AI engineers for hireHire an AI engineer
Add AI features your users trust: agents, RAG and chat built on your data, with costs you can predict. Get 2-3 vetted profiles in 48 hours
Or book a call with Igor, our CTO Hire engineers who already proved they ship
To get in, each candidate builds a full product with AI agents: landing page, web app, backend and database. Here are 4 of them
Our CTO interviews every one
Igor has built software for 15 years and led 200+ engineers. He talks to every candidate before they reach a client
Get an AI engineer who owns the result
Claude Code writes most of the code. Your engineer plans it, reviews it and answers for it
AI features inside your product
Chat, search, summaries and agents wired into the screens your users already work in.
Answers from your own data
Retrieval over your docs and database, so the model answers from your facts.
Quality you can measure
Evals on real examples before every release, so a prompt change never quietly breaks answers.
A bill that does not surprise you
Model choice, caching and limits tuned so the cost per user stays known as usage grows.
Build on a stack that will scale
The tools our AI engineers build with, from our tech stack guide
Mastra is a TypeScript framework for building AI agents, multi-step workflows, and RAG pipelines. Define agents with tools and instructions, chain them into workflows with branching and retries, and connect to any LLM provider. Ships with MCP server support, built-in evals, and observability (metrics, logs, traces).
Integrates with Next.js , Express, and Hono . Mastra Studio provides a local UI for testing and iterating on agents during development. Deploy agents as APIs, standalone services, or embedded within existing apps.
Read our Mastra notesMastra fits when
- You're building multi-agent systems in TypeScript. Mastra gives you agents, workflows, and RAG in one framework.
- You want built-in observability and MCP support. Traces, metrics, logs, and Model Context Protocol integration are included out of the box.
- You want a local development UI. Mastra Studio lets you test and debug agents before deploying.
Pick something else when
- You only need LLM streaming and tool calling. The Vercel AI SDK is simpler for straightforward AI features.
- Your team already uses Python for AI. Mastra is TypeScript-only, so it won't fit a Python-based stack.
- You want minimal dependencies. Mastra is a full framework, not a lightweight library.
Test them on a real task first
Before the first full week, your engineer spends 2 days on a task from your backlog. You pay $7 and keep the code
Ship a first AI feature on your data
- A working prototype on 1 real use case
- Answers grounded in your docs or database
- 10-20 test questions with the results
- Cost per request, measured
Get your engineer working this week
No sales calls, no long contract
- 1
Describe your project
1 minuteA few lines on what you build and what is stuck
- 2
Get 2-3 profiles
48 hoursEach with a demo project, stack, hourly rate and availability
- 3
Run a 2-day trial
$7Your engineer works on a real task from your backlog
- 4
Keep working weekly
no contractThey join your Slack and post daily updates. Cancel any week
Pay a fair rate with no fees on top
What an AI engineer costs with Paralect, Toptal and Upwork
| Paralect | Toptal | Upwork | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Hourly rate | $30-60 | $60-200+ | Any, set by the freelancer |
| Paid upfront | $0 | $500 deposit, refundable | $0 |
| Fees on top | $0, included in the rate | $79 a month platform fee | 5% marketplace fee, plus up to $14.99 per contract |
| Vetting | Full-stack demo project and a CTO interview | Multi-step screening | Profile, reviews and Job Success Score. Testing is up to you |
| AI skills checked | Yes, in the CTO interview | Depends on the candidate | Up to you |
| Works with AI agents | Yes, the demo is built with them | Depends on the candidate | Up to you |
| First candidates | 2-3 profiles in 48 hours | Often within 48 hours | Dozens of proposals to screen yourself |
| Trial | 2 days for $7 | Trial period, pay only if you keep them | Pay for a test task yourself |
| Contract | Weekly billing, cancel any week | Ongoing, cancel any time | Hourly or fixed, end any time |
Toptal and Upwork numbers from their public pricing, checked in October 2026. Read the full Upwork comparison
FAQ
What does an AI engineer do?
They build the AI part of your product: agents, retrieval over your data, chat and the evals that keep answers right. Ours ship it into your real app, not a demo, and use AI agents like Claude Code to write most of the code.
Which models do they work with?
Claude, GPT, Gemini and open models, usually through 1 SDK so you can switch models without a rewrite. They pick by quality and cost for your use case, measured on your own examples.
Do we need our own ML team or training data?
No. Most product AI today is built on hosted models plus your data through retrieval. Training your own model is rarely the first step, and they will tell you when it is.
How much does it cost to hire an AI engineer?
Our engineers charge $30-60 an hour, depending on experience. Full time at 40 hours a week that comes to about $5,000-10,000 a month, with no deposit and no platform fee. On Toptal the same search starts at about $60 an hour, plus a $500 deposit and $79 a month.
How do you vet the engineers?
Every candidate builds and presents a full-stack demo project: a landing page, a web app, a backend and a database with RAG, all with AI agents. Then our CTO, Igor Krasnik, interviews them on technical knowledge, product sense, clear thinking and how they work with a team. Only engineers who pass both are matched with clients.
Can I hire for 20 hours a week or a short project?
Yes. Pick 20 or 40 hours a week in the brief. Billing is weekly, so a 2-week fix and a year-long engagement work the same way: you stop when the work is done.
What if the engineer is not a good fit?
Tell us and we send a replacement from the network. There is no contract to exit and no notice period, since billing is weekly.
Do I talk to the engineer directly?
Yes. They join your Slack and work with you like a member of your team. There is no account manager in between, and you get a written update every day.
Meet your engineer in 48 hours
Describe the project and get 2-3 vetted profiles with demos and rates
Describe your project
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