Last updated: June 17, 2026
Engineering Staffing in Seattle, WA
KORE1 places mechanical, electrical, aerospace, and manufacturing engineers across the Puget Sound. Two decades of doing this work, and the engineers you actually want still aren’t answering job posts.
Last updated: June 17, 2026
KORE1 is an engineering staffing agency in Seattle that places mechanical, electrical, aerospace, and manufacturing engineers across the Puget Sound region, with most searches filling in 10 to 21 days.
Seattle runs on engineers. Boeing builds widebodies in Everett and 737s in Renton. Blue Origin tests rocket engines down in Kent. PACCAR designs trucks from Bellevue, and a wall of medical device, clean energy, and hardware firms fills in everything between the water and the Cascades. Demand here moves faster than most hiring teams can keep pace with on their own.
That gap is where a specialized engineering staffing agency pays for itself. KORE1 has placed engineers for more than 20 years. We know which Puget Sound firms are scaling, which ones are quietly losing their best people, and where a structures engineer with composites experience tends to land when Boeing’s tempo finally wears them down. That isn’t from a market report. It’s from working this stuff for two decades.
Here’s the catch most companies miss. The engineer worth hiring in Seattle already has a job. They’re heads-down on a launch vehicle or a 777X work package, and they archive recruiter emails without opening them. We reach them anyway. Years of relationships will do that.
Engineering Roles We Staff in Seattle
Seattle’s demand is wide, so our bench is too. The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics projects steady national demand for mechanical engineers, electrical and electronics engineers, and aerospace engineers alike, and the region’s aerospace base keeps local hiring hotter than the national line. We fill across disciplines, not just the easy ones.
- Mechanical engineers for product design, structures, and thermal systems, heavy on SolidWorks, CATIA, NX, and Creo
- Electrical engineers across power, embedded, RF, and PCB design
- Aerospace and defense engineers, including stress, systems, avionics, and composites roles
- Manufacturing and process engineers fluent in lean, GD&T, CNC, and composite fabrication
- Controls and automation engineers for robotics, PLC, and motion control
- Quality and reliability engineers for AS9100 and other regulated production
- Systems and test engineers for hardware that has to certify before it ships
Need a contractor for a production ramp? Done it more times than I can count. Want a direct hire to anchor a design team long term? Placed plenty of those too. And if contract staffing fits the budget better this quarter, same screening either way.
How We Find Seattle Engineers Other Agencies Miss
The engineer you want is already employed. And every week, recruiters they ignore land in their inbox.
We built our network the slow way. Years inside the Puget Sound engineering community, ties to programs at the University of Washington and Washington State, and referrals from people we placed years ago who still pick up the phone. So when you need a senior mechanical designer who has shipped aerospace hardware, or an electrical engineer who actually understands DO-254, we aren’t starting from a keyword search. We’re calling someone who already trusts us because we have never wasted their time.
Our recruiters can talk through a tolerance stack-up, a power budget, or a composite layup without reaching for a glossary. They aren’t pattern-matching resumes. That difference is the whole game. It’s why a hire ships instead of washing out at the 90-day mark, and it usually comes down to things no resume captures.
We also move fast. Most Seattle engineering searches close in 10 to 21 days, and the placements hold. 92% are still in seat a year later. That number isn’t a slogan. It’s what screening for fit instead of speed actually buys you, whether the role is a permanent hire or a contract engineer for a fixed window.
Years Placing Engineers
Engineering Placements
Day Average Fill Time
12-Month Retention
Engineering Hubs We Cover Across Puget Sound
We recruit across the whole region, not just the Seattle city limits. Our engineers sit in the same I-5 and 405 traffic your team does, so we know which roles pull from which corridor.
- Everett. Boeing’s widebody home, the 767, 777, and 777X. Structures, manufacturing, and quality engineering at full production scale.
- Renton. The 737 line plus Kenworth’s truck plant. High-volume production and manufacturing engineering live here.
- The Eastside. Bellevue, Redmond, and Kirkland, where PACCAR, Aerojet Rocketdyne, and the hardware teams cluster. Mechanical, electrical, and systems roles.
- Kent Valley and the South Sound. Blue Origin’s engine and lander work anchors a dense advanced-manufacturing belt running down toward Auburn.
- Tacoma and the waterfront. Marine and maritime engineering, shipyards, and port logistics technology.
- Bothell and the north corridor. Medical device and biotech production, the regulated, detail-heavy work up the 405.
Hiring outside engineering too? Our broader Seattle staffing and Seattle IT staffing teams cover the same metro, so one call can reach further than a single discipline.
Seattle Industries We Staff Engineers For
Seattle isn’t one engineering market. It’s four or five, each with its own talent quirks. We recruit for all of them.
Aerospace & Defense
From Boeing’s Everett and Renton lines to Blue Origin in Kent, we place stress, systems, avionics, and composites engineers, including candidates who understand clearance timelines.
Advanced Manufacturing
PACCAR, Kenworth, and a deep bench of aerospace suppliers run on production talent. We staff process, quality, automation, and mechanical engineers who keep lines moving and compliant.
Clean Energy & Utilities
Seattle City Light, Puget Sound Energy, and the broader grid build-out hire hard. We place power, controls, and electrical engineers who can work inside Washington’s regulatory reality.
Medical Device & Hardware
Bothell’s device corridor and the region’s hardware and robotics teams need electromechanical, embedded, and reliability engineers for regulated, high-volume products.
Common Questions About Engineering Staffing in Seattle
What does an engineering staffing agency in Seattle do?
An engineering staffing agency in Seattle sources, screens, and presents qualified engineers for open roles at local companies. KORE1 handles sourcing from our Puget Sound network, technical qualification calls, interview coordination, and the offer stage. The real value is the screening. A recruiter who understands engineering filters out the people who look right on paper but would struggle inside your specific environment, which saves your team rounds of wasted interviews.
What engineering roles does KORE1 place in Seattle?
We place across the full spectrum. Mechanical and electrical engineers, aerospace and defense roles, manufacturing and process engineers, controls and automation, quality and reliability, plus systems and test specialists. Entry level through principal. If it’s an engineering discipline that exists in the Seattle market, odds are we’ve filled it before.
How much does it cost to hire an engineer through a Seattle staffing agency?
It depends on the model. For contract placements, you pay a bill rate that covers the engineer’s pay plus our margin, and they stay on KORE1’s payroll. Direct hire works differently. You pay a one-time fee tied to a slice of the engineer’s first-year salary, and they’re your employee from day one. Contract-to-hire sits in the middle. We put pricing in writing before any search starts, because surprise invoices wreck good relationships.
How fast can you fill an engineering position in Seattle?
Most of our Seattle engineering searches close in 10 to 21 days from kickoff. Narrow, specialized roles can run longer, think a cleared systems engineer or someone deep in composite structures or power electronics, simply because fewer qualified people exist in the market. We give you a realistic forecast at the start, not a number we made up to win the business.
Do you staff aerospace engineers in Seattle?
Yes, and it’s one of our strongest areas here. Boeing anchors the region from Everett and Renton, Blue Origin runs out of Kent, and a long supplier chain fills in around them. We recruit stress, systems, avionics, manufacturing, and composites engineers across all of it, and we screen for clearance status up front so it doesn’t surprise anyone in the second interview.
What’s the difference between contract and direct hire for engineering roles?
Contract engineers are temporary, usually 3 to 12 months, and they stay on our payroll while you pay a bill rate. Direct hire means the engineer joins your company permanently from day one and you pay a one-time placement fee. Contract-to-hire is the hybrid. It lets you watch someone work the actual role before committing to a full offer, which a lot of Seattle hiring managers prefer for senior or hard-to-assess hires.
Ready to Hire Engineers in Seattle?
Start with a short intake call. We’ll ask about the role, the team, and what has gone sideways before, so we don’t repeat it. No commitment and no pitch deck. Just a straight conversation about whether we’re the right fit for your search.