Hire AI developers and LLM engineers
Add LLM engineers, agentic systems developers, ML and MLOps engineers or an AI solutions architect to your team. Our engineers have shipped document AI, AI support agents and agentic platforms to production.
Send the role or the problem. Get 2-3 matching profiles within one business day, or message us on WhatsApp.
You can hire AI developers from MappOptimist on a monthly rolling basis: AI/ML engineers, LLM engineers, agentic systems developers, AI solutions architects, ML data engineers, MLOps engineers, AI consultants and computer vision engineers. They work with RAG, agent frameworks, fine-tuning, vector search and evaluation. Our 2026 rates run from $36/hr to $85/hr by role and experience.
Why teams hire AI developers from us
An AI prototype that never reaches production
The demo works, but retrieval quality, evaluation, cost, latency and guardrails stand between it and real users.
Few people who have shipped LLM systems
Engineers who have built RAG, tool-calling agents and evaluation pipelines in production are hard to find and slow to hire.
Your ML models need operating, not just training
Deployment, monitoring, retraining and data pipelines are what keep models useful, and they need dedicated engineers.
AI roles you can hire
LLM engineers
LLM applications with RAG and retrieval, prompt and context design, fine-tuning and LoRA, vector search, and evaluation against real data.
Agentic systems developers
Tool-using agents and multi-agent workflows with LangChain, LangGraph and similar frameworks, with guardrails and human approval where it matters.
AI/ML engineers and data scientists
Predictive models, NLP and classification, recommendation systems and multimodal AI in Python with PyTorch, TensorFlow and scikit-learn.
MLOps and ML data engineers
Model deployment, monitoring and evaluation pipelines, plus feature engineering and the data pipelines that feed your models.
Computer vision engineers
OCR and document extraction, as used in our document AI work, plus image analysis and on-device models.
AI architects and consultants
AI solutions architects and AI consultants who define the use case, architecture, data needs and evaluation plan before the build.
How hiring works
- Step 01
Share the requirement
Tell us the AI role, skills, experience, start date, duration and the working hours you need covered.
- Step 02
Profiles in one business day
We confirm who is available and send resumes with the hourly rate for each profile within one business day.
- Step 03
Interview and choose
You interview the shortlisted engineers and approve the person you want before anyone starts.
- Step 04
Onboard in about a week
The engineer joins your tools, standups and delivery process. Average onboarding for a vetted engineer is about a week.
Ways to hire
Individual experts
One or more AI engineers who join your team on a monthly rolling basis and work under your direction.
Dedicated team
A cross-functional squad with a team lead that owns delivery alongside you, for sustained roadmaps.
Managed pod
A fully managed pod that delivers a defined scope against the outcomes you set.
AI engineering rate card
All 8 roles from our 2026 AI / Agentic Systems rate card, in USD per hour.
| Role | 2-3 years | 4-6 years | 6+ years |
|---|---|---|---|
| AI/ML Engineer | $38/hr | $45/hr | $60/hr |
| LLM Engineer | $40/hr | $48/hr | $62/hr |
| Agentic Systems Developer | $38/hr | $45/hr | $60/hr |
| AI Solutions Architect | $65/hr | $75/hr | $85/hr |
| ML Data Engineer (AI/ML Pipelines & Feature Engineering) | $36/hr | $42/hr | $54/hr |
| MLOps Engineer | $38/hr | $45/hr | $60/hr |
| AI Consultant / Business Analyst | $36/hr | $42/hr | $48/hr |
| Computer Vision Engineer | $38/hr | $45/hr | $60/hr |
Rates are indicative and confirmed per engagement scope, duration and resource availability. Estimate your monthly and yearly cost →
AI skills we cover
AI systems our engineers have built
Agentic AI Platform
Goal-driven AI agents that plan, call tools and complete real workflows under human oversight.
Read the case study →AI Agents · SupportAutonomous support agents
A multi-agent customer support chatbot, with specialised bots for tracking, support and payments, that automates repetitive queries and frees the team for complex issues.
Read the case study →Document AI · BankingDocument Intelligence (BFSI)
Reads, classifies, extracts and validates documents end to end, with a human only where it matters.
Read the case study →Frequently asked questions
Are there discounts for longer commitments?
Yes. Flexible engagements run month to month at the standard rate with two weeks' notice. A Committed plan (3-month minimum) is about 10% below standard rates and includes priority bench access and a dedicated delivery contact. A Dedicated plan (6 months or more) is about 20% below standard rates, with a guaranteed bench reservation, an account manager and SLAs.
What if the engineer is not the right fit?
We replace the engineer at no extra cost. On the Flexible plan you can also end an engagement with two weeks' notice, so you are never locked in.
How much does it cost to hire an AI developer?
On our 2026 rate card an LLM Engineer is $40/hr with 2-3 years of experience, $48/hr with 4-6 years and $62/hr with 6+ years. An AI/ML Engineer or Agentic Systems Developer is $38/hr, $45/hr and $60/hr, and an AI Solutions Architect is $65/hr to $85/hr. Rates are indicative and confirmed per engagement scope, duration and resource availability.
What AI work have your engineers done?
Our published AI case studies include an agentic AI platform that completes enterprise workflows under human oversight, AI customer-support agents for a logistics and e-commerce enablement platform, and document intelligence pipelines for banking and shipping documents.
How quickly can an AI engineer start?
We confirm availability and send resumes and rates within one business day. After you interview and approve an engineer, average onboarding is about a week. Highly specialised AI roles can take slightly longer, and we tell you the timeline up front.
Will the engineer work in our time zone?
Yes. Our engineers work your business hours, including US and UK hours, so they join stand-ups, reviews and releases during your working day. Tell us the hours you need with the requirement.
Can we hire dedicated LLM developers for a US or UK team?
Yes. LLM engineers, agentic systems developers and AI/ML engineers join US and UK teams remotely as dedicated members of your team, month to month or on a 3- or 6-month commitment. Our AI engineers have built AI agents that coordinate scheduling, records and workflows for a US hospital network and an agentic AI platform for a UK enterprise SaaS company. An LLM Engineer is $40/hr, $48/hr or $62/hr for 2-3, 4-6 and 6+ years of experience. Rates are indicative and confirmed per engagement scope, duration and resource availability.
Can you build the AI system for us instead?
Yes. Alongside staff augmentation we deliver AI agents and document AI systems as managed projects. See our AI agent development and document AI pages.
Related pages
Hire AI developers
Tell us the role, the system you are building and the start date. We will send resumes and rates within one business day.