KORE1 direct hire staffing in Houston, as of November 2026
Direct Hire Staffing in Houston, TX
Permanent engineers, IT staff and finance professionals for Houston employers, at one fee of 20% of base salary.
KORE1 charges Houston employers 20% of annual base salary for a direct hire, so a $100,000 hire costs $20,000, and a hire who doesn’t work out within 60 days is replaced at no additional cost.
Last updated: November 9, 2026
- This page
- Permanent placement in Houston. The hire joins your payroll on day one, and KORE1 is paid one fee.
- Not this page
- Short-term cover is on temporary staffing in Houston, contract technology work on IT staffing in Houston, and everything else on our Houston staffing agency page.
Houston hires permanent people for long jobs. A plant expansion, a hospital system migration or a spacecraft program runs for years, and the engineer who knows why a call was made in year one is worth a lot in year three. That’s the case for hiring direct.
What follows is the Houston version. The fee and what it buys, how it compares with running the same seat on contract first, and two Texas rules that touch a permanent offer. The search itself runs the way we lay out in how KORE1 direct hire works.
Which Permanent Roles Do Houston’s Energy, Medical and Space Employers Hire Direct?
Three employer groups set the tone. Each hires for a different kind of permanence.
- Energy and petrochemical. The Greater Houston Partnership calls Houston the Energy Capital of the World. ConocoPhillips lists the city as its headquarters, ExxonMobil’s principal offices sit on its campus in Spring, and the plants along the Houston Ship Channel run on process, controls and electrical engineers. OT security engineers for plant networks, data engineers for trading desks and joint-interest accountants round it out.
- The Texas Medical Center, the world’s largest medical complex by its own description. Its institutions hire clinical-systems analysts and revenue-cycle finance leads, seats where the person who learned the system stays to run it.
- Space. NASA’s Johnson Space Center has led human spaceflight from Houston for more than half a century, and the Houston Spaceport at Ellington Airport has drawn commercial space companies since its FAA approval in 2015. Flight-software and systems engineers here are hired for the life of a program. Short stints don’t fit.
None of those organizations is named here as a KORE1 client. They’re the employers that shape what a Houston candidate expects from a permanent offer. For the wider bench, see engineering staffing in Houston and accounting and finance staffing in Houston.
What Does a Houston Direct Hire Cost, and What Does the Fee Buy?
One number. KORE1’s direct-hire fee is 20% of the hire’s annual base salary, the same rate for every role on this page. There are no tiers.
- Annual base salary
- $100,000
- Fee at 20%
- $20,000
- Replacement window
- 60 days
“If there’s a $100,000 placement salary… the placement fee is 20% of the annual base salary, which would equal $20,000.”
The fee buys the search and a 60-day replacement guarantee. Devin puts the second part plainly. “There’s a guarantee of 60 days in which we will replace them at no additional cost.” So if the hire doesn’t work out inside that window, we run the search again and you don’t pay a second fee.
Base salary is the only input. Not the employer’s name, not the industry, and not how thin the Houston market is for that skill set this quarter, which is exactly why we ask for the base range in writing before the search opens rather than after the first strong candidate names a number. For technology seats, direct-hire IT recruiting covers offer work for engineers and IT leaders in more depth.
Start a Houston direct-hire search
Tell us the role, the base range, the work site, whether that’s the Energy Corridor, the Texas Medical Center, Clear Lake or downtown, and your target start.
Hire Direct Now or Run Contract-to-Hire First on a Houston Seat?
Both routes end with the same person on your payroll. They differ in who employs that person in the meantime, and in how you pay.
Process engineers will know the drawing. The highlighted line is the direct route, with one fee and a check valve. The other branch runs through 1,040 metered hours before it joins.
Devin’s view of the permanent side is blunt. “The benefit of hiring full time is quite the opposite. It’s really not super flexible, but you have stability… legacy knowledge.”
- Offer signed. The direct route opens when the candidate accepts your offer and starts on your payroll.
- Fee, 20%. One fee on the annual base salary, and the only one.
- Check valve. The 60-day replacement guarantee. If the hire doesn’t work out within 60 days, we replace them at no additional cost, so the seat doesn’t drain back to open.
- Hours, 1,040. The contract branch meters hours, billed weekly, while the person works as a KORE1 W2 employee.
- Convert, no fee. After 1,040 hours you can hire the contractor with no KORE1 conversion fee.
| Houston contract seat | 1,040 hours on contract | Median bill rate | Bill range per hour |
|---|---|---|---|
| Software engineer, mid Modeled | $106,800 | $103 | $91 to $115 |
| Mechanical or electrical engineer, mid Modeled | $103,400 | $99 | $89 to $115 |
| Security engineer, mid Modeled | $104,200 | $100 | $89 to $112 |
| Data engineer, mid Modeled | $114,200 | $110 | $102 to $122 |
| Controller, mid Modeled | $132,500 | $127 | $114 to $147 |
| Accountant, senior Modeled | $90,500 | $87 | $77 to $94 |
Don’t set those totals against the $20,000 fee. A bill rate carries the contractor’s wages, the 24% burden and the firm’s costs, and Texas unemployment tax for a new employer, 2.7% on the first $9,000 of each worker’s wages according to the Texas Workforce Commission, sits inside that burden. On a direct hire the salary and payroll taxes land on your own books instead.
Different ledgers, then. The full side-by-side math lives in contract-to-hire vs direct hire cost, so it isn’t repeated here.
Price the contract-to-hire route
Name the seat, the Houston site and the weeks you want to trial it, and we’ll send a bill rate quote.
Texas Rules That Touch a Permanent Houston Direct Hire
Will a Texas non-compete hold for the person you hire?
It can. Under Section 15.50(a) of the Texas Business and Commerce Code, a covenant not to compete is enforceable if it’s ancillary to or part of an otherwise enforceable agreement and its limits on time, geographical area and scope of activity are reasonable, imposing no greater restraint than the employer needs to protect its goodwill or other business interest.
- Time
- How long after the job ends the restriction runs.
- Geographical area
- Where the former employee can’t compete.
- Scope of activity
- Which work the covenant actually restrains.
Section 15.52 makes those criteria exclusive. They preempt other law, common law included. Since September 1, 2025, SB 1318 and a new Section 15.501 restrict non-competes for physicians and certain other health care practitioners, which reaches Texas Medical Center clinicians but not the engineering, IT and finance hires this page covers.
Does the FTC non-compete rule change anything?
No. A federal court set the FTC’s nationwide rule aside in August 2024, the FTC voted in September 2025 to drop its appeals, and in February 2026 it removed the rule from the Code of Federal Regulations. The FTC’s rule page now says it is not in effect and not enforceable.
Does a Houston job posting have to show a salary range?
Look at where the candidates live, not only where the job sits. A remote posting open to candidates in states with pay-transparency laws can pull those rules in, so set the base range at intake, before the search opens. That range is also the number the 20% fee runs on.
Background for a conversation with your counsel, not legal advice.
20%
of annual base salary, KORE1’s one direct-hire fee
60 days
direct-hire replacement window, at no additional cost
$103
median hourly bill rate, mid-level software engineer on contract in Houston, modeled
1,040
hours on contract before a contract-to-hire seat converts with no fee
Fee and replacement terms are KORE1’s, stated October 16, 2026. Rate from the KORE1 Contract Rate Index 2026-Q4, modeled from BLS OEWS May 2025 Houston wages.
How Long Does a Houston Direct-Hire Search Take?
It varies, and we won’t pin a day count on it. A controls engineer who owes a refinery a month’s notice simply starts later than an accountant who can leave on a Friday, and the only offer-to-start figures we publish come from contract placements, not permanent searches. So, the steps.
Step 1
Intake
Role, base range and work site get pinned down before a single candidate hears about the job.
Step 2
Shortlist
You get a short list of screened candidates, each with a written reason they fit the seat.
Step 3
Interviews and offer
You interview and choose. We carry the offer details back and forth with the candidate.
Step 4
Notice and start
The hire gives notice to their current employer, then starts on your payroll as your employee.
Where these searches run
- Downtown Houston
- Energy Corridor
- Texas Medical Center
- Clear Lake
- The Woodlands
- Sugar Land
- Katy
- Pasadena
When Is Contract-to-Hire the Better Houston Route?
Project money is the usual reason. Say a turnaround needs a data engineer for as long as the turnaround lasts, or a manager who’s been burned before wants to watch someone get through a month-end close before adding them to the permanent org chart, and in both cases a trial on contract fits better than an offer letter. Fair enough.
The contractor works as a KORE1 W2 employee and is paid every Friday. After 1,040 hours you can hire them with no KORE1 conversion fee, and 37.5% of 552 KORE1 contract-to-hire placements converted to permanent. Most didn’t.
One difference matters. Contract carries no replacement guarantee, so the 60-day direct-hire terms don’t follow a contractor who leaves. Need cover, not a trial? Then it’s temporary staffing in Houston. Our contract-to-hire staffing page explains the model nationally.
Common Questions
How much is a direct-hire placement fee in Houston?
20% of the hire’s annual base salary. On a $100,000 base that’s a $20,000 fee, and KORE1 charges the same rate for every role and industry covered here.
What happens if a Houston direct hire leaves in the first 60 days?
We replace them at no additional cost. That’s the direct-hire 60-day replacement guarantee, and it comes with the 20% fee. It doesn’t extend to contract or contract-to-hire seats.
Can I enforce a non-compete on a new hire in Texas?
Often, if it’s written to the statute. Section 15.50(a) enforces a covenant that’s part of an otherwise enforceable agreement and reasonable in time, geographical area and scope of activity. Have counsel review it before the offer goes out.
Does the FTC non-compete rule affect a Houston hire?
No, because the rule isn’t in effect. A federal court set it aside in August 2024, and the FTC removed it from the Code of Federal Regulations in February 2026. Texas law governs the covenant.
Is contract-to-hire cheaper than direct hire for a Houston engineer?
Not on its face. A mid-level mechanical or electrical engineer in Houston bills $89 to $115 an hour on contract, median $99, or about $103,400 for 1,040 hours, and that rate carries wages, the 24% burden and firm costs. Compare total cost, not just the fee.
Start a Houston Direct-Hire Search
Send us four things and we’ll open the search.
- RoleThe title, who it reports to and the team around it.
- Base rangeThe salary range you’d put in a posting, which the 20% fee runs on.
- Work siteEnergy Corridor, Texas Medical Center, Clear Lake, downtown or somewhere else in the metro.
- Target startWhen you want the person on your payroll.
Want to trial the seat first? Get a bill rate quote, or call 949-706-6990. The national process is on direct hire staffing.
