Project
$15k+fixed scope
Fixed-scope build with a senior engineer leading. The most common engagement.
- Senior engineer on code
- Fixed scope + quote
- 4–8 weeks to ship
- 30-day support
Hire AI Engineer
Hire an AI engineer who’s shipped production systems.
Senior AI engineers for production work — agents, RAG, MCP integrations, evals, deployment. We've shipped Arlo (our own MCP-powered AI product) and AI inside Agency ERP. You get that experience on your project.
The problem
Hiring an AI engineer in 2026 is mostly hiring noise.
The market is flooded. Marketplaces list thousands of “AI engineers” — most have wrapped GPT in a chat UI and call it production AI. Vetting takes weeks. Onboarding takes more. The first hire often doesn’t work out.
Senior AI engineers — the ones who can actually ship — are not on marketplaces. They’re full-time at Anthropic, OpenAI, or already running their own teams.
What we do
A small senior team. Production AI as the proof.
We’re a small senior team that’s built and shipped AI in production. Arlo (our own product) is an MCP connector that lets Claude query 100+ analytics platforms in natural language — used by agencies in production today. Same engineers will be on your project.
Project-based or embedded engagement. The people on the discovery call are the people in the editor. Same person, every week.
Capabilities
AI agent development
Custom agents with MCP tool access, persistent memory, structured outputs, human-in-the-loop escalation, evals.
RAG over your data
Retrieval-augmented generation against your docs, knowledge base, support history. pgvector or Pinecone, depending on shape.
MCP server development
Custom MCP servers that wire your systems into any MCP-compatible model. Format-once, use-everywhere pattern.
Eval-driven development
Test suites against real data. Quality measured, not assumed. Built on LangSmith, Helicone, or custom harnesses.
Model selection + cost control
Right model for each step (Haiku for routing, Sonnet for reasoning, Opus for hard cases). Caching, batching, budget alerts.
Production deployment
Vercel, AWS Lambda, Cloudflare Workers, Modal. With observability, monitoring, model failover, and kill switches.
Data privacy + compliance
Pass-through architectures, AES-256-GCM token encryption, zero data retention patterns. Same patterns we use in Arlo.
Fine-tuning + custom models
When the use case demands it: domain-specific fine-tunes, embeddings models, classification models on your data.
AI strategy + tradeoffs
Honest assessment of when AI fits, when it doesn't, and which model/architecture is right for your problem.
How we work
How an engagement starts.
- 01
Discovery call
30 minutes. What you're trying to ship, the constraints, the timeline.
- 02
Written proposal
We come back with scope, fixed quote, and timeline. No deck.
- 03
Kickoff
Week 1 we're embedded. Slack, weekly cadence, continuous deployment.
- 04
Ship
Working build in 4–8 weeks for most engagements.
- 05
Run
Optional retainer after launch. Same team. Same Slack channel.
Engagement
Engagement options.
We don't sell hours. We sell shipped work. The two shapes we offer:
Embedded
$12k/mo16 hrs/week
Embedded part-time in your team. For ongoing work or longer roadmaps.
- Senior engineer 16 hrs/week
- Same person every week
- Slack access
- Month-to-month after 90 days
Fractional CTO
$12k+/mo
If you need senior tech leadership across the whole engineering function — not just one role.
- Strategy + hands-on
- Hiring + leadership
- Architecture decisions
- Board support
If a marketplace developer at $80/hour fits your need better than us, we'll honestly tell you.
Built by us
The level of work you'd be getting.
Agent Platform — Live
Arlo
Our own product. MCP-powered AI agent connecting Claude to 100+ analytics platforms. Pass-through architecture, zero data retention.
Internal — LiveAgency ERP — AI ops layer
Agents embedded in our own ERP for triage, scope estimation, and project status. Same patterns we ship to clients.
AI ProductAnnatype
Production AI product built end-to-end — strategy, model selection, integrations, deployment.
FAQ
Most projects ship in 4–8 weeks. Embedded engagements run 3+ months with month-to-month renewal after the first 90 days.
Yes. The senior engineer who picks up your project is the same one through the engagement. No staff rotation. No junior pass-throughs.
Both. We default to Claude for reasoning and tool use (we've shipped a lot on it), OpenAI when the task demands it, and open models for cost/compliance. Model choice is per use case.
Yes — we offer optional retainers for ongoing AI ops after the build engagement. Most clients keep us on.
Code is yours. Standard frameworks, full documentation. You can take it in-house any time. No lock-in, no proprietary platforms.
Senior engineers only, no staffing pool, no per-hour billing, real shipped products as the proof. If a $80/hour marketplace contractor fits your need better, we'll honestly tell you.
Want to talk about your project?
Tell us what you're building or trying to figure out. We'll come back with what we'd do, how long it takes, and what it costs. No deck, no sales call.