Data Project Contract Team Cost Estimator
Pick seats, levels, metro and weeks. Get a team total from the KORE1 Contract Rate Index.
This data project contract team cost estimator multiplies KORE1 Contract Rate Index 2026-Q4 bill rates by 40 hours a week. A mid-level data engineer ($110 national median) and a mid-level data analyst ($95) for 13 weeks cost about $106,800, modeled.
Last updated: November 5, 2026
Picture the paint chip fan deck you’d pull off a hardware store rack. One strip per seat, three shades on each, and the darker the shade the more senior the person. We’ve printed the bill rate on the shade, so you can see what junior, mid-level and senior cost side by side before you commit to one. Tap a shade, set how many people you need, and the label on the right keeps the running total.
It’s all bill rates. That’s what a staffing firm charges by the hour, with the payroll taxes, the insurance and our own recruiting and payroll work already inside it, and it’s the same index our contract staffing desk quotes from. The contract staffing cost calculator prices one seat, though, and a data project is never one seat. This one handles the team.
Data project contract team cost by seat, level, metro and weeks
Every seat is priced at 40 hours a week, straight time. The start date only travels with your quote request.
Data engineer
Data analyst
Business analyst
Project manager
Accountant
United States (national), 40 hours a week
- 1 × Data engineer, mid-level$57,200$98 to $122 an hour, median $110, 520 hoursModeled
data-engineer|mid|united-states-national - 1 × Data analyst, mid-level$49,600$82 to $111 an hour, median $95, 520 hoursModeled
data-analyst|mid|united-states-national
Low end $93,600 to high end $121,100 (bill rate p25 to p75)
Every line is modeled.
1 mid-level data engineer and 1 mid-level data analyst for 13 weeks at 40 hours a week in United States (national) cost about $106,800, from $93,600 to $121,100, at KORE1 Contract Rate Index 2026-Q4 bill rates.
An estimate from published index cells, not a quote. The button carries your seats, metro, start date and length to our bill rate quote form, and a recruiter confirms the rates for your req. Want every rate on one sheet? Get the 2026 contract staffing rate card.
How does the estimator calculate a team budget?
Here’s the whole trick. Bill rate, times 40 hours, times the weeks, times the people in the seat. A quarter is 13 weeks, which is where most project budgets start, and six months is 26. Do that for every seat, add the lines, and you’ve got the team. There’s no multiplier hiding anywhere you can’t see it on the label.
Using the estimator in five steps
- Add the seats. Pick from data engineer, data analyst, business analyst, project manager and accountant, up to five of each.
- Pick a shade for each one. Junior, mid-level or senior, with the rate already printed on it.
- Set the metro and the weeks. It starts at the national numbers and 13 weeks.
- Read the label. Every line shows its range, its hours, its cost and the index cell it came from.
- Send it for a quote. The button hands the team to our bill rate quote form.
The default seat menu at national rates
One person at 40 hours a week, using the United States national cells from KORE1 Contract Rate Index 2026-Q4, all fifteen of them modeled, where three months is 13 weeks and six months is 26.
| Seat | Level | Bill range an hour | Median | 3 months | 6 months |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Data engineer | Junior | $80 to $99 | $87 | $45,100 | $90,200 |
| Data engineer | Mid-level | $98 to $122 | $110 | $57,200 | $114,500 |
| Data engineer | Senior | $118 to $140 | $129 | $67,200 | $134,400 |
| Data analyst | Junior | $61 to $80 | $67 | $34,700 | $69,500 |
| Data analyst | Mid-level | $82 to $111 | $95 | $49,600 | $99,200 |
| Data analyst | Senior | $107 to $132 | $122 | $63,600 | $127,100 |
| Business analyst | Junior | $56 to $70 | $61 | $31,600 | $63,100 |
| Business analyst | Mid-level | $71 to $93 | $81 | $42,000 | $84,000 |
| Business analyst | Senior | $93 to $114 | $106 | $55,000 | $110,000 |
| Project manager | Junior | $56 to $70 | $61 | $31,700 | $63,400 |
| Project manager | Mid-level | $72 to $93 | $81 | $42,200 | $84,400 |
| Project manager | Senior | $93 to $114 | $106 | $54,900 | $109,800 |
| Accountant | Junior | $48 to $59 | $52 | $27,100 | $54,200 |
| Accountant | Mid-level | $59 to $75 | $65 | $33,900 | $67,900 |
| Accountant | Senior | $77 to $94 | $87 | $45,300 | $90,600 |
What is inside a bill rate?
Say you’re paying a contractor $100 an hour. Payroll taxes, workers’ comp, insurance and sick pay pile roughly 24% on top, so that person really costs $124 an hour loaded. The staffing firm then bills somewhere around $150 to $160, and that gap pays for the recruiting, the weekly payroll, the account management and the firm’s margin. Round numbers. Not a KORE1 rate. Devin Hornick, one of our partners, uses the same example when he walks a buyer through a quote.
Where does the 24% come from? Mostly the unglamorous stuff. Employer Social Security is 6.2% on wages up to $184,500 and Medicare adds 1.45%, per IRS Publication 15 for 2026. Then come unemployment tax, workers’ comp and liability insurance. In California you also owe at least 5 days or 40 hours of paid sick leave a year. Our contractor burden rate page takes the 24% apart line by line.
Why does a quoted markup look lower than it is?
Ask three firms for their markup and you’ll get three small-sounding numbers, because burden is often left out of them. Take the same price, leave the burden out of the math, and the markup looks smaller than it is. That’s all it takes.
Devin Hornick’s advice is blunt. Work with a firm that will show you how it makes its money. So ask for three numbers on every quote.
- What the contractor actually gets paid an hour.
- What the burden adds on top, in dollars.
- The bill rate. Then check that the gap between the first two and the third makes sense to you.
Two quotes for the same req that don’t line up? Here’s how to compare staffing agency quotes line by line.
Where do the numbers come from?
Every line on the label says which kind of number you’re looking at. KORE1 observed cells come from at least five of our own W2 contract placements that started between 2023 and 2026, and most of those are in Southern California, which is why the label says so on every observed line. Everything else is modeled. We take the BLS OEWS May 2025 wage for that role and metro, add a 24% burden, and run it through the bill-to-cost range we see on our own placements.
“Scrape the web for generic stuff too… what’s the average data engineer with three years of experience… on an hourly basis… and then we use our own personal data from our contractors to complement that.”
Robert Ardell, Co-Founder and Strategic Advisor at KORE1
Data engineers are the odd one out. We hold our own data engineer placements out of the index until they’re re-classified, because too many of them carried analyst and ETL support titles and billed well under the market, so every data engineer cell on this page is modeled. How the index gets built is in how the Contract Rate Index is built, and the same rates by city sit on the KORE1 Contract Rate Index by role and metro board.
Source: KORE1 Contract Rate Index 2026-Q4, effective October 16, 2026. Next update January 2027.
Funded initiatives you cannot push into 2027: how do you turn the estimate into an approval?
“Companies may not approve three or four permanent hires, but they may absolutely approve the resources or project team necessary to complete a $300K or $500K initiative that has already been funded.”
Devin Hornick, Partner at KORE1
That’s the move. Ask for a team with an end date instead of headcount, because a finance approver can sign 13 weeks of four seats a lot more easily than four permanent hires with no end date. Put four things in it.
- The seats and levels as the label prints them, not one blended number.
- A range. Ask for approval at the high end and plan around the median.
- What breaks if the project doesn’t get done, and on which date.
- The index cell behind each line, so a controller can check a rate in two minutes.
How do you check the estimate against a project you already finished?
Pull last year’s migration out of the drawer. Who was really on it, by seat and level, and for how many weeks? Enter the same seats and the same metro, then put the team total next to what the invoices say.
Close is good enough for a budget. Way off? It’s usually one seat. Check that line first, and remember what the estimate leaves out. Overtime, travel and a scope that grew halfway through all land on the invoice, and none of them land here.
What the estimate leaves out
Overtime
Hours past 40 a week bill at a separate overtime rate, set in your agreement first.
California daily overtime
It counts by the day, so a 40-hour week can still carry it. See the California Labor Commissioner.
Travel
Flights, hotels and per diem are agreed separately when a seat needs them.
Direct hire fees
A direct hire placement is 20% of base salary with a 60-day replacement guarantee.
Common Questions
What does a mid-level contract data engineer cost for three months?
A mid-level contract data engineer bills $98 to $122 an hour nationally, median $110, so 13 weeks at 40 hours costs about $57,200 (KORE1 Contract Rate Index 2026-Q4, modeled).
Six months runs about $114,500, and it’s modeled from BLS OEWS May 2025 wages plus a 24% burden, because we hold our own data engineer placements out of the index until they’re re-classified.
What does a contract data analyst cost from KORE1’s own placements?
KORE1’s own data analyst placements (n=11, 2023 to 2026, primarily Southern California) billed $69 to $116 an hour, median $115, so 13 weeks at 40 hours is about $59,800.
Six months is about $119,600. That’s an observed cell, so it reflects Southern California work, and the national mid-level analyst cell is lower at a $95 median and about $49,600 for 13 weeks, which is modeled.
How much does a contract IT project manager cost?
KORE1’s own project manager placements (n=21, 2023 to 2026, primarily Southern California) billed $105 to $124 an hour, median $116, so 13 weeks at 40 hours is about $60,400.
Six months is about $120,900. At national rates a senior project manager’s modeled median is $106, about $54,900 for 13 weeks, so which cell you price matters.
Does the estimate include payroll taxes and insurance?
Yes, every bill rate in the index already carries employer payroll taxes, workers’ comp, liability insurance, required paid sick leave, benefits and the firm’s recruiting and weekly payroll.
Nothing gets added on top, because the modeled cells assume a 24% burden and the observed cells are what KORE1 actually billed, so if a quote shows a rate with burden left out, ask for pay, burden and bill as separate lines.
Can I price a different number of weeks or part-time hours?
You can set anywhere from 1 to 52 weeks, but every seat is priced at 40 hours a week of straight time, so there is no part-time setting.
For a part-time or overtime plan, treat the estimate as the full-time ceiling and put the real hours in your quote request. A recruiter prices it from there.
Funded project, start date, team in mind? Send us the seats.
A KORE1 recruiter confirms the bill rate for your exact req, not the index cell. Once there’s an offer, our median contractor starts 3 days later (n=1,997).
Get a Bill Rate Quote for This TeamPricing one seat instead? Try the contract staffing cost calculator.
