$ diff refactor hiring-a-senior-dev

Refactor vs hiring a senior dev

A senior hire is the right long-term move. It's the wrong move for the next 4 weeks, when your app is on fire and you haven't even finished the job description.

criterion
Refactor
Hiring a senior dev
Time to start
1 week
8–16 weeks (search + notice)
Total cost, first 3 months
$18k for a full refactor + hand-off
~$50k salary + benefits + tools
Commitment
Fixed scope, ends when done
Permanent hire
Skill match
Picked specifically for AI-built code remediation
Generalist senior, may have never touched Supabase / TanStack
Risk if it doesn't work out
Sprint ends, you stop paying
Severance + 3 months wasted
What you're left with
Production-grade repo + runbook a new hire can pick up
Whatever they shipped before deciding to leave
// bottom line

Hire a senior dev for the long term. Hire Refactor to get the codebase into a state where that hire actually wants to join.

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// next step

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