Maintaining a consistent delivery pace without permanently increasing payroll costs remains a recurring challenge for technology companies. Balancing the traditional triangle of quality, time and budget means rethinking how engineering teams are recruited and structured.
In an article published in the Journal du Net, Xavier Lernould, CEO of Novity, examines this complex equation facing CTOs and company founders.
This article explores the approaches available to structure a technology team, avoid common organisational mistakes and establish a balanced operational model.
Structuring a tech team: The priorities of business leaders
The CEO's strategic balancing act
For CEOs, time to market remains a critical indicator of competitiveness. However, maintaining a large, fixed payroll can create significant financial risks during periods of uncertainty.
The objective is to introduce greater flexibility into the organisation: the ability to accelerate development following a funding round or scale back resources if market conditions deteriorate.
This approach also helps reduce the financial impact of an unsuccessful permanent engineering hire.
Rather than committing to a fixed team structure regardless of business conditions, CEOs need an engineering model that can evolve alongside the company's growth and financial position.
The CTO's need for operational predictability
CTOs often spend a significant proportion of their time managing recruitment and HR-related responsibilities across development, data, product and AI roles.
This comes at the expense of their core responsibilities: technical architecture and product vision.
For a CTO, the priority is maintaining a predictable product roadmap. Having access to a stable engineering team that can be mobilised quickly helps secure delivery milestones and meet commitments to clients and partners.
The challenge is therefore not simply to recruit more engineers, but to ensure that the right expertise is available when it is needed.
Choosing the right geographic staffing model: A frictionless approach
Budget optimisation and risk management
Pressure on R&D budgets is encouraging companies to look beyond their local markets for technology expertise.
However, traditional IT outsourcing models, including nearshore and offshore arrangements, can sometimes introduce operational or compliance risks.
Decision-makers are increasingly looking for a balanced approach: access to highly skilled technology professionals at costs 30–50% lower than typical Western European rates, while maintaining a secure legal framework.
This includes contracts governed by French law and compliance with the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).
The objective is not simply to reduce costs, but to achieve greater budget efficiency without compromising legal certainty or delivery quality.
Integration and real-time collaboration
Maintaining a smooth delivery pace requires collaboration that is not unnecessarily slowed by significant time-zone differences.
CTOs are looking for engineers who can act as problem solvers, understand European production standards and contribute effectively within existing teams.
Technology recruitment is therefore increasingly focused on talent markets that offer geographical and operational proximity.
Employee stability is another important consideration. Working with teams that maintain long-term continuity helps protect projects from the disruption caused by high staff turnover in more saturated recruitment markets.
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Novity's collaborative engineering model
A transparent technology partnership
Traditional IT services companies, software development agencies and freelancers can sometimes raise concerns around cost transparency and frequent consultant replacements.
Novity offers a transparent and ethical alternative, built around a people-first approach.
We believe that providing engineers with a healthy working environment is essential to securing their long-term commitment.
This continuity also helps preserve valuable project knowledge within our clients' teams.
Rather than treating engineers as interchangeable resources, our model prioritises lasting relationships, technical engagement and shared responsibility for delivery.
Bringing internal and external teams together
Successful technology projects depend on effective collaboration, without cultural or language barriers between internal teams and their engineering partners.
This is why Novity operates through two delivery hubs in Mauritius and Madagascar, bringing together 100% multilingual (EN-FR) engineering teams.
Our senior engineers can be operational in less than a week and work in closely aligned time zones, with only a one- or two-hour difference.
Furthermore, 90% of our engineers have experience in product and startup environments.
They integrate naturally into existing development environments, Agile ceremonies and team workflows.
This consistency reduces reliance on interchangeable resources and supports long-term integration without disrupting project continuity.
Since 2019, Novity's integrated team model has supported more than 80 French technology companies.
Checklist: Assessing the flexibility of your tech team
Use these four questions to assess whether your current engineering structure offers the flexibility your business needs.
- Management time: Does your technology leader spend less than 20% of their time sourcing and recruiting talent?
- Scalability: Can you adjust your project's engineering expertise and capabilities within 30 days?
- Retention: Is staff turnover among your key external engineering partners below 10%?
- Legal security: Are your external engineering contracts governed by European law?
These indicators can help identify structural constraints that may be affecting delivery speed, operational stability or budget flexibility.
Tech Staffing trends and economic outlook
The evolution of technology staffing models reflects broader structural changes across the global technology industry.
According to KPMG's Global Tech Report 2026, published in February 2026, 90% of organisations plan to strengthen their technology ecosystems and partnerships to access the skills they need.
Against this backdrop, building an effective engineering team increasingly depends on the ability to establish strategic technology partnerships.
Developing an ecosystem built around collaborative team development can help organisations foster innovation, overcome product roadmap bottlenecks, maintain agility and create greater product value.
Ultimately, the objective is not to choose between delivery speed and financial control. It is to build a technology organisation capable of achieving both.
Sources
- KPMG - Étude Global Tech Report 2026
- JDN, Tribune de Xavier Lernould - Staffing Tech : l'équation des dirigeants pour livrer vite et bien, au juste coût
