Steady work. Clear scope. Paid on the date we promised.
StratEdge contracts with U.S. clients and subcontracts the engineering. You do not do sales, you do not negotiate scope, you do not chase invoices, and you do not carry the risk that a client pays late.
You get a written brief, a fixed definition of done, and a delivery date.
Every assignment is scoped before you accept it. What done means is written down, agreed, and does not move if the client pays late, disputes an invoice, or goes quiet. StratEdge carries the not change mid-build without a negotiated change order.
This costs us working capital, which is exactly why most intermediaries do not do it. It is also the single reason a good engineer should pick this over contracting alone.
What you do not deal with
- Finding clients or writing proposals
- Negotiating scope or rates with a client
- Chasing an unpaid invoice
- Explaining the same requirement three times
- Managing a client relationship on top of writing code
- Sitting idle between contracts
Tiers
Four tiers, published criteria
Tier is assigned at verification and reviewed after every project against criteria you can see in your dashboard. Nothing about progression is discretionary.
| Tier | Level | Responsibility | Criteria |
|---|---|---|---|
| T1 | Junior | Scoped tasks, reviewed at each step | Verified, 1–3 years. |
| T2 | Mid-level | Owns features end to end | 3–5 years, 3 delivered StratEdge projects, performance score 4.3+. |
| T3 | Senior | Owns workstreams, mentors juniors | 5+ years, score 4.6+. |
| T4 | Technical lead | Architecture ownership, client-facing eligible | Score 4.8+. |
We work with engineers across a defined set of countries, based on where we can support the engagement properly — if your country is not currently supported we will tell you at the automated screen rather than after you have done a technical challenge.
Where the money goes
StratEdge retains a management fee on every project. It funds client acquisition, scoping, project management, quality review, and support — the work that turns engineering hours into a delivered product.
- Package work has a published hour budget. You see it before you accept, and it is what the price supports.
- Work is reviewed and approved stage by stage — not all at once at the end.
- Scope and acceptance criteria are agreed in writing before work begins, and do not change without a negotiated change order.
- The management fee is proportionally larger on small packages, because sales and QA cost roughly the same whether the project is $500 or $5,000.
- If a package consistently runs over its hour budget, that is our mispricing to fix — not hours for you to absorb. Flag it.
Vetting
Five stages, roughly two weeks
Published in full because a process you cannot see is a process you cannot plan around.
- Stage 01Same day
Application
Skills, experience, timezone, links. About 15 minutes. You can save and come back.
- Stage 02< 24 hours
Automated screen
GitHub activity, region eligibility, duplicate check. Automatic — no human waiting.
- Stage 031 week to submit
Technical challenge
A scoped 4–6 hour problem in your primary stack. Unpaid, and we will tell you that plainly rather than calling it a "sample project."
- Stage 04Scheduled within a week
Interview
45 minutes. Communication, English, and scenario judgment. Weighted at least as heavily as the code — communication is the most common reason offshore work fails.
- Stage 052–4 days
Verification
Government ID, subcontractor agreement, and IP assignment. Then your tier is assigned.
If we say no
You get a reason, not silence. Rejected applicants can reapply after six months. We track this because a bench that treats applicants badly stops receiving good referrals, and referrals are our best source of engineers.
What we expect
- Written communication that does not need a follow-up to understand
- Overlap with the stated timezone window on your assignments
- Flagging a blocker the day it appears, not the day the milestone is due
- Work that passes internal review — rejected deliverables cost you rework hours and score
- Keeping your availability accurate, because staffing decisions run on it
How you grow here
Your performance score is visible to you with its full breakdown — on-time delivery, QA pass rate, communication responsiveness, and PM rating. There is no hidden ranking deciding whether you get work.
Tier promotions have written criteria. When you meet them, you move up, and your rate moves with it. T3 and T4 engineers can also earn on mentorship and on client-facing work.
Your first project runs as probation: reduced scope, deeper review, and two check-ins. It is not a hazing ritual — it is how we avoid putting an unproven engineer on a milestone that matters.
Applications for the founding bench are open.
Early engineers get first access to projects, direct input on how the platform works, and faster tier progression while the bench is small.