Shipped to real users
They can name the model, the traffic and the bill. Production is a different sport from a leaderboard.
AI engineers who ship, not just prototype.
Everyone has an AI project on their CV now. We find the people who got one into production, kept it there, and can tell you what broke.
When startups make this hire.
Usually when the demo works and the product doesn’t. You’ve proved the idea with an API and a prompt, and now you need evals, latency and cost under control. Rush it and you hire someone brilliant in a notebook who has never been paged at 2am.
What great looks like.
Evals before vibes
They measure quality before and after every change, and they built the test set themselves.
Cost and latency instincts
They know when to fine-tune, when to prompt, and when a smaller model does the job for a tenth of the price.
Product sense
They ask what the user is trying to do before they ask which model to use.
How we vet this role.
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A live build on a real problem
A messy, realistic task: an LLM feature giving bad answers on a tight budget. They work through it live, and our anti-cheat checks the interview. Anything it flags becomes a follow-up question, never a verdict.
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Their evals, explained
In the same interview we ask how they measured quality on something they shipped. People who did the work can go three questions deep. People who read about it can’t.
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History and references
Employment history checked, and references confirmed through work email with people who worked with them on the system they claim.
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ID and right to work
Checked before you meet anyone. No surprises at offer stage.
What it costs in the UK.
Base salary at venture-backed startups. Draft figures, pending Jono’s sign-off.
| Level | London | Rest of UK |
|---|---|---|
| Junior (0-2 yrs) | £50k-£70k | £40k-£55k |
| Mid-level (2-4 yrs) | £75k-£100k | £60k-£80k |
| Senior (5+ yrs) | £100k-£140k | £80k-£110k |
| Staff / lead | £130k-£180k | £105k-£140k |
Questions, answered.
How much does it cost to hire an AI engineer through Candit?
Our fee is fee and payment terms. With Pay as they stay you can spread it across your hire’s first months, so your runway stays yours.
How fast can we meet people?
You get 3-5 vetted candidates by a date we agree upfront, usually within 10 days of signing off the brief.
Will strong AI engineers consider an equity-heavy package?
Some will, if the mission is real and the numbers are honest. We benchmark salary and equity with you before we start, so nobody wastes a final round on a package that was never going to land.
Do you hire research scientists too?
Sometimes, but most startups need applied engineers who ship. We’ll tell you straight which one your problem actually needs.