Hire AI developers
LLM and ML engineers who build assistants, agents, and RAG systems that survive production — the same ones behind our AI Agents Suite.
Starting from $15/hour per engineer · month-to-month · no long-term lock-in
2–4 week AI pilot
Embedded AI engineer
AI feature inside your product
Document & data pipelines
Profiles within 48h · month-to-month · full IP assignment
In short
Hire AI developers who ship production systems, not demos: LLM engineers for assistants, agents, and RAG pipelines from $15/hour. Profiles within 48 hours. Month-to-month, US contracts, full IP assignment. Profiles within 48 hours; start in 1–2 weeks.
Hire AI Developers
AI Developers who have shipped before
The gap between an AI demo and an AI product is engineering: guardrails, evaluation suites, cost control, and retrieval that stays accurate as data changes. Our AI engineers built and run our own AI Agents Suite for paying customers — hiring them means hiring that production experience.
Our AI developers work across the practical stack: LLM applications on OpenAI, Anthropic, Google, and open-source models; RAG pipelines with vector stores and hybrid retrieval; agent systems with tool calling and human-in-the-loop controls; and classic ML — classification, prediction, document processing — where a fine-tuned small model beats an expensive API call.
Engagements usually start with a 2–4 week paid pilot on one high-value workflow, measured against agreed success criteria, then scale to embedded engineers or a full AI pod. The model layer is always designed to be swappable, so you're never locked into one provider. From $15/hour, month-to-month.
What it costs to hire ai developers in 2026
Rates verified September 2026. Our rate is per engineer-hour, billed monthly, no placement fee, month to month after the first month. The monthly column is a full-time (160-hour) equivalent. US columns are 2026 market ranges for the same seniority; in-house figures are base salary plus benefits, payroll tax and equipment.
| Seniority | Rocket Systems (hourly) | Rocket Systems (monthly, full time) | US agency / contractor | US in-house (salary + overhead) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Mid-level (3–5 years) | $15–$30/hour | $2.4k–$4.8k | $70–$110/hour | $120k–$150k + 25–30% |
| Senior (owns a product area) | $25–$50/hour | $4k–$8k | $110–$160/hour | $150k–$190k + 25–30% |
| Tech lead / architect | $40–$60/hour | $6.4k–$9.6k | $150–$220/hour | $190k–$240k + 25–30% |
Sources: Rocket Systems rate card (September 2026); React developer rates 2026 by region; Armenian developers vs Eastern Europe vs India: 2026 rates; engineering staff augmentation rates. US salary bands are market observations for California employers and are updated quarterly.
How it works
From request to first commit
Describe the role
A 30-minute call or a short brief: stack, seniority, team setup, and hours needed.
Profiles in 48 hours
We send matching, pre-vetted engineers — real profiles with real project history, not a bench list.
You interview
Technical and culture interviews with your team. No fees until you choose someone.
Start within 1–2 weeks
Engineers join your repos, standups, and hours — month-to-month from $15/hour, full IP assignment.
FAQ
Hiring AI Developers: common questions
Have your AI developers shipped production AI systems?
Yes — our own AI Agents Suite runs in production for paying customers, and the engineers we place bring the same architecture: evaluation suites, guardrails, cost monitoring, and retrieval that stays accurate as data changes.
Which AI models and providers do you work with?
OpenAI, Anthropic, Google, and open-source models (Llama, Mistral). We design the model layer to be swappable so you can change providers as pricing and quality shift.
How do AI engagements start?
Usually with a 2–4 week paid pilot on one workflow with agreed success criteria — enough to prove value before you commit. Embedded AI engineers are available from $15/hour, month-to-month.
Start here
Get ai developers profiles
Tell us the stack, seniority, and hours you need — matching profiles within 48 hours.
- Product demo
- Custom build
- Staff augmentation