How we work: who owns what, how we vet, and what each level means
One page instead of a slide deck: who owns what, what we reject during vetting, what each level actually means, and which roles we genuinely cover.
Four models
The engagement models
The difference between these models is who owns what, not price. Each has its own page and its own "do not pick this" box.
Before the contract
The responsibility matrix: who owns what
This table is the contract before the contract. The last row is the only one that never changes: the code and the IP are yours on every model.
| The question | Staff augmentation | Dedicated team | Managed team |
|---|---|---|---|
| Who decides what gets built | You | You | Folowise |
| Who sets sprint priorities | You | Shared | Folowise |
| Who runs the daily standup | You | Folowise | Folowise |
| Who reviews the code | You | Folowise | Folowise |
| Who sets the quality bar | You | Shared | Folowise |
| Who formally employs the engineer | Folowise | Folowise | Folowise |
| Who handles payroll and HR | Folowise | Folowise | Folowise |
| Who does the final interview | You | You | Shared |
| Who replaces someone who leaves | Folowise | Folowise | Folowise |
| Who is accountable for the deadline | You | Shared | Folowise |
| Who owns the code and the IP | You | You | You |
Ten stages
How we vet engineers, and what gets rejected at each stage
Any firm can write the word "vetted". The real question is what gets rejected at each stage and who makes the call.
Talent team
Sourcing
Our engineers' networks, employee referrals, and the Folowise Academy community. We do not buy CV lists.
Talent team
Experience screen
We check what they actually built, not what the job title says. Filtered here: title inflation, and one year of experience repeated five times.
A Folowise engineer
A practical technical task
A short task that resembles real work in the target domain. No competitive-programming puzzles. Filtered here: people who interview well and do not produce code.
A Folowise engineer
Live technical interview
Run by a working engineer, not a recruiter. We walk through their decisions on the task and why they made them. Filtered here: copied solutions and shallow understanding.
Engineering lead
Code and architecture review
Senior level and above only. We review prior code and ask for a small system design. Filtered here: people who write working code but cannot justify its structure.
Talent team
English and communication
A recorded English conversation about technical work, graded on a scale we publish to you with the profile. Filtered here: people who cannot explain a technical problem clearly to a client.
Talent team
Delivery maturity and references
How they behave when a date slips, who they tell, and when. We call two references when the candidate allows it.
Engineering lead
Engineering lead sign-off
One person at Folowise puts their name on this candidate. If they will not sign, you never see the profile.
You
Your interview
You interview every candidate before any commitment, and you can say no without explaining. Nobody joins your team without your yes.
Operations
Placement and onboarding
A Jordanian contract, an NDA, IP assignment, equipment, and managed access. A joint review on day 30.
What "Folowise Verified" actually means
The badge is not marketing. It is an audit record you can ask to see. You will never see us write "the top 1% of engineers" because we do not have the data to back it, and any firm that says it without publishing a pass rate is asking you to believe an invented number.
- Identity verified against an official document
- Stated experience confirmed with a past employer or a reference
- Passed a technical task and a live interview with a Folowise engineer
- A recorded English assessment with a score shared with you
- A named Folowise engineer signed off on the recommendation
- Availability and notice period confirmed within the last 30 days
- It is not a performance guarantee. Performance is proven in the work, not the interview
- It does not replace your interview. You interview, you decide
- It is not permanent. It lapses after 6 months without a placement and needs re-checking
- It is not a criminal background check. Extended screening is a separate service with the candidate's consent
The ladder
A level is not a number of years
Plenty of people carry eight years of experience and cannot turn an ambiguous scope into a plan. We grade on scope, independence, architecture and communication; years are a supporting signal, nothing more. The last column is the important one.
| Level | Scope of work | Supervision needed | Architecture | Communication | What we do not promise at this level |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Fresh Graduate0 to 1 year | Fully specified, broken-down tasks, with a mentor assigned | Reviewed daily; every PR read before merge | Makes no architectural decisions | Communicates inside the team only | No independent velocity. A more senior engineer’s review time is part of this seat’s real cost |
| Junior1 to 3 years | A scoped task inside an existing feature | Reviewed every two to three days | Follows the existing architecture and patterns | Asks early when blocked, which is the expectation, not a mark against them | We do not expect them to estimate their own work accurately, or to break down ambiguous scope |
| Mid-Level3 to 5 years | A whole feature, end to end | Reviewed weekly | Decides within an established pattern | Explains their work to non-engineers | We do not expect them to lead a new system design |
| Senior5 to 8 years | Ambiguous scope turned into a delivery plan | Works independently and raises risk early | Designs within a service and justifies trade-offs | Negotiates scope with product directly | Not necessarily a people manager |
| Staff8 years and up | One hard problem that crosses several teams | Consulted on other people’s work; their own is not managed | Sets the pattern the other teams then follow | Writes design documents that decisions get made from | Manages nobody. If you need someone to own the team, that is a Lead, not a Staff |
| Lead8 years and up | The output of a whole team | Directs others and reviews their work | Owns architecture across several services | Represents engineering to stakeholders | Not a substitute for a product manager |
| Principal10 years and up | Technical decisions beyond a single team | Consulted, not managed | Sets platform direction | Writes for executive leadership | We have very few of these. We do not pretend otherwise |
Coverage
What we cover, and what we do not
The list is not a wish list. Roles marked "standing pipeline" are ones we recruit for continuously, and roles marked "not covered" we decline even if you pay more.
Mobile
- Android · Kotlin / ComposeStanding pipeline
- iOS · Swift / SwiftUIStanding pipeline
- FlutterStanding pipeline
- React NativeOn request
- Embedded / firmwareNot covered
Backend
- Node.js / TypeScriptStanding pipeline
- Java / Kotlin · SpringStanding pipeline
- PHP · LaravelStanding pipeline
- Python · Django / FastAPIStanding pipeline
- .NET · C#On request
- GoOn request
- RustNot covered
Frontend
- React / Next.jsStanding pipeline
- Vue / NuxtStanding pipeline
- AngularOn request
- Frontend with design systemsStanding pipeline
Quality
- Manual QAStanding pipeline
- Automation QA · Playwright / CypressStanding pipeline
- Mobile automation · AppiumOn request
- QA leadStanding pipeline
- Performance and load testingOn request
Infrastructure
- DevOps · CI/CDStanding pipeline
- Cloud engineer · AWS / GCP / AzureStanding pipeline
- SREOn request
- Security engineerOn request
- Physical data centre opsNot covered
Product
- Product managerStanding pipeline
- Business analystStanding pipeline
- Delivery lead / Scrum masterStanding pipeline
- Technical PM, platformOn request
Design
- UI/UX designerStanding pipeline
- Product designerStanding pipeline
- UX researcherOn request
- Brand and visual identityOn request
Data and AI
- Data engineerStanding pipeline
- Applied AI engineer · LLMStanding pipeline
- Data analyst and BIOn request
- ML engineer · model trainingOn request
- ML research scientistNot covered
Leadership
- Tech leadStanding pipeline
- Engineering managerOn request
- Solution architectOn request
- Fractional CTOOn request
Every standing-pipeline role has its own page and price: the price book.
The line
The academy and the network are two separate tracks
Plenty of firms turn their bootcamp graduates into "senior engineers" on a profile sheet. We keep the two tracks separate in public because that blur is the fastest way to lose a client after two months.
Folowise Academy
Training programmes for beginners and career changers. The goal is to reach a first-job standard, not to hand them to an international client.
- Output
- An entry-level engineer ready for a first job
- Sold to an external client
- No. Never.
- Path after graduation
- The local job market, or supervised internal Folowise projects
Folowise Engineering Network
Professionals with proven production experience who passed the technical assessment, each one signed off by a named Folowise engineer. Most come straight from the market, not from the academy.
- Output
- An engineer put in front of an international client
- Minimum level
- Mid-Level and above
- Where most come from
- The local market and referrals
A graduate may reach the network one day, but not on the strength of a certificate. They reach it after years of real production work and after passing the same assessment any engineer from the market takes. There is no shortcut from a classroom to a seat on your team.
After the brief
What happens after you send a brief
The requirement record our team opens, its ten stages, and what happens on each of the five working days to the first shortlist.
FAQ
About vetting and starting
01Can I interview candidates and reject them?
Yes, and without explaining why. Our assessment decides who reaches you; it does not replace your decision. If you reject three candidates in a row, we stop sending and re-read the brief with you, because the problem is probably our understanding of the need rather than the candidates.
02What if the engineer is not the right fit?
Within the first 30 days: tell us, and we replace at no additional fee and with no notice period charged to you. After that, a standard 30 day notice applies. We ask one thing in return: tell us in week two if it feels wrong, not in month three. Most mismatches are fixable when raised early.
03How long does this actually take?
For roles where we have a standing pipeline: a first shortlist within 5 working days of a clear brief, and your interviews the week after. The actual start depends on the engineer's notice period with their current employer, and Jordanian labour law requires a month on indefinite contracts. Realistic total: 3 to 6 weeks. We publish both numbers deliberately: anyone publishing "48 hours" alone means time to shortlist, not time to start, and is offering you whoever is unoccupied rather than the best people in the market.
Next step
Tell us what you are trying to ship
Not the headcount. Tell us the product, the date, and what team you have today, and we will propose the shape. If we think what you need is not more engineers, we will say so on the first call.
Typical response within one business day · everything you share is treated as confidential