How to Hire a Senior Software Engineer in Australia

Oct 14

2 min read

A senior software engineer sets the quality of your product and lifts the people around them. Strong ones are employed and rarely look at job ads. This guide covers how to define the role, what to look for and how to find the right person.

Define the role first

Senior software engineer covers many jobs. Decide which one you need:

Backend: services, APIs, databases and performance.
Frontend: web interfaces, design systems and accessibility.
Full stack: both sides. Common in early teams.
Mobile: iOS, Android or cross platform.
Platform: internal tools and the base other engineers build on.

Write down what the person will own in their first six months before you write the ad.

A first senior hire at a startup needs breadth and independence. A hire into a larger team needs depth in one area.

Decide before you hire

Your stack and languages today.
Team size and who the person works with.
Ownership: building alone, or reviewing and guiding others.
Location: office, hybrid or remote, and the time zones you cover.
Stage: a new product, or a system in production.
Pay range. Candidates ask early.

Skills to look for

Production work: software they shipped and kept running.
Strong fundamentals: testing, code review, version control and clean design.
Depth in your stack, and a record of learning new ones.
Judgment: simple solutions over clever ones.
Clear writing and speaking with product and non-technical colleagues.
Mentoring: engineers who grew while working with them.

The best signal is a system they built. Ask what broke after launch and how they fixed the problem.

Where to find candidates

Most strong engineers are employed and approached often. A job ad reaches few of them. Look in these places:

Product companies one or two stages larger than yours, for engineers who want more ownership.
Consultancies, for engineers who want to own one product.
Startups after an acquisition or a slowdown.
Australians working overseas who want to come home.

Lead with the problem, the team and the stack. Say what the person will own.

How to run the interview

A short first call on the role, the team and the problem.
A technical conversation on a real problem from your work. Skip puzzles.
A code review or pairing session on realistic code.
A design discussion for a system close to yours.
A meeting with the team they would join.

Move from first interview to offer in three or four weeks. Give feedback after each stage.

Common mistakes

Listing every tool instead of the problem to solve.
Testing with puzzles unrelated to the job.
Running a slow process while strong candidates take other offers.
Hiding the pay range until late in the process.

Related guides

Building a team? Read how to hire a Head of Engineering and how to hire an ML engineer.

How Staff Hunter helps

Staff Hunter recruits software engineers for startups, scaleups and established businesses in Australia. We find people through direct headhunting. See our software engineering recruitment page, or book a 30-minute call to talk through your role.

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