Hiring software engineers means screening dozens of candidates weekly, most of whom look identical on paper: strong GPA, relevant degree, polished GitHub. The real bottleneck isn't volume—it's signal. You need to separate problem-solvers from resume-optimizers, architects from copy-paste coders, and culture fits from flight risks. Most hiring managers spend 60+ minutes per candidate on phone screens and technical assessments, only to discover coding ability doesn't predict collaboration or debugging mindset. Raffi, an agentic AI recruiter, removes that guesswork by running structured interviews with consistent rubrics across every candidate who applies to your role. Instead of uneven assessments conducted by different team members at different times, you get scored evaluations on code reasoning, system design thinking, and communication clarity—the traits that separate strong performers from mediocre ones. The system learns your standards and flags candidates who meet them, so your team focuses only on final-round conversations with people already validated. No more wasted cycles on false positives. No more silent rejections of strong fits. Start by syncing your open software engineering roles and letting candidates apply. Raffi handles the structured loop. You make the hire.
13,310/mo
Software recruiting searches
10-15 min
Per applicant interview
$0
Placement / hire fees
Raffi calls every applicant for a 10-15 min structured interview. Not just the top 5 résumés — every one. Result: nobody good slips through.
Conversational AI interview, rubric-anchored scoring, transcripts you can read. You get a top 3-5 shortlist while competitors are still scheduling first-rounds.
SaaS pricing from $199/mo. No 15-25% of first-year salary, no per-hire kickback. Cancel anytime.
Software engineer hiring shifted in 2025-26. After two years of surplus candidates, applicant volume tightened notably, particularly for backend and systems engineers. Time-to-hire lengthened by 15-20% across the industry, driven partly by candidates taking longer to decide and partly by hiring loops that can't keep pace with application speed. Turnover rates edged upward, especially among engineers 2-4 years into their first senior role—a segment teams now compete harder to retain. Remote-first roles have expanded, flattening geography but deepening competition. Teams report that technical screening inconsistency—different interviewers, different bar, different outcomes—has become a competitive liability. Candidates now expect faster feedback loops and clearer communication of evaluation criteria. Companies investing in standardized, repeatable technical workflows report better offer acceptance rates and shorter time-to-productivity for hires.
Software engineering hiring requires assessing abstract reasoning and execution quality on code problems, not just credentials. You can't spot a strong systems thinker from a resume. You need consistent technical evaluation across dozens of candidates to avoid anchoring bias or interviewer drift. Engineering candidates also expect structured feedback and clear hiring signals—vague rejection emails erode employer brand. High application volume demands a screening layer that doesn't slow your engineers down. Unlike hiring for many other roles, coding ability is easy to test but hard to interpret fairly without a rubric. Finally, false negatives (rejecting capable engineers) carry real cost in a competitive market.
Anchored to real offer data, not estimate aggregates.
Role-specific, behavioral, structured. Same questions for every applicant — the only way to score fairly.
Walk me through a system you've built or contributed to where requirements changed mid-development. How did you adapt the design?
What it tests: Flexibility and systems thinking under constraint
Tell me about a bug you spent hours tracking down. What was your debugging process, and what would you do differently now?
What it tests: Problem-solving rigor and learning orientation
Describe a time you pushed back on a technical decision made by a senior teammate. What happened?
What it tests: Communication, judgment, and team dynamics
You've inherited code from a previous engineer that works but is difficult to maintain. Do you refactor it, and under what conditions?
What it tests: Pragmatism and codebase stewardship
Give me an example of feedback you received on your code. How did you respond, and what changed?
What it tests: Receptiveness and growth mindset
Software hiring teams typically deal with high applicant volume per role, narrow technical bars, and tight time-to-hire windows. Raffi automates the screening loop end-to-end — every software engineers applicant gets a structured interview within 24 hours, scored against your rubric. You spend your time on the top 3-5 instead of 60 résumés.
Yes. Raffi generates role-specific behavioral questions tied to your scorecard. For software we anchor on the structured questions hiring managers in this vertical actually use (a few samples are listed above). You can edit any of them before they go live.
Structured technical interviews using consistent rubrics catch this gap. Evaluate not just correctness but reasoning, trade-off awareness, and how candidates communicate their approach. Candidates who articulate their logic clearly and acknowledge trade-offs typically execute better on the job.
Spend 60% on fundamentals—data structures, system design, debugging—and 40% on domain specifics. Strong fundamentals transfer across codebases; domain skills are learned quickly. Assess what's hardest to teach.
Standardize your screening loop so all candidates face the same evaluation, reducing back-and-forth scheduling and inconsistent assessments. Faster, consistent evaluation also improves candidate experience and offer acceptance rates.
Agentic recruiting is recruiting done by an AI agent that takes action on your behalf — not a chatbot or résumé summarizer. Raffi calls every applicant for a structured 10-15 minute interview, scores them against your rubric, and hands you a ranked top 3-5. The work happens autonomously.
Most agencies charge 15-25% of first-year salary as a placement fee — a $90k hire runs $13-22k. Raffi is SaaS at $199-599/mo plus per-action credits, typically landing under $10k/year for a team hiring 12 people. Same shortlist quality, no placement contract.
About 25 minutes to onboard, post your first role, and have Raffi ready to interview applicants. No engineering work, no integration project. Connect your work email, paste a JD, you're live.
Free $25 starter credit. No credit card. Screening live by tonight.