Hourly
Great for a specific task or gap. You only pay for the hours you use.
AI Staff Augmentation · Engineers from $35/hr
Hire Vetted AI Engineers with Our AI Staff Augmentation Service
Setting up a new AI team takes a long time. Constantly hiring roles, interviews and making offers doesn’t suit startups or expanding teams.
We’re a US-registered LLC with the name LoopHawk. We offer AI IT Staff Augmentation to speed up your hiring of pre-vetted senior remote engineers. We’ll begin by interviewing you using a real person inside your tools.
- US-registered LLC
- You own the code
- Paid trial task
AI Roles You Can Hire
Which AI Engineers Can You Add to Your Team?
Hire one specialist or combine roles into a small team. Every engineer is pre-vetted and works inside your tools.
Machine Learning Engineers
Models, training and prediction engines
LLM & NLP Experts
Language models, RAG and fine-tuning
Agentic & Voice AI Developers
Agents and voice assistants that act
Computer Vision Engineers
Image and video understanding
Data & MLOps Engineers
Pipelines, deployment and monitoring
AI Integration Engineers
CRM, APIs and MCP connections
What Our Engineers Build
From LLMs and RAG to Agents You Own
Our expert engineers will guide you through every step of building your LLM, RAG and Agents. You’ll be able to fine-tune your language models and create prediction engines. You’ll own your models, code and IP from the get-go!
+1 (307) 888-9667
Need more information? Book a free 15-minute call and tell us what you need.
Book a free 15-minute callIndustries
Industries Our AI Engineers Support
Our engineers will work with you to develop AI in the following sectors:
E-Commerce & Retail
Product Q&A Bots, Cart Recovery Bots & Wholesale Lead Qualification
Healthcare & Dental
Appointment Booking Bots, Rebooking & Patient FAQ Bots
Real Estate
Buyer & Renter Qualification, Viewing Booking & CRM
Legal & Professional Services
Client Intake Qualification, Document Search Bots & Consultation Booking
B2B & SaaS
Demo Request Qualification, RAG Bots (Help Center) & CRM Integration
Compare Your Options
AI Staff Augmentation vs In-House Hiring vs Project Outsourcing
This acts as a middle ground between hiring people for your team and contracting an entire project to an agency. This table shows the main differences.
| Factor | AI staff augmentation (LoopHawk) | In-house hiring | Project outsourcing |
|---|---|---|---|
| Cost | Pay for the engineers you use. Rates from $35 per hour. | Hiring an experienced engineer can cost $300k+ a year, including salary, benefits, and fees. | One price to pay. For example, from $5,000 for a specific deliverable. Additional changes will add extra charges. |
| Flexibility | Flexible to scale up/down. If you lose an engineer, there will be cover in place. | Difficult to scale. Losing members of staff can be painful and hiring new engineers can be slow. | Fixed scope |
| Management | You define the priorities. The delivery lead will ensure everything is on track and any issues are raised early on. | You manage every person. | Work is managed by the vendor; you will review the output. |
| Control and IP | You have full control over what tools are used and how quickly the work is done. IP is assigned to work for hire, so you will own the code and models. | Full control. | Less control over how the work is done. Need to check ownership. |
| Speed | Quick to get a shortlisted list of engineers to your liking. Most engineers can come on board in week 1. | Can take months to find an interview. | Planning stage. |
| Risk | You will have a contract in place with a US-registered LLC. Payment is based on milestones. You will also have a paid proof of concept task. | Expensive to get the wrong hire. Time-consuming to replace. | May not know the quality of work until the end. |
| Best for | Skills gap, spikes, initial AI hires, proof of concepts. | Long-term core AI products. | Minimal effort from your team to get a finished product. |
Outsourcing
Your best bet if you have good teams and strategies but no AI skills or expertise. Also choose it if you want someone else to do the work for you.
An internal team
Right if you’ve been using AI to manage your business for a long time now.
Freelancers and marketplaces
Great for small projects. However, you would need to find your own management contract.
Vetting
How We Vet AI Engineers
Every engineer is hand-picked and vetted on real work, not on a resume alone.
- 01
A take-home test
It mirrors your build, such as an agent that calls tools and handles bad data.
- 02
Evals
We check whether they can measure results, catch regressions, and limit made-up answers.
- 03
Production experience
We ask for real stories of systems that broke and how they were fixed.
- 04
System design
They must know how to connect system parts, manage stored information, and monitor performance, not just follow a tutorial.
- 05
Clear communication
They explain trade-offs in plain English and admit what they do not know.
- 06
ID checks
We verify each engineer's identity, so the person you interview is the person who writes your code.
Process
How Hiring Works
- 1
Role scoping
We have an initial 15-minute free call to understand your tools, objectives, and time frame. We’ll also help you find the right people to deliver your project (even if you want us to deliver with fewer people).
- 2
Candidate matching
After a short period of time, we’ll provide you with carefully curated candidate matches. You can then proceed to the interview.
- 3
Interview
You engage in real engineer interviews.
- 4
Paid trial
Real work is always better than any long-term deals. We’ll give a small task to try out.
- 5
Integration and delivery
Your engineer will integrate into your chat, task management system, and code repo. There will be a delivery lead to oversee the work.
- 6
Grow or replace
As your business grows, we can add extra seats. If someone leaves, yes,we will replace the seat with someone new and retain the context.
Engagement Models
Engagement Models
Pick the model by how clear your scope is.
Remote dedicated developer
Provides a single full-time developer fully integrated into your team. Includes cover.
Managed pod
A small team of engineers, data scientists, and delivery experts who own your AI roadmap.
Fixed project
A clearly defined build. Deliverable on a fixed cost with milestones and IP in your name.
Management
Who Manages the Developers
Your goals and priorities are defined. The LoopHawk delivery lead will help to implement this process so that there is a smooth process. It will identify any inconsistencies at the start of the process. Technical terms will be explained in simple and easy-to-understand language. This means that non-technical team members can have full control.
We use your tools (Slack, Teams, Jira, Asana). We use your Git repositories. This means that your engineers are working in your environment. We will dedicate 3-4 hours during working hours to have the project and team members working together. Engineers will provide daily written updates. We will use shared boards.
Security
Data Security, Confidentiality, and IP Ownership
You own everything
IP is assigned with a work-for-hire agreement ensuring that you have 100% ownership over all code, models, and prompts from day one.
NDA & DPA
We’ll ensure you have an NDA and DPA in place with your legal team.
Role-based access
Our engineers will have role-based access to securely build your systems. We can use anonymised data for any sensitive work and keep your production credentials on your side.
Risk-tiered data handling
We scope our data handling around your risk tier and follow your own security and compliance rules.
No vendor lock-in
All of our models are available with GPT, Claude, Gemini, and open source. Everything is built using standard frameworks. If you need to hand it over to another team tomorrow, they can easily take it on.
A US-registered LLC
You will be working with a real contract partner who you can hold accountable.
Handover
What You Keep When the Work Ends
You should finish with a system you can run without us. A good handover includes:
Your handover kit
- The code and prompts, in your repositories.
- The evaluation set. These are the tests that prove the AI behaves, so you can change things safely later.
- A runbook, written for someone who was not in the room.
- Your own API keys. The system runs on your accounts, so nothing switches off if we part ways.
- A calm exit. If you hire in-house, we help your team take over.
Pricing
What Affects Pricing
We publish starting rates for our staff augmentation service so you can plan before you call. Hourly work runs about $35–75 an hour. A dedicated engineer costs from $5,600 a month. Fixed builds start from $5,000. Five things set your final quote:
Hourly work$35–75an hour
Dedicated engineer$5,600from, a month
Fixed builds$5,000Starting price, scoped to your project
- 1Experience. Mid-level coders and principal AI architects are priced differently.
- 2Skills. Niche work such as agent workflows, text generation, or CUDA tuning may run higher than standard data work.
- 3Length. Longer contracts may bring better monthly terms.
- 4Team size. One engineer costs less than a full pod.
- 5Engagement model. Hourly, dedicated, pod, and fixed projects each have their own structure.
You get an itemized quote before you commit. To get a number, share your needs.
Share your needs
Why LoopHawk
Why Choose LoopHawk
We’re a staff augmentation services company with a pure focus on AI and verifiable results.
Want a closer look? Explore our AI agents or our AI agent consulting.
- Hand-picked, senior engineers. Each one is vetted on production work and identity-verified.
- Focus on AI. We build agents, chatbots, automation, and integrations. Nothing else.
- See it first. You watch a working demo before you commit, and a paid trial task shows real fit.
- A US-registered LLC. You get a clear contract and a legal partner who answers for the work.
- You own everything. The code, models, prompts, and IP stay with you.
- Any model, no lock-in. Our engineers work with GPT, Claude, Gemini, and open-source models.
- Hands-on with agentic AI and MCP. We make agents that act across your CRM, calendar, email, and store.
- Replacement cover. If an engineer moves on, we backfill the seat and keep the context.
- Quick replies.
- Planning help. Our staff augmentation consulting services start with a short call to find which roles to hire first.
Ready to Hire AI Engineers?
Tell us what you are building, and we will help you find the right people. Share your project needs, or request AI developers through our AI staff augmentation service.
Not ready to hire yet? Ask for a free ROI estimate first, and see what an AI build could return.
FAQ
Frequently Asked Questions
What is AI staff augmentation?
AI staffing augmentation involves bringing in external AI experts to join your team. They can be data engineers, ML engineers, or AI security consultants. They work alongside your team, within your governance framework and architecture. However, there is no long-term commitment.
What’s the difference between hiring a freelancer and a marketplace?
In a marketplace, you’ll be responsible for sourcing and managing a single contractor. With LoopHawk, you’ll have a curated engineer, a delivery lead, backup cover, and a US-registered LLC contract.
When do businesses need AI staff augmentation?
AI augmentation can help businesses that lack in-house AI expertise, as well as those needing skilled engineers quickly. Businesses can create AI solutions, cover any skill gaps, and increase their workforce efficiently.
Can I hire just one engineer?
Yes. Start with 1 focused engineer and scale up further as your roadmap expands.
How do I know an engineer is truly senior?
We’ll conduct interviews, look at production work, and trial with a paid task.
I am not technical. Can I still hire AI engineers?
Yes. We’ll have a delivery lead who will manage the technical requirements and explain everything in simple English.
What if an engineer leaves or is not a fit?
We provide backup cover. We’ll fill the role for you and have project context.
Request AI Engineers
Tell Us Who You Need to Hire
Share the role, how you want to work and what you are building.
- Email us[email protected]
- Call us+1 (307) 888-9667
- US-registered LLCNDA and work-for-hire IP
Prefer to talk first?Book a free 15-minute call with our team.
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