A Key Developer Just Left. What Now?
Use the notice period to get what the developer knows into your own systems, and move every account and access to the company. Then name what is actually missing. Usually that is capacity in a team that still knows what to build; if the developer was also the one who directed the work, that role comes first. The knowledge that left does not come back with any hire, so a successor rebuilds it in the first weeks. Through Tunga, a successor from across Africa joins your team under your direction, from a shortlist of usually 3 or more candidates, and can be working within one to two weeks when you can move fast. When that person leaves later, finding the next one is Tunga's job.
Use the notice period
The weeks before the last day are the only time the knowledge is still in the building. Three things matter most:
- Walk through the parts only they know, with the person who will guide the successor: how the system fits together, what breaks and how it gets fixed, how a release goes out.
- Write down what isn't in the code. Why decisions were made, workarounds, contacts at suppliers, anything that lives in their head or their inbox.
- Move access to the company. Accounts, passwords, domains, cloud billing, repositories: everything in the developer's own name goes into the company's name before they go.
Name what is missing
The knowledge that left does not come back with any hire. What else the departure took away decides what you fill first:
- Capacity. The team still knows what to build and needs hands to build it. A successor developer closes this gap, through any route.
- Knowledge of the system. The successor rebuilds it in the first weeks, which is why those weeks count (see the first weeks with a new professional).
- Direction. If the developer was the one who decided what to build and checked whether it was good, that role comes first: a tech lead or product owner, hired yourself or through Tunga. Developers come after that (see is our organisation ready for a remote developer?).
Fill the seat
When you can move fast, a successor through Tunga can be working in your team within one to two weeks, often before the notice period of a local hire would have ended. You get a shortlist from the existing pool, usually 3 or more candidates, and decide whom to interview and whom to work with. A delivery manager works alongside you and the successor in the first weeks, and in the first 4 weeks either side can end the engagement at one working day's notice. The other routes (a local hire, a freelancer, an agency) are compared on I can't get my development team staffed. If you need one specific senior person to take over the whole system, that is a search for one profile, usually best done through your own network or a specialised recruiter.
Make the next departure lighter
Developers leave. European tech companies lose on average 12% of their engineers a year (Ravio 2026, all reasons for leaving). Clients name the problem themselves: in the Eraneos/Whitelane Dutch IT Sourcing Study 2025, turnover at their IT supplier was named as a weakness in 22% of 652 sourcing relationships. At Tunga, in 2025 about 1 in 56 placements ended because the professional left for another job.
In a small team one departure is a large share of the capacity, so two things are worth putting in place now:
- Keep the knowledge in your systems. Code, accounts and documentation in the company's own repositories and tools, and no part of the system that only one person knows. Code reviews spread that knowledge as a side effect.
- Let someone else carry the replacement. Through Tunga, a replacement costs nothing extra (see continuity and replacement).
Where Tunga fits
Tunga takes the staffing side off the plate of companies that need digital professionals: software engineers, AI operators, product managers and other digital roles, from across Africa. The client directs the work. Tunga handles finding and vetting, contracts, payments and compliance, onboarding, keeping people, and replacing them when someone leaves or it isn't working. The professionals are independent contractors or employed in their own country through an employer of record, and work remotely from their own country; the client has one contract, with Tunga, and a delivery manager who checks in with both sides. In 2025, about 1 in 56 placements ended because the professional left for another job. Founded in 2015; 3,500 professionals across 38 African countries and 300+ client companies, as of September 2026.
Tunga is not the right fit when the role has to be on site, when the work means talking to your clients in a language other than English or French, or when saving on cost is the main reason you're looking.
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