This is cross-posted at https://www.dashcentral.org/p/core-expansion-201704

This proposal authorizes the expansion of the core team to include recently posted C++ Developer positions and a large number of full-time and part-time roles. It represents the largest expansion of the core team to date, and will allow Dash to effectively compete for talent with the largest and best-funded projects in the cryptocurrency space.

The bulk of the expense will be within the development area, being led by Andy Freer. We aim to bring on C++ resources that are already experienced with cryptocurrency and the Bitcoin code base. Developers lacking this experience typically take 6-12 months to onboard and become fully productive. This is obviously expensive and time-consuming. Bringing on developers with crypto experience can cut this time to a couple of months, so we aim to poach talent from existing projects if possible and add other developers as needed to fill all 8 C++ positions.

Outside of the development area, we have a number of needs we've been unable to fill with volunteers or low-paid resources. These include roles in Project Management, Infrastructure, Marketing, and Quality Assurance.

Finally, we have identified new needs as the organization has grown. This proposal will also fund the hiring of a human resources director, and make Dash the very first cryptocurrency with an end-user support desk.

Since it appears that the core-team salaries proposal will pass, we should be able to bring all full-time hires within this proposal on at market rates, which will help ensure we can attract the required skills and retain them once they are fully productive.

If the proposal passes, we will begin hiring as quickly as possible. However, not all roles will fill immediately and actual costs may vary from this initial estimate based on the location and individuals we hire, as well as the pace with which we are able to onboard new roles. Going forward, we will request funding for the actual expenses we are incurring.

This proposal would fund the following 16 full-time roles:

• Americas-based project manager
• EU-based project manager
• On-call infrastructure engineers (2) to provide full time-zone coverage
• Test engineers (2)
• Automation engineer
• Director of Human Resources
• DashCore C++ Developers (8)

This proposal would also fund the following 5 part-time roles:

• End-user helpdesk representatives (2)
• International Outreach & Social Media lead (to offload workload from Philipp)
• Wiki lead to ensure our wiki is properly maintained
• Evolution developer for backend API

What are the benefits to this proposed team expansion?

1. It will obviously greatly expand the development capacity of the team, which would enable greater speed, improved quality, greater specialization of roles, and the inclusion of more "optional" features into our products. 2) It will add to our project management capacity, which is highly strained currently.
2. Our testing will be more robust and professional - including formal testing plans - resulting in fewer bugs upon release of new software
3. Our testing team will be able to assist third party integrations testing, such as testing a new business partner's Dash features before launch
4. We will be able to respond to issues and outages more quickly to key assets like our website, forum, development infrastructure, and other supporting tools.
5. It will enable us to automate routine tasks to make (primarily developers and testers) more productive
6. We can provide better HR support for our employees and contractors, research benefits options, and reduce risks to the network on employment-related issues - this will also free up capacity for myself, since I currently handle most of the HR-related tasks.
7. We will become the first cryptocurrency with end-user support provided through a professional helpdesk solution.
8. We will increase our capacity for marketing and international outreach

What is the cost of this expansion?

Total costs to expand the team to include the above roles is estimated at $120,800 per month. It represents a 66% increase in the number of paid positions, so this is a substantial expansion.

Requested funding is as follows for the April 5th budget cycle:
1,298.55 Dash for core team salaries ($120,800 USD @ $93.027 per Dash)
5.00 Dash proposal reimbursement
Total: 1,303.55 Dash

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