your repository, tools and ceremonies; first tickets in the first sprint.
Review & scale
MonthlyA monthly check-in on fit and workload; add or release engineers as the work changes.
Staff augmentation,
without the body shop.
The risk with any augmented team is buying CVs. These are the ways we keep the work at the standard of your own engineers.
Magora's own engineers
Engineers from our team, not candidates we still have to find or subcontract.
Real code before you sign
A free working prototype in 5–10 working days shows how they think and code.
Senior support behind them
Architects, QA and other specialists at Magora they can turn to when a problem needs more than one person.
What clients
say.
Verified reviews from our Clutch profile — 4.9 out of 5 across 71 client reviews.
“Broader than just the code itself, the team strived to understand the entire project.”
“They didn't simply take our requirements and run with them; they truly made an effort to understand everything.”
“They came through as more of a tech partner rather than just developers for hire.”
Making staff augmentation
work.
What we ask clients to have in place, and what you should expect from us.
A named lead on your side
Someone who sets priorities and reviews the work.
A written definition of done
So external engineers deliver to the same standard as your own.
Access on day one
Repository, tickets, chat and environments ready before the start date.
Overlapping hours
Agreed working hours that overlap with your team's day.
Honest monthly reviews
A regular check on fit and workload, so problems surface early.
A plan for knowledge
Documentation and code reviews, so nothing leaves with the engineer.
Staff augmentation
questions.
IT staff augmentation means adding external engineers to your own team for a period of time. They work in your backlog, your tools and your stand-ups, and your engineering lead directs the work. It fills a skill or capacity gap without a permanent hire.
With staff augmentation you manage the engineers and own delivery. With a dedicated development team, Magora provides a self-contained team with its own tech lead or Product Owner and is responsible for delivering the outcome. Many clients start with one model and switch later.
Our rates start from £49/hour per developer (about £390 a day), and £65–£70/hour for a full team with QA and product ownership. The rate depends on the role and seniority; there is no recruitment fee.
Four weeks, then monthly rolling. For a few days of help, a freelance contractor is usually cheaper.
You meet the proposed engineers before they start, and we can build a free working prototype of a piece of your product in 5–10 working days so you see how they think and code before you sign anything.
You do. We sign an NDA on day one, the engineers commit to your repository, and IP transfers to you on payment.
Yes, month by month: engagements are monthly rolling after the first four weeks. If the work grows into a whole product, the same engineers can become a dedicated team.
Need more hands
on your team?
30-minute call with a senior engineer. Tell us the gap — skill, seniority, how long — and we will tell you who could fill it.