LLM Engineer
Makes model behavior measurable, prompts, RAG, evals, and structured outputs that survive production.
Owns everything between the model API and a reliable feature: prompt design, retrieval quality, tool calling, eval datasets, regression testing, and cost-per-successful-task.
MEASURED, NOT VIBES-CHECKED
WHAT THEY OWN
Concrete deliverables, not job-description poetry.
01
Eval infrastructure
Datasets, graders, and regression suites so model changes are measured, not vibes-checked.
02
RAG pipelines that answer correctly
Retrieval diagnosis, chunking, reranking, and groundedness you can prove.
03
Structured outputs & tool calling
Valid schemas, safe tool use, and refusal behavior that holds under pressure.
04
Model selection & routing
The right model per task, quality, latency, and cost traded off explicitly.
05
Token cost & latency control
Lower cost per successful task without silent quality loss.
06
Production tracing
Every failure diagnosable from logs, not reproduced by luck.
PRICING
Pick the level, keep the senior oversight.
Junior
$2,500 /month
or $16/hr on Time & Material
AI-native from day one
Mid-Level
MOST HIRED$3,700 /month
or $23/hr on Time & Material
Independent feature ownership
Senior
$4,800 /month
or $30/hr on Time & Material
Architecture & judgment
Dedicated engineers are billed monthly; Time & Material is billed hourly on tracked actuals. The free trial week applies to every dedicated hire.
YOU NEED THIS ROLE IF
Your AI feature works in the demo and embarrasses you in production
Nobody can say whether last week's prompt change made things better
RAG answers are confident, cited, and wrong
BY END OF WEEK ONE
Built a first eval set from your real failure cases
Diagnosed your worst retrieval or prompt failure
Shipped one measured improvement to a live path
Reported cost, latency, and quality as numbers
OUTCOMES YOU CAN MEASURE
Groundedness and task completion you can chart
Fewer regressions per model or prompt change
Lower cost per successful task
LLM behavior your team can debug without folklore
PAIRS WELL WITH