I am in a situation in which a university has a set salary guideline for programmer position classifications and if I want to hire an entry-lever dev, the salary is too low to be competitive and if I want to hire a more experienced dev in a higher classification, the competitive salary amount exceeds what my library cannot afford. So as a compromise I am thinking about going the route of posting a half-time position in a higher classification so that the salary would be at least competitive. It will get full-time benefits on a pro-rated basis. But I am wondering if this strategy would be viable or not.

Also anyone has a experience in hiring a developer to telework completely from another state when you do not have previous experience working with her/him? This seems a bit risky strategy to me but I am wondering if it may attract more candidates particularly when the position is half time.

As a current/past/future library programmer or hiring manager in IT or both, if you have any thoughts, experience, or ideas, I would really appreciate it.

Thanks,
Bohyun