4–8 weeks · $40K–$120K
AI Implementation Sprints
One workflow, fully scoped, built, and shipped to production on a fixed timeline and a published price.
See the sprintService · Fractional engineering
Fractional AI Engineering.
Dedicated senior AI engineer on your team. Build new systems, optimize existing ones, run evals, handle production. 20–80 hours per month.
The Model
Your AI team, on retainer.
You get a dedicated senior engineer who becomes part of your team. They work on your backlog, respond to production issues, run experiments, and help you scale AI across your organization. It's not a sprint; it's a partnership.
What's Included
Dedicated engineer hours: 20, 40, 60, or 80 hours per month. Flex up or down with 2 weeks notice.
Monthly evals: Measure system performance, identify optimization opportunities, test new models or approaches.
Quarterly reviews: Strategic review of your AI roadmap, upcoming projects, and architecture decisions.
On-call coverage: Production incidents get immediate attention. Critical issues resolved within hours.
Continuity: Same engineer across months/years so they understand your systems, constraints, and priorities.
Pricing
$8,000/mo (20 hrs): Light maintenance, evals, 1-2 small features per month.
$16,000/mo (40 hrs): Standard engagement. New feature development, evals, production support.
$24,000/mo (60 hrs): Accelerated roadmap. Multiple projects in parallel, deeper optimization work.
$30,000/mo (80 hrs): Full-time equivalent. Your dedicated AI engineering team.
Common Work
What retainer engineers do.
New system development
Build the next AI feature or workflow. From architecture through production launch.
System optimization
Reduce latency, improve quality, lower costs. Run evals and A/B tests.
Model migration
Evaluate new models, run side-by-side benchmarks, manage switchovers safely.
Production incidents
On-call for system failures, degradation, unexpected behavior. Root cause analysis and fixes.
Infrastructure & ops
Logging, monitoring, cost optimization, security hardening, compliance reviews.
Team enablement
Help your engineers learn. Code reviews, architecture discussions, best practices.
FAQ
Common questions.
How many hours per month do I get?
Our retainers are offered as 20, 40, 60, or 80 hours per month. You can flex usage month-to-month, and unused hours roll over (up to 2 months) so you're not penalized for lighter months.
What's included in a retainer?
Dedicated engineering hours, monthly evals, quarterly reviews, on-call coverage for production issues, and ongoing optimization. You get a senior engineer as part of your team.
Can I pause or scale up a retainer?
Yes. You can pause for a month or scale hours up/down with 2 weeks notice. The engagement is designed to flex with your actual needs.
What happens if we hit a production issue?
Retainer hours include on-call coverage. Critical issues get immediate attention; we prioritize your production systems over other work.
Do you work across our whole AI stack, or just new builds?
Both. We build new systems, optimize existing ones, run evals, handle migrations, integrate with your infrastructure, and manage production incidents. You get your own AI team.
Who's the engineer on our team?
A dedicated senior engineer who becomes part of your team. They own your roadmap, understand your systems, and provide continuity across projects.
Also consider
Not sure this is the right shape?
4–6 weeks · $25K–$60K
Enterprise AI Governance
Policy, risk register, eval infrastructure, and the audit trail that gets AI work through security review.
See governanceLet's Talk
Find your AI team.
Tell us about your roadmap and current AI systems. We'll match you with an engineer and scope the engagement.