Rent the recruitment function. Don't build it yet.
Fractional talent acquisition for US SaaS companies hiring 6 to 20 commercial roles a year. Sourcing, screening, coordination and offer management, monthly. Software included. From US$5,500 a month, and the rate card is on this page.
THE AWKWARD MIDDLE
Between six and twenty hires a year, both standard answers are wrong.
Fractional talent acquisition is a monthly subscription to a recruitment function rather than a fee per hire. A company hiring 6 to 20 commercial roles a year sits above the volume where contingency agency fees stay affordable, and below the volume that justifies a full-time internal talent acquisition hire. Fractional TA covers that gap: fixed monthly capacity, a named recruiter, and the sourcing tooling included rather than licensed separately.
Too many hires for an agency
At 20 percent of base salary, 12 hires costs US$252,000 a year. Every role restarts from scratch with someone who has to relearn your product, your bar and your process before they source a single candidate. Below six hires that trade is still worth making, and we will place them contingently. Above it, the arithmetic stops working.
Too few to justify a recruiter
An internal talent acquisition specialist costs US$124,900 loaded, takes 8 to 12 weeks to hire, and another 3 to 6 months to ramp. You are hiring a specialist at the one function your business has no established way of assessing.
BUILD OR BUY
What an internal hire actually costs.
A talent acquisition specialist advertised at US$80,000 in United States costs approximately US$124,900 a year once payroll taxes, health cover, retirement match, a LinkedIn Recruiter licence, an applicant tracking system, job board advertising and equipment are included. Add 8 to 12 weeks to hire them and 3 to 6 months to ramp, and the effective wait before the first competently screened hire is 5 to 9 months at full salary.
| Line item | Full tooling | Recruiter Lite |
|---|---|---|
| Advertised base salary | US$80,000 | US$80,000 |
| FICA at 7.65% | US$6,120 | US$6,120 |
| FUTA, SUTA and workers compensation | US$1,280 | US$1,280 |
| Health cover, employer share | US$9,000 | US$9,000 |
| 401(k) match at 4% | US$3,200 | US$3,200 |
| LinkedIn Recruiter licence | US$10,800 | US$1,700 |
| Applicant tracking system | US$6,000 | US$6,000 |
| Job board advertising | US$6,000 | US$6,000 |
| Laptop, phone, software, desk | US$2,500 | US$2,500 |
| Fully loaded annual cost | US$124,900 | US$115,800 |
Both columns are shown because the cheaper one is the honest floor. Even stripped back to a Recruiter Lite seat, the number lands at US$115,800. A talent acquisition manager rather than a specialist runs to US$169,800.
For comparison: the Core tier costs US$106,800 a year — US$18,100 less than one loaded internal recruiter, and it is working your roles in week one rather than month 5.
CREDITS
How the pricing works.
Credits are monthly capacity, not a price per hire. A role consumes its credits every month it stays open. Balances are assessed on the 1st against live roles, so if a role is filled on the 8th, that credit is free for the rest of the month.
Roles are banded by base salary
| Band | Base salary (USD) | Credits per month | Typical roles |
|---|---|---|---|
| Light | Up to US$70,000 | 1 | SDR, BDR, Onboarding Specialist, junior CSM |
| Core | US$70,000 – US$120,000 | 2 | Account Executive, Customer Success Manager, Implementation Consultant |
| Heavy | Above US$120,000 | 3 | Sales Engineer, Solutions Consultant, Senior CSM, Implementation Manager, RevOps Manager |
The rate card
Focus
2 Core roles, or 1 Heavy + 1 Light
- Up to 4 live roles at once
- Roll over up to 2 credits for 1 month
- Burst up to 6 credits in a busy month
- Additional credits at US$1,500
- 90-day replacement guarantee
Core
2 Core + 1 Heavy
- Up to 5 live roles at once
- Roll over up to 3 credits for 1 month
- Burst up to 10 credits in a busy month
- Additional credits at US$1,500
- 90-day replacement guarantee
Scale
3 Heavy + 1 Light, or 5 Core
- Up to 6 live roles at once
- Roll over up to 5 credits for 1 month
- Burst up to 15 credits in a busy month
- Additional credits at US$1,500
- 90-day replacement guarantee
3-month minimum term, then 30 days' notice. No placement fees on top, no percentage of salary, no charge for a role that goes quiet.
WORK IT OUT
What would this cost you?
Add the roles you expect to hire over the next twelve months. No email required to see the answer.
At this volume, contingent placement is the better call — you will pay less in total. That is our permanent recruitment service: same recruiter, same market, you just pay per hire instead of monthly. Happy to tell you that for free.
| Route | Annual cost | Per hire |
|---|---|---|
| Zionic fractional | US$66,000 | — |
| Agency at 20% | — | — |
| Internal hire | US$124,900 | plus 5–9 months ramp |
Estimates only. A role consumes its credits every month it stays open, so the monthly figure assumes an average time-to-fill of 3 months across the roles you have listed. Hiring rarely arrives evenly, which is what the burst allowance on each tier is for. The discovery session works through the real sequencing.
WHAT YOU GET
What the monthly fee covers.
End-to-end recruitment
Briefing, market mapping, sourcing, screening, scorecards, interview coordination, offer management and close. Not a CV forwarding service.
Software included, not licensed
Sourcing, enrichment, outreach and pipeline tracking run on Kolvera, which Zionic owns rather than rents. You are not paying for a Recruiter seat, an ATS subscription and a data tool on top of the fee.
A market worked daily
Your target market is mapped once and worked continuously, so the second role starts from a live pipeline rather than an empty search.
One named person
The person you brief is the person who sources, screens and presents. No account manager, no handoff to a researcher who has never spoken to you.
Weekly pipeline reporting
Where every role sits, what the market is telling us, and where the bar or the package needs to move. In writing, weekly.
The playbook is yours
Scorecards, interview structure, salary benchmarks, the target company map and the talent pool of everyone screened but not hired. Documented and handed over, whether or not we keep working together.
HONEST ANSWER
When this is the wrong service.
Fractional talent acquisition is the wrong choice below roughly six hires a year, where contingency agency fees stay cheaper than a monthly subscription, and above roughly twenty sustained hires a year, where a full-time internal talent acquisition team costs less per hire. It is also the wrong choice for engineering and technical product roles, and for companies that need a recruiter physically in the office.
Under six hires a year
Stay contingent. You will pay less in total, and the flexibility is worth more to you than continuity is. We do that too — permanent recruitment, priced per hire, with the fee range published on the same basis as this page. Ask and I will say so on the call.
Over twenty sustained hires a year
Build internally. At that volume the loaded cost of an internal team beats any external model, and you have enough repeat volume to make ramp time worth paying for.
QUESTIONS
The questions that actually get asked.
Why do you publish your pricing when nobody else does?
Because the number is defensible. Most providers quote per conversation, which means the price depends on what they think you will pay. From US$5,500 a month, and the full rate card is on this page.
Is a credit a price per hire?
No. A credit is monthly capacity. A role consumes its credits every month it stays open, so a Sales Engineer search running three months uses nine credits. Balances are assessed on the 1st against live roles, so filling a role early frees that credit for the rest of the month.
What happens in a quiet month?
Unused credits roll over for one month, up to half your monthly allocation. In a busy month you can use up to 150 percent of your allocation. Beyond that, roles are scheduled into the next cycle.
What if hiring gets frozen?
Rollover limits and expiry can be extended by written agreement where there is a genuine delay on your side, such as a hiring freeze, budget cycle or restructure. It needs a reason and an end date, agreed before the affected month.
What if I only hire three or four roles a year?
Then do not buy this. At that volume contingent placement costs you less in total and the flexibility is worth more than the continuity is. We do contingent and retained permanent recruitment as well, priced per hire, so the answer is our services page rather than a competitor. The monthly model only starts winning at around six hires a year.
Why not just hire a recruiter?
At more than about twenty hires a year, you should. Below that you are paying US$124,900 loaded for someone who takes 5 to 9 months to become useful, and you are assessing a specialist at the one thing your business has no established way of judging.
You're one person. What happens when you're at capacity?
The tiers cap concurrent roles for that reason, and additional roles are subject to available capacity rather than automatically accepted. The alternative is a provider who sells you a director and delivers a junior.
What happens to the candidates you don't place?
They go into your talent pool, documented and handed to you. That pool is in the playbook, and the playbook is yours whether or not we keep working together.
Do you place engineers?
No. Commercial and go-to-market roles only. Sales, Customer Success, Implementation, RevOps, Marketing, Operations. Engineering and technical product are referred on.
You're in Australia. How does that work for a US team?
Sourcing and screening run asynchronously and are not time-zone dependent. Live calls are scheduled inside US business hours, with a standing overlap window agreed in week one. If you need someone physically in your office, this is the wrong service and a local agency is the better call.
NEXT STEP
Book a discovery session.
We go through your hiring plan for the next twelve months, what each role is worth in the market, where your process is losing candidates, and whether this model is right for you. You get a written hiring playbook within five working days — the market map, salary benchmarks for the roles in scope, a screening scorecard and a named target list. Yours whether or not you work with us.