How project recruitment works

Project recruitment is a fixed-fee engagement where an agency commits to deliver a specified number of vetted candidate profiles within a defined timeline, typically 4 weeks in Israel. You pay upfront (or in installments per the contract), and the agency sources, screens, and submits candidates to your team for review and interview.

The fee is unconditional. If you hire 5 out of 13 submitted candidates, you pay the full 74,100 ₪. If you hire 13, you still pay the same. If you hire zero, the engagement often includes a re-source clause or partial refund of screening work, depending on the contract. This is the core trade-off of project recruitment: you lock in your cost and timeline, but the agency does not assume hiring success risk.

Project recruitment exists because success-fee fails at scale. When you need 10 to 15 people in a quarter, success-fee fees stack exponentially. A 13-person hire cohort at an average 28,000 ₪ monthly salary runs 364,000 ₪ in success fees alone. The same volume via project recruitment costs 74,100 ₪ flat, shifting the sourcing and screening load to the agency, not to you.

Project pricing breakdown

Digital Hunters runs project recruitment at 74,100 ₪ for 13 vetted candidates over 4 weeks. That breaks down to approximately 5,700 ₪ per candidate submitted. The fee covers sourcing, outreach, initial screening, skills assessment where applicable, scheduling coordination, and profiles delivered to your team for final interview.

What is not in the project fee, and worth flagging upfront:

• VAT at 17% is added on top for most clients, bringing the invoice to around 86,697 ₪.
• Relocation support, visa sponsorship, or background checks are either billed separately or routed through a third party.
• Extended sourcing beyond 4 weeks, or re-opening a closed project, is negotiated per restart.

A realistic cost comparison shows project recruitment winning decisively at volume. Below are three hiring scenarios common to tech teams opening Israeli offices.

The math is stark. Beyond 7 hires, success-fee invoices exceed 200,000 ₪, while project recruitment stays at 74,100 ₪. The agency absorbs hiring efficiency risk in exchange for a fixed envelope. Your team interviews and decides, so you control final quality and fit.

The 4-week timeline and candidate count

Project recruitment in Israel typically runs 4 weeks from kickoff to final candidate submission. The calendar is real: 20 business days, structured in phases. Here is a realistic weekly breakdown for a 13-candidate project.

The 13-candidate target assumes a typical conversion funnel. From sourcing outreach to interview-ready profile is roughly a 4 to 1 ratio in the Israeli market: 52 outreaches to land 13 high-fit submissions. The agency runs this pipeline so you do not have to. Your interviews determine hiring, but the candidates are pre-vetted for technical skills, language fit (English or Hebrew depending on your team), and industry experience.

If the 4-week window is too short or the 13-candidate envelope too small, project recruitment can be re-scoped upfront. Common adjustments are running 5 weeks instead of 4, or adding phases (a second tranche of 10 candidates following the first close). These are negotiated, not standard, so surface timing constraints early in the intake call.

Why 13 candidates, and what does "submitted" mean

Thirteen is not arbitrary. It represents the minimum volume where project recruitment economics win decisively for most hiring teams. Fewer than 10 submitted candidates and the per-candidate cost rises. More than 15 in 4 weeks requires a larger team or extended timeline.

"Submitted" means the candidate has passed initial screening, been briefed on the role, and is available and willing to interview with you. They are not offers, not hires, and not even first-round passes. Submission is the moment the candidate profile lands in your pipeline and your interview process begins. The Israeli recruitment market typically defines submission as a live candidate (not a recruiter fantasy), with a recent CV, proof of work history, and confirmed interest in the role and geography.

Conversion from submission to hire varies wildly by role and seniority. Senior backend roles in Tel Aviv might convert at 40 to 60% (5 hires from 13 submitted). Junior or QA roles might convert at 20 to 40% (3 to 5 hires from 13). If your expected conversion is under 15%, discuss it in intake. The agency can adjust sourcing strategy or volume to match your expected close rate.

When project recruitment wins (and when it doesn't)

Project recruitment is the right model when volume is 10 to 15 hires in a compressed window, budget is fixed, and you have internal hiring capacity (interviews, decision-making, offer logistics). It is the wrong model when the hire is one-off and senior, or when you need continuous sourcing over 6 to 12 months.

Here is a three-model decision matrix comparing success-fee, project, and in-house retainer across common scenarios.

A practical example. A US fintech team is launching a Tel Aviv R&D center. They need 3 backend engineers, 2 frontend, 1 DevOps, 1 QA, and 2 product managers over 8 weeks. That is 9 hires in a defined window. Success-fee at an average 32,000 ₪ monthly is roughly 288,000 ₪ in fees. Project recruitment at 74,100 ₪ saves 214,000 ₪ and compresses sourcing to weeks 1 to 4, leaving weeks 5 to 8 for interviews and onboarding. They choose project recruitment, lock the budget, and move forward.

A counterexample. A London SaaS company hires one senior data engineer for their Tel Aviv team every year, unpredictably. They cannot forecast volume, and the role is high-stakes and unique each time. Success-fee makes sense: they pay only on hire, avoid upfront risk, and benefit from the agency's deep search. Project recruitment would be wasteful; they would pay for 13 candidates when they need 1.

Replacement guarantee with project recruitment

Project recruitment typically includes a partial replacement or re-source guarantee, though the mechanics differ from success-fee. If a candidate submitted by Digital Hunters accepts an offer and then leaves within 30 days of start, the agency will typically re-source a replacement candidate at no additional fee, or provide a credit toward future work. Days 31 to 60 often shift to a partial discount, and day 91 onwards is a new engagement.

This guarantee is usually weaker than success-fee because project recruitment already absorbs sourcing risk, not hiring risk. Read the fine print: most guarantees void if the candidate leaves due to a salary cut, role change, internal conflict unrelated to the job spec, or a layoff on your side. The guarantee protects against poor hiring judgment by the agency (a mismatched submission), not poor onboarding by you.

5 questions to ask before signing a project recruitment agreement

1. What if we do not hit 13 interview-ready candidates by week 4? Does the agency extend at no cost, pro-rata refund the unused allocation, or require a new agreement? Clarify the liability and restart terms.
2. What defines "submitted" and "interview-ready"? Is it a CV on file and willingness, or does the agency conduct a technical screen? Misaligned definitions waste both teams' time.
3. How does VAT apply? Is the 74,100 ₪ gross or net? Get the all-in invoice number, not the percentage.
4. What is the partial refund or re-source clause if we hire fewer than expected? Most agencies do not refund, but some offer a second 2-week tranche at a discount. Negotiate this upfront.
5. Can the engagement convert mid-flight to success-fee or retainer? If you realize you need only 5 hires instead of 13, or you want to extend the timeline, can you adjust the model without penalty?

One bonus question for international teams. Confirm Digital Hunters can manage candidates for relocation to Israel, handle visa sponsorship logistics (or routing to a third party), and communicate in English with your home-office hiring stakeholders. Not every Israeli recruiter handles cross-border hiring workflows, and surprises at offer stage are expensive.

The real cost: 74,100 ₪ vs time and hiring risk

Seventy-four thousand sheqels is a sunk cost if you hire zero people. That risk sits with you, the buyer. The agency delivers 13 vetted profiles; your team converts them to offers or rejects them. This is why project recruitment is not suitable for teams unsure about hiring volume or role specifications. If you cannot articulate what "13 backend engineers" means across seniority, experience, and tech stack, project recruitment will surface that misalignment within days of week 1.

The inverse is true: if you know exactly what you need, can brief clearly, and have the internal bandwidth to interview 13 candidates in 4 weeks, project recruitment is the cheapest and fastest path to volume hiring in Israel. Success-fee fails at this scale. Retainer is overkill if you need people now, not continuous sourcing. Project recruitment fits the narrow band: urgent, high-volume, fixed scope, and cost-sensitive.

Top-tier Israeli boutique agencies like Ethosia, Liba, and Gotfriends typically offer success-fee only (100 to 150% of annual salary, no published project pricing). They do not advertise fixed-fee project work because it demands predictability they often cannot commit to, and it compresses margins. Digital Hunters offers project recruitment because the operational model is built to handle it: structured intake, repeatable sourcing pipelines, and transparent weekly delivery.