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Embedded Teams

Embedded AI engineers

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Senior engineers who join your team rather than sit beside it. You set the priorities and the pod works in your repositories, your standups and your roadmap — but a Zulaiy tech lead stays accountable for what ships. That accountability is the whole difference between this and hiring bodies by the month: we do not place a lone engineer, we name a replacement within five business days if someone leaves us, and every quarter we review what the pod is actually for. Most useful when you have the direction and the backlog but not the senior AI, data or platform capacity to move on it.

Key Capabilities

  • Pods of 2–4 people, with a fractional tech lead attached to every one
  • ML/LLM, data, MLOps, software engineering and product design — the disciplines we already ship
  • Anonymised profiles within 48 hours, two interview rounds inside five business days
  • Named replacement in five business days, with an overlap you are not billed for
  • $3,000 – $10,000 per engineer, per month, monthly in advance
  • 3-month minimum · 30 days notice · no cancellation penalty
  • A quarterly review of the mandate, not an open-ended seat

How a pod is built

We place the disciplines we already deliver, and nothing else. A pod is assembled from these roles against what your team is short of, and its monthly fee is the sum of the seats in it. Seats run $3,000 – $10,000 per engineer, per month — where one sits inside its band depends on seniority and how scarce the skill is.

ML / LLM engineer

$5,000 – $10,000 / month

Model work, retrieval pipelines, agents, evaluation and the tuning that keeps them affordable.

Senior data engineer

$4,000 – $7,500 / month

Pipelines, warehousing and the single source of truth that models and dashboards depend on.

MLOps / platform engineer

$4,500 – $8,000 / month

Deployment, observability, drift and cost monitoring, and the lifecycle around production models.

Senior software engineer

$3,500 – $6,500 / month

The production software around the model — APIs, services, integrations and the app itself.

Product designer

$3,000 – $5,000 / month

Interface and interaction design for AI-enabled products, including evaluation of model output in context.

Tech lead (fractional)

$1,200 – $2,000 / month

Attached to every pod. Owns delivery standards, reviews the work and stays accountable to you for it. An add-on to a pod at roughly 20% allocation, not a seat you buy on its own — which is why it prices below the floor.

The minimum is a pod, not a person. One senior engineer plus a fractional tech lead, or two or more engineers — so the smallest engagement is about $4,200 per month, not the floor rate for one seat. A single engineer with nobody accountable above them is the arrangement that gives outsourcing its reputation, and it is not something we sell.

What we commit to

Four promises that a freelance marketplace structurally cannot make. Each one is written into the engagement agreement, not just said on a call.

Profiles within 48 hours
Anonymised profiles of the engineers we propose, with the work history that is relevant to your stack, inside two business days of scoping the need.
Two interview rounds, inside five business days
One technical, one working-style. You choose who joins the pod. We schedule the whole loop within a week so hiring urgency is not the reason you settle.
Replacement named within five business days
If an engineer leaves us mid-engagement, we propose a named replacement within five business days and hand over with an overlap. You are not billed for the replacement ramping up.
A quarterly mandate review
Every 90 days we review what the pod is actually for against what it has delivered, and adjust the shape of the team or the mandate.

How an engagement starts

Four steps from first call to an embedded team. You know the monthly fee and the minimum term before step four.

  1. 01

    Scoping call

    Free

    Thirty minutes on what your team is short of, the stack, and whether a pod is the right instrument at all. Sometimes a fixed-price build is the better answer and we will say so.

  2. 02

    Pod proposal

    Free

    A written proposal: who is in the pod, what each person does, the monthly fee, the minimum term and the mandate for the first quarter. Nothing is chargeable until you accept it.

  3. 03

    Interviews and start

    Free

    You meet the engineers and choose. We handle onboarding, access, tooling and the first-week ramp. The tech lead is in from day one.

  4. 04

    Embedded delivery

    Monthly in advance

    The pod works to your priorities in your tools and your rituals. We hold a weekly delivery check-in and a quarterly mandate review, and invoice monthly.

Terms

An embedded pod is billed like any other retainer we run — monthly in advance, on the same notice. See Pricing & Payment Terms for the terms that apply across every engagement.

What you buy
One full-time engineer-month, approximately 160 hours, inside a pod.
Rate
$3,000 – $10,000 per engineer, per month, by discipline and seniority. Your pod's monthly fee is the sum of its seats plus the fractional tech lead, fixed in writing before the engagement starts.
Minimum unit
One senior engineer plus a fractional tech lead, or two or more engineers.
Minimum term
3 months.
Notice to end
30 days' written notice, any time after the minimum term. No cancellation penalty.
Billing
Monthly in advance, invoiced in US Dollars (USD), due within 14 days.
Who you contract with
Zulaiy Technologies, never an individual engineer. We employ or contract the people in your pod and remain responsible for their work.
If you want to hire someone
Tell us. There is a conversion fee stated in your agreement, waived after a qualifying period of continuous billing. We would rather price it than pretend it never happens.

What we decline

Worth stating plainly, so nobody spends a call finding out. If you need one of these, we are the wrong supplier and will say so early.

  • A single engineer with no Zulaiy lead attached — the accountability is the product
  • Disciplines outside the six above, including general IT staffing and recruitment
  • Hourly billing, timesheet-by-the-hour arrangements, or trial-by-the-day placements
  • Engagements shorter than three months
  • Direct contracts between you and an individual engineer

Questions

Is this staff augmentation?
Yes, with one difference: a Zulaiy tech lead stays accountable for the work. You direct the priorities and the pod sits in your rituals and your tools, but the quality of what gets shipped is ours to answer for. That is why we do not place a lone engineer and call it a service.
How is this different from hiring through a marketplace?
A marketplace matches you to an individual and steps away. We attach a tech lead to every pod at roughly 20% allocation, review the work, and name a replacement within five business days if someone leaves us — with an overlapping handover you are not billed for. A freelance platform cannot promise continuity because it does not employ anyone.
Can we start with one person?
Not on their own. The minimum is one senior engineer plus a fractional tech lead, or two or more engineers. One engineer with nobody accountable above them is the arrangement that produces the outcomes people blame outsourcing for, so we do not sell it.
What does it cost?
Seats run $3,000 – $10,000 per engineer, per month, by discipline and seniority, and each role's band is shown above. Because every pod carries a fractional tech lead, the smallest engagement we sell is one seat plus that lead — about $4,200 per month at the floor. Your exact fee is fixed in writing in the proposal before anything is chargeable, and we do not quote below the published bands.
Who manages the work day to day?
You do. The pod takes its priorities from your roadmap, joins your standups and works in your repositories. What we manage is delivery quality, continuity and the people themselves — performance, cover and replacement.
What happens if it is not working?
Raise it at any point and we will change the pod. Beyond the 3-month minimum you can end the engagement on 30 days' written notice with no penalty, and anything prepaid for time not yet delivered is refunded. The full terms are in our Refund & Cancellation Policy.
Do you also build things outright?
Yes, and often that is the better instrument. If what you actually need is a defined system delivered to a fixed price, we will tell you that on the scoping call rather than sell you capacity you have to manage.

Tell us what your team is short of.

Book a scoping call