Fractionals Send your requirement
People talking at the far end of a long wooden meeting table in afternoon light

Forward deployed engineers for AI agents

Use cases / AI agents

Your agent works in the demo. Getting it to act on real systems, safely, is a different job. Forward deployed engineers for AI agents join your team, part of the week or for a fixed period, and own that job until the agent is live. You tell us who you need. We send people who fit.

Send your requirement
  • No deposit to get started
  • Every requirement read by us
  • A best-fit shortlist, not a pile of CVs
  • One agreement, one invoice

Why agents stall

A demo calls one tool production calls many

Agents fail in production for plain reasons. A tool returns an error the prompt never saw. A permission is broader than it should be. A long task runs out of context. Or nobody can say why the agent did what it did last week.

A forward deployed engineer treats the agent as a system, not a prompt. They set the tools and their limits, build a test set from real tasks, add tracing and approvals, and ship it to the people who will use it.

Tell us the role and the hours. We send you a shortlist of people who fit.

  • No deposit to get started
  • Every requirement read by us
  • A best-fit shortlist, not a pile of CVs
  • One agreement, one invoice
Send your requirement

What the work covers

What forward deployed engineers for AI agents work on

  • Tool design and permissions Narrow, clearly described tools with the least access they need, scoped credentials and error messages the model can recover from.
  • Evals from real tasks A test set built from tasks your team actually does, graded automatically where possible, and run on every prompt or model change.
  • Tracing and replay Every step, tool call and decision logged, so you can replay a bad run, see where it went wrong and fix the cause.
  • Human approval points Approvals before actions that spend money, contact customers or change records. They sit where they protect you without stalling the work.

How hiring an engineer for your agent works

  1. 01

    Send your requirement

    Tell us the one task the agent will own, the systems it touches, the actions it may take alone and who signs off "live". It is free, and there is no deposit.

  2. 02

    Get a shortlist

    We read every requirement ourselves and look for people who fit. Then we send a shortlist: each person's CV and a short note on why they fit.

  3. 03

    Talk to them and choose

    You talk to whoever you like and choose. Ask each person how they would test your agent. That answer tells you most of what you need. You do not have to hire anyone.

  4. 04

    Pay only when someone starts

    One agreement and one invoice with us, on terms agreed in writing before anything starts. Talent never pays.

Constraints

Risks to design for from the start

  • People talking at the far end of a long wooden meeting table in afternoon light
    Prompt injection Anything the agent reads, such as emails, web pages or documents, can carry instructions. Tools and permissions are set up so injected text cannot cause serious harm.
  • Two women holding coffee cups and talking beside a tall window
    Excessive agency Agents get only the functions, permissions and freedom the task needs. High-impact actions keep a person in the loop.
  • Two women holding coffee cups and talking beside a tall window
    Cost and speed Long agent loops get expensive and slow. Budgets, step limits and caching are part of the design, not an afterthought.
  • Two women holding coffee cups and talking beside a tall window
    Your security review Vendor review and data handling rules apply to model providers like any other vendor. A good engineer brings the documents your security team will ask for.

Tell us the role and the hours. We send you a shortlist of people who fit.

  • No deposit to get started
  • Every requirement read by us
  • A best-fit shortlist, not a pile of CVs
  • One agreement, one invoice
Send your requirement

Hiring in-house or a forward deployed engineer

Permanent AI engineer hire

  • Right once agents are a long-term product line
  • Experienced agent engineers are scarce and slow to hire
  • Early months spent learning your systems
  • You carry the cost whatever happens

Forward deployed engineer through us

  • Works on one agent with a clear definition of live
  • Part of the week or for a fixed period
  • Leaves evals, traces and runbooks behind
  • You pay only when someone starts

For companies

Tell us who you need.

Send your requirement. It is free and there is no deposit. We read it ourselves and send you a shortlist of people who fit. You pay only when someone starts.

Send your requirement
  • No deposit to get started
  • Every requirement read by us
  • A best-fit shortlist, not a pile of CVs
  • One agreement, one invoice

Fees, how it works and related use cases

Get started

Tell us what you need.

Send your requirement. We send you a shortlist of senior leaders who fit. One agreement and one invoice, with the terms agreed in writing before anything starts.

  • No deposit to get started
  • Every requirement read by us
  • A best-fit shortlist, not a pile of CVs
  • One agreement, one invoice
Which side are you on?

Send your requirement

  • No deposit to get started
  • Every requirement read by us
  • A best-fit shortlist, not a pile of CVs
  • One agreement, one invoice

Apply to join

Talent never pays to apply, be shortlisted or be placed.

Availability, days per week

FAQ

Questions people ask

Which agent framework should we use?

Whatever fits your stack and team. Sometimes that is a framework. Often it is plain code around a model API. Pick what your team can maintain after the engineer leaves.

Which models can the engineer work with?

Any your organisation has approved, from hosted providers to open-weight models you run yourself. The test set is how you compare them on your task.

How do we know the agent is ready?

Agree a pass bar on the test set, and the actions that need approval, before the build starts. Ready means it meets the bar on real tasks, not that the demo looked good.

Can an engineer improve an agent we already built?

Yes. They can start from your existing prototype. The first step is usually tracing and a test set, so everyone can see where it fails.

Explore more