Contract and Interim AI/ML Hiring
Digitalent, the AI/ML executive search firm, places contract and interim AI, machine learning and research specialists into VC-backed startups and into established companies building AI capability, across the US, the UK and Australia. Brief to offer is approx. one week, for work that cannot wait for a permanent hire to run its course.
Contract hiring at a glance
Contract hiring 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
- Best for
- A gap to cover, a spike in work, or a capability you need once
- Typical availability
- Contract candidates are usually free inside a fortnight
Figures updated August 2026.
When contract is the right call
When you need the capability now, for a defined stretch, and a permanent search would arrive too late to help.
- Covering a departure while the permanent search runs
- A model or platform build with a clear end date
- Specialist depth you need once rather than continuously, such as an evaluation framework or an infrastructure migration
- Extra hands through a funding round or a launch
Titles
Contract and interim roles we place
Hands-on delivery for work with a defined end, plus interim leadership where a team needs holding together between permanent hires.
Delivery.
- Machine learning engineers, mid to staff level
- ML platform and infrastructure engineers
- MLOps, inference and serving engineers
- Agentic AI engineers brought in for a specific build
- Evaluation and reliability engineers, often to stand up an evals framework from scratch
- Data engineers with an AI remit, and pipeline work ahead of a model build
- Applied scientists and data scientists for a defined piece of modelling
- Forward deployed engineers for a single deployment or customer
Interim leadership.
- Interim Heads of AI and Heads of Machine Learning
- Interim engineering leads covering a departure while the permanent search runs
- Technical leads brought in to get a stalled AI programme moving again
How a contract search runs
Six stages, and faster than permanent at approx. one week from brief to offer.
- Discovery. You share the skill, the rate and the start date. We survey who is actually available and tell you at this point whether the rate you have in mind matches the market.
- Engagement. We go out across our network and the wider market to find contractors who match the brief and are free when you need them.
- Interview. We coordinate first stages, or run and record them for you through Synergy so you review on your own schedule.
- Placement. We handle the paperwork, the compliance and the onboarding once you have chosen someone.
- Aftercare. We stay in contact with you and the contractor through the assignment, and raise anything that is not working early rather than at the end.
- Contractor management. Compliance, timesheets and payroll are handled by us for the length of the engagement, with timesheets run through our own online portal.
Contract candidates move quickly and are usually free inside a fortnight, so the constraint is normally your interview process rather than the search. UK contract work runs through Digitalent Recruitment Limited, including IR35 status conversations where they apply.
Fees
Contract placements are charged as a margin on the day rate, agreed with you before we start.
Rates and margin are agreed up front and stated in writing. If the engagement converts to permanent, we agree how that works at the outset rather than negotiating it later.
Contractor management is included rather than charged on top. That covers compliance, timesheets and payroll for as long as the contractor is with you, so an interim hire does not land as extra administration on a team that took one on precisely because it had no spare capacity.
FAQ
Contract hiring: frequently asked questions
- 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.
- Do you handle contractor payroll and compliance?
- Yes. Compliance, timesheets and payroll are handled by us for the length of the engagement, included in the margin rather than charged on top. Timesheets run through our own online portal. UK contract work runs through Digitalent Recruitment Limited, including IR35 status conversations where they apply.
- 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.
Need someone quickly?
Tell us the skill, the rate and the start date. Brief to offer is approx. one week.
Hiring in the US, the UK or Australia? You will reach the person who runs searches in that market.