Contingent AI/ML Recruitment
Digitalent, the AI/ML executive search firm, runs contingent searches for VC-backed startups and for established companies building AI capability, across the US, the UK and Australia. On a contingent search there is no fee until you hire someone. It is our standard arrangement for permanent (full-time) hires where the pool is deep enough to move quickly.
Contingent search at a glance
Contingent search at a glance
500+
AI/ML placements since January 2021
300+
of them in the United States
90%+
of the people we place are still there a year later
- By market
- 300+ US, 100+ UK, 100+ Australia
- By seniority
- 200+ executive and leadership hires, 300+ senior individual contributors
- Brief to shortlist
- approx. one week
- Brief to offer
- approx. three weeks for a permanent (full-time) hire, approx. one week for a contract hire
- Fee trigger
- Payable when the candidate signs their employment contract, or on their start date.
- Best for
- Permanent (full-time) hires: senior individual contributors, team hires and engineering leadership
Figures updated August 2026.
When contingent is the right call
When the pool is deep enough to build a strong shortlist quickly, which covers most permanent (full-time) engineering and data hires.
Applied ML engineers, data scientists and mid-level infrastructure people are easier to reach than a founding research hire. For those roles a contingent search usually gets you what you need without a retainer.
It is usually the model when headcount has just been signed off, when someone has resigned and the team is covering in the meantime, or when you are building out three or four similar roles at once. In each case the constraint is time rather than scarcity, and a contingent search starts the day you brief us.
Titles
Roles we place on a contingent basis
Senior individual contributors and team hires across the seven areas we work in. Executive appointments usually run retained instead.
Building and shipping AI systems.
- Machine learning engineers, mid to staff level
- Senior and lead AI/ML engineers
- Agentic AI engineers: tool calling, multi-agent orchestration, state management
- Evaluation and reliability engineers
- Inference and serving engineers
- Post-training and fine-tuning specialists
- Forward deployed engineers, including Founding FDEs
Research, data and platform.
- Research engineers and research scientists
- Robotics ML engineers: learned control, manipulation, vision-language-action
- Data scientists, mid to principal level, and applied scientists
- ML platform and infrastructure engineers
- Software engineers who build AI-natively
How a contingent search runs
Seven stages from brief to aftercare. Brief to shortlist is approx. one week, and brief to offer is approx. three weeks.
- Brief. You share the role, the technical bar and the kind of person who works in your team, so we are agreed on exactly who you need before anything else happens.
- Market mapping. We map the market against the brief and give you an honest read on who is available, what the comp band needs to be, and what timeline is realistic.
- Attraction. We identify and approach candidates across our network and the wider market, including people who are not actively looking.
- Shortlist. A short list, each person with a written case for why they are on it, including where we think the risk sits.
- Interviews. We coordinate first stages, or run and record them for you through Synergy so you review on your own schedule.
- Offer. We manage the offer conversation on both sides, so the package secures the candidate and still works for your budget.
- Aftercare. We stay in contact with you and the candidate through notice, start date and the months after it, and raise anything that is not working early.
A contingent search works the reachable market, and works it quickly. A retained search goes further: a full map of everyone who could do the job, direct approaches to the people who will never answer an advert, and sustained effort on your brief alone until it is filled. For most permanent hires the reachable market is enough. When it is not, retained is what gets you there.
Fees
A percentage of the candidate’s starting base salary, payable only if you hire.
Payable when the candidate signs their employment contract, or on their start date.
The percentage depends on the seniority of the role and the difficulty of the search, and is agreed with you in writing before we start.
FAQ
Contingent search: frequently asked questions
- Do you work retained or contingent?
- Both, and they buy different things. Retained buys a full market map, direct approaches to people who are not looking, and sustained work on your brief alone, with the fee split in thirds: a third on engagement, a third on shortlist, a third on placement. Contingent works the reachable market quickly, with no fee until you hire someone. Payable when the candidate signs their employment contract, or on their start date. Retained suits scarce and senior hires; contingent suits most permanent (full-time) roles.
- How quickly can you deliver a shortlist?
- Brief to shortlist is approx. one week. Brief to offer is approx. three weeks for a permanent (full-time) hire and approx. one week for a contract hire.
- Can you work with companies that are not startups?
- Yes. A good share of our clients are established companies adding AI capability for the first time, going through an AI transformation, or hiring their first AI team. Our UK work is almost entirely with established companies rather than startups.
- Can you work with a stealth startup?
- Yes, and a good share of our clients are. We run the search confidentially and do not name you until either the candidate is a long way through your process, or you tell us we can. You decide when that happens, not us. Several case studies on this site stay anonymous for the same reason.
Talk to us about a search
A short call is usually enough to tell you whether we are the right firm for the role, and what the market looks like for it right now.
Hiring in the US, the UK or Australia? You will reach the person who runs searches in that market.