One client, ongoing
An engagement is continuous work with a single client, not a queue of small tasks. You join a team, you learn a codebase properly, and you stay long enough for that knowledge to be worth something.
That is the point of the model. Constantly winning small pieces of work is exhausting and it stops you ever doing your best work, because you never stay anywhere long enough to.
What is agreed before you start
You accept the VERTX Engineer Terms once, on the Platform, before your first engagement. Each engagement is then recorded when you accept it: the company, the start date, the days a week, your fee and the notice. That record forms part of the Terms.
The Terms are written to protect you as well as us. It confirms you are engaged to deliver an outcome rather than supervised hour by hour, which matters both for how the work feels and for your position as an independent contractor.
Work is accepted as you go
Each week you record what you delivered. It is a light step, not a performance review, and it exists so that nothing builds up unspoken.
Each working week is then open for review for 7 days, so anything wrong can be raised, and after that it is paid on the next pay date. Only a serious issue, such as work not done or fraud, can hold a week, and only while it is decided. You are told what was raised and heard before any decision. Every other week is paid as normal.
When it ends
Engagements end. Products get finished, budgets change, teams reshape. In your first 12 working days with a company, either side can end it with one working day's notice. After that, notice is 14 days on both sides. Every day you worked up to the end is paid, unless a serious issue such as fraud is raised about that week.
We then work to find your next engagement within the network. We will not promise one is always waiting, because that would be a promise about our clients' hiring rather than about us. What we can say is that being placed once means we know your work, so you are not starting from nothing.
How this differs from the alternatives
It is not a job. There is no employment, no payroll, and no manager. You are a contractor running your own affairs.
It is not freelancing either. You are not bidding, not marketing yourself, not chasing invoices, and not negotiating your own rate under pressure. That work exists and we do it.
What it is closest to is being a trusted long-term contractor to one good team, with the administrative weight taken off you.