Motivation & Metrics
Why is this role open now, and what does delay cost?
for employers
Senior IT engineers for Dutch scale-ups, from the Netherlands and across Europe.
Renforza finds and places senior IT talent for Dutch tech scale-ups of 15 to 75 people. We work on contingency, qualify every search with our own MATCHED framework, and only put forward candidates who've cleared it. The fee is 19 percent, due only on a successful placement.
the problem
The Dutch IT market is structurally tight.
The numbers tell the story:
133open IT roles per 100 job seekers in the Netherlands.
43%of new hires leave because the role turned out different from what they were told.
every monthan unfilled critical engineering role costs you lost productivity, a slipping roadmap, and an overloaded team.
The standard fix is throwing more recruiters at the same LinkedIn search. What you get back is a stack of CVs that look great on paper and still don't fit three months in.
The problem isn't the supply of CVs. It's the qualification up front.
our approach
We don't start searching. We start understanding.
It begins with a short, honest intake where we work the search from both sides. The candidate side: which skills are truly required, what kind of engineer thrives on your team, and what success in this role looks like. And your side: why the seat is open now, what's not getting done while it's empty, and what every month of delay is costing you.
Only when the search makes sense to us do we start looking, in our Dutch and Polish networks rather than on job boards. And if we conclude the role can't be filled at the package you're offering, you'll hear that from us first.
An honest no on day one beats three weeks of chasing someone who doesn't exist.
nearshoring
How does nearshore recruitment through Renforza work?
A nearshore team through Renforza is made up of senior engineers who join your payroll or work for you remotely, from the same time zone. We recruit and qualify, and the knowledge stays in your house. That's the difference between us and a dev shop: you're not renting an agency, you're hiring your own people. Hiring Polish developers onto your own payroll, in the Netherlands or straight into your remote team, is nearshore recruitment, not outsourcing.
As for cost: a senior nearshore developer in Eastern Europe runs roughly 40 to 70 euros an hour, where the same seniority in the Netherlands sits at 100 to 175. Those figures come from vendor guides like Qubit Labs and Index.dev, so build in some margin. The real argument was never the price anyway. It's the talent pool: the scarcity that's structural in the Netherlands is manageable there.
Poland is our home turf, and not by accident: we speak both ends of this corridor, Dutch on your side and Polish on the other. Poland has one of the strongest hard-science traditions in Europe. Polish students consistently score above the Western average in math and science in the OECD's PISA study, and in the 2025 English Proficiency Index, Poland ranks 15th out of 123 countries, in the same top band as the Netherlands. The tech hubs Krakow, Poznan, and Gdansk score higher still. A stand-up in English runs smoothly at both ends.
Nearshoring is bigger than one country, though. Romania has the lowest rates in the region, Portugal has grown into a premium destination, and Ukraine's tech sector has proven remarkably resilient through everything. If another country fits you better, we work with partners there and keep the qualification in our own hands.
We recruit nearshore developers for PHP, Java, .NET, React, Node.js, and Go, among others, from mid-level through staff. No time difference chewing up your coordination, no language barrier eating your requirements. Just well-trained engineers, in your own time zone, who get your jokes.
matched
We qualify both sides equally hard.
MATCHED is our own qualification framework, adapted from MEDDPICC in enterprise sales. We test the search and the candidate across seven dimensions, so the match still holds at day 90. Not because we like paperwork, but because a placement that falls apart fast helps nobody.
The seven dimensions:
Authority
Who actually decides, and is the budget committed?
Timeline
Is the target start date realistic given your own process?
Criteria
What are the three real must-haves, beyond the nice-to-haves?
Hurdles
Which blockers could still derail the hire?
Expectations
What will a successful hire have accomplished after a year?
Differentiation
Why would a top candidate choose you?
terms
Clear terms, no fine print.
19 percent
Fee on gross annual salary, deliberately below the Dutch market norm of 20 to 30 percent. Payable only after a successful placement.
90 days
Guarantee period. If your new hire walks within 90 days, we run the search again at no charge.
No placement, no fee
Contingency by default. Retained search is available for senior leadership roles.
Flexible
Contract staffing, contract-to-hire, something else entirely? All on the table. Reach out and we'll walk through the options.
Project teams
Sometimes the answer isn't one engineer but a whole team for a defined project. We do that too, through our partners in Poland. Get in touch and we'll scope it together.
frequently asked questions
Questions employers ask.
How does the process work?
It starts with an intake call, usually about an hour. We walk the search through our MATCHED framework and tell you straight if a role isn't fillable. Only then do we go looking, in our Dutch and Polish networks.
What does it cost?
19 percent of gross annual salary, due only on a successful placement. No upfront costs, no retainer. Contract staffing and contract-to-hire are on the table too.
What if the candidate doesn't work out?
If the candidate leaves within 90 days, we find a replacement at no charge. No debate, no fine print.
Do you also do nearshoring?
Yes. We have direct access to the Polish IT network. Same time zone, same EU law, and we speak the language natively. Polish engineers work remote or hybrid for Dutch clients, or relocate to the Netherlands if they want to.
Can I hire a Polish developer directly, on my own payroll?
Yes, and that's exactly the model. With outsourcing, the developer stays employed by an agency abroad. With nearshore recruitment, the engineer joins your company: on a Dutch contract if they relocate, or working remotely from Poland. Your team, your IP, your culture. We find and qualify them, you employ them.
What does a nearshore developer cost?
Figure roughly 40 to 70 euros an hour at senior level in Eastern Europe, against 100 to 175 for comparable seniority in the Netherlands. Hire someone onto your own payroll and the salary typically lands 40 to 60 percent below the Dutch level. The figures come from vendor guides, so build in some margin. We'll run the numbers for your specific case in the intake.
What about GDPR and intellectual property with nearshoring?
Inside the EU, that's exactly the advantage: the same GDPR, the same legal system, and IP terms in a standard European employment or services contract. No chain of subcontractors outside the EU. If you work with sensitive data, an engineer inside the EU is the shortest route to compliance.
What is MATCHED?
Our own qualification framework, adapted from MEDDPICC in enterprise sales. We qualify both the search and the candidate across seven dimensions. The result: only matches that still hold at day 90.
Do you work with every type of company?
No. We work exclusively with IT scale-ups of 15 to 75 people in the Netherlands who are serious about their next hire. If you don't have an in-house recruiting function, we're probably a fit.
