Hire an AI engineer for your startup: full-time, fractional, or agency
A startup that needs AI in its product has three options: a full-time AI hire, a fractional AI engineer, or an agency. A full-time hire is slow and expensive to find; an agency rotates teams; a fractional engineer embeds part-time and ships. Cognitiv is the fractional option - one senior engineer, in your team, shipping production code.
Full-time hire
The right call once AI is core to the product and the workload is constant. The cost is time - a senior AI hire is hard to find and slow to onboard - and the risk of committing a full salary before the roadmap is proven.
Agency
Useful for large, well-defined builds, but the work usually passes through a rotating team, and the people who designed the system are rarely the ones maintaining it. Accountability for the shipped code can be hard to pin down.
Fractional AI engineer
One senior engineer, embedded in your team part-time, accountable for the code that ships. It suits funded startups that need senior AI engineering now but not a full-time hire. This is how Cognitiv works - from a USD $4,000 Ship Sprint to a monthly retainer from USD $8,000, 30-day rolling.
Common questions
Should a startup hire a full-time or fractional AI engineer?+
Fractional makes sense when the AI workload is not yet constant or the roadmap is still being proven - you get senior engineering without a full salary. Full-time makes sense once AI is core and the work is continuous.
How quickly can a fractional AI engineer start?+
Much faster than a full-time hire. A Cognitiv Ship Sprint can start within days and deploys a feature inside two weeks.
What does it cost to add AI engineering this way?+
Cognitiv starts at a USD $4,000 two-week Ship Sprint, then a monthly retainer from USD $8,000 to USD $15,000, 30-day rolling.
Have a roadmap you need shipped?
Start with a two-week Ship Sprint - deployed, not a document.