Delivery models
Contract, contract-to-hire, direct — onshore, nearshore, offshore
Conntal staffs globally across three commercial models and three location models. We recommend nearshore first because it preserves same-working-day overlap while aligning cost with budget. The location model changes the rate, never the screen.
Commercial models
Three ways to engage.
Contract
A vetted engineer embedded in your team for a defined term.
Hourly, billed against an approved SOW. Most common for migrations, upgrades and capacity surges where the work has an end date.
Contract-to-hire
Work together first, convert when it is obviously working.
A defined conversion window and a pre-agreed fee, so the decision to hire is a business decision rather than a negotiation.
Direct placement
A permanent hire, screened to the same standard.
One-time fee against first-year base. Used where the role is a long-term platform owner rather than project capacity.
Rate bands
How a rate is built.
We do not publish a single number, because a rate that ignores scarcity and seniority is a number you cannot plan against. Here is the actual method, so you can sanity-check any quote you receive — from us or from anyone else.
| Factor | What moves it | Typical effect |
|---|---|---|
| Location model | Onshore, nearshore or offshore | The largest single lever on rate |
| Seniority | Whether the engineer leads the change or executes it | Substantial |
| Scarcity | How many people have actually run this platform in production | Substantial for messaging and Cloudera work |
| Clearance and residency | Security clearance, US-person requirements, data residency | Narrows the pool before rate is discussed |
| Engagement length | Term and expected extension | Moderate |
| On-call | Whether the role carries a rotation | Moderate |
Location models
Global bench. Nearshore first.
The parent practices already deliver across 26+ countries, which is where the network comes from. Nearshore is the recommendation we lead with; the other two exist because constraints and coverage sometimes decide it for you.
Onshore
Highest rateUS-based, on client time zones, cleared where the engagement requires it. The model for regulated work with residency or clearance constraints.
Nearshore
Our default recommendationLatin America and Canada, four hours or less of overlap loss, same working day. This is where cost and collaboration balance best for most enterprise teams, and it is the model we recommend first.
Offshore
Lowest rateEurope, India and South East Asia. Works well for follow-the-sun support and for workstreams with clean handoff boundaries.
A mixed model is common and often better than a single choice: an onshore lead who owns the relationship and the architecture, with nearshore delivery capacity beneath. For follow-the-sun on-call, offshore adds genuine out-of-hours coverage rather than asking one team to carry nights.
FAQ
Delivery: what buyers ask
Which delivery model should we choose?
Start with the shape of the work. Bounded change with an in-house owner afterwards suits contract. Change that becomes ongoing ownership suits contract-to-hire. A permanent platform owner suits direct placement. We will tell you which one your scope actually is rather than defaulting to the one that pays us most.
How does nearshore staffing work?
Engineers based in Latin America or Canada work your business hours with four hours or less of overlap loss. They join your standups, repositories and on-call rotation exactly as an onshore engineer would. The only practical difference is rate.
Why do you recommend nearshore first?
Because it is where cost and collaboration balance best for most enterprise teams. Offshore saves more and costs you working-day overlap; onshore preserves everything and costs the most. Nearshore keeps the working day intact while aligning rate with budget, so it is the default we start from unless a constraint decides otherwise.
When is onshore required rather than preferred?
When data residency, security clearance, ITAR-style restrictions or a client contractual term requires US-based personnel. These are constraints, not preferences, and we treat them as a staffing filter from the first conversation rather than discovering them at contract.
Which countries do you staff from?
We staff globally. Nearshore is principally Latin America and Canada; offshore is principally Europe, India and South East Asia. The parent practices already operate across 26+ countries, which is where the network comes from.
Are nearshore and offshore engineers vetted to the same standard?
Yes. The location model changes the rate, not the screen. The same practitioner runs the same production scenario regardless of where the candidate sits.
How is contract work billed?
Hourly against approved timesheets, invoiced monthly in arrears to your PO and AP process, under an MSA with an SOW per engagement.
What happens if a placement is not working?
The vetting practitioner stays attached to the placement and raises it before you have to. There is a defined replacement window rather than a dispute.
Tell us the constraint and we will tell you the model.
Residency, clearance, budget or coverage — whichever one is binding usually decides the delivery model before anything else does.