01
AI engineer · staff
Location
EMEA · 6 hr overlap with US ET
Background
ex-Stripe, 8y backend; production agents at scale (10M+ msgs/mo)
Stack
TypeScript · Python · LangGraph · Vercel AI SDK · Postgres+pgvector
$155/hr
Hire AI Engineers
Senior AI engineers in your team — in 5–10 days.
Pre-vetted, AI-native engineers who've shipped production AI to mid-market and enterprise customers. From $95/hour, trial sprint included, monthly NTE ceiling so you never get a surprise invoice.
5–10 day staffing · Top 3% of applicants pass · No long-term lock-in
Sample profiles
Three engineers we'd staff this week.
Anonymized but accurate. Real engineers on our bench, real rates, real availability.
02
AI engineer · senior
Location
Americas · ET
Background
ex-Anthropic contractor, 6y; eval harness specialist; fintech + healthcare
Stack
Python · TypeScript · Pydantic AI · LangSmith · Modal
$135/hr
03
AI engineer · senior
Location
Americas · PT
Background
ex-Salesforce, 7y; multi-agent orchestration; SaaS product-led
Stack
TypeScript · Python · LangGraph · OpenAI · Anthropic · Postgres
$130/hr
Vetting
Four gates. Roughly 3% pass.
01
Technical screen
Live problem-solving on AI engineering tasks — prompt design, eval harness, RAG architecture. Not generic LeetCode.
02
System design
Candidate designs a production AI system end-to-end with one of our principals.
03
Reference check
Past clients confirm shipped production work, not just LinkedIn titles.
04
Paid trial
Real, scoped work with our team before the engineer faces a customer.
What "embedded" means
Engineers join your team, not ours.
Engineer joins your Slack, GitHub, Linear, calendar. Daily async standup in your channel. Weekly demo with your stakeholders. Code reviewed by your tech lead. Same engagement model the engineer would have if they were full-time on your team — without the recruiting cost or 3-month ramp.
Engagements run month-to-month. Monthly not-to-exceed (NTE) ceiling so spend is predictable. One-month notice to scale up, scale down, or end. We replace the engineer at no cost during the first two weeks if it's not a fit.
Frequently asked
Common questions.
How much does it cost to hire an AI developer?
Three pricing paths. AISD staff augmentation (senior, AI-native): $95–175/hour depending on seniority and engagement length. Marketplace contract (Toptal, Turing, Upwork): wide range — $40–200/hour with high variance in quality. Full-time hire (US): total comp typically $200k–$450k for a senior AI engineer. The hidden cost in hires is recruiting (3–6 months) and ramp (2–3 months). Staff augmentation pays off when you need impact in <90 days.
What's AISD's vetting process?
Every AISD engineer passes four gates. Technical screen — live problem-solving on AI engineering tasks (not generic LeetCode). System design — they design a production AI system end-to-end with one of our principals. Reference check — past clients confirm shipped production work. Paid trial sprint — a real, scoped piece of work with our team before the engineer faces a customer. Roughly 3% of applicants pass all four.
How is AISD different from a typical software development agency?
Three differences. First, every AISD engineer is senior — minimum 5 years building production software, with shipped AI features. Second, we publish hourly engagement bands and project ranges so you know roughly what an engagement costs before the first call. Third, we take fewer concurrent projects so a partner stays close to delivery.
How does pricing work — fixed-price, T&M, or retainer?
All three. Fixed-price for AI MVPs and agent builds where scope is well-defined after a discovery sprint. Time-and-materials for staff augmentation, billed monthly with a not-to-exceed ceiling. Retainer for ongoing optimization, eval-harness operations, and managed AI services — flat monthly fee for a defined scope of capacity.
How is success measured on an engagement?
Success metrics are defined in writing during scoping and reviewed monthly. Project engagements measure: feature shipped on date, eval-harness pass rate, target business metric (e.g. 'auto-resolve rate ≥35% on customer-support tickets'). Staff augmentation engagements measure: PR throughput, code-review acceptance, and customer-side satisfaction. We do not measure success in hours billed, lines of code, or generic velocity points.
How long does it take to build a production AI agent?
Working prototype: 2 weeks. Production-grade agent (with eval harness, guardrails, observability, and a runbook): 6–10 weeks. The prototype-to-production gap is where most projects fail — the prototype handles the happy path; production has to handle the long tail.
How long does it take to build an AI MVP?
Most AI MVPs at AISD ship a usable version in 4–8 weeks. Week 1 is a discovery sprint. Weeks 2–6 are the build, with weekly demos and a working version by week 4. Weeks 7–8 harden, document, and hand off.
How is AI consulting different from AI development?
Consulting produces decisions and plans; development produces working software. AISD does both, often in sequence: a consulting engagement scopes the architecture and roadmap, then a build engagement implements it. Consulting alone is right when you're early in the AI journey, evaluating vendors, or auditing existing work. Build alone is right when scope is already clear. Most AISD customers do a 2-week paid discovery sprint first — that's a consulting engagement that produces a fixed-price build proposal.