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01 / Discipline - Specialist Search
ML, applied science and AI platform engineers - for teams turning models into production capability.
What We Place
Where The Talent Sits
How We Run The Search
90 minute working session. Scorecard signed off before any outreach.
Direct outreach across APAC, EMEA and US. 200-400 named engineers per mandate.
3-5 calibrated candidates, each with a one-page technical memo.
Pre-closed comp, counter-offer coaching, replacement guarantee.
Recent AI Searches
Indicative samples drawn from recent and active mandates. Specific clients available under NDA on request.
Common questions
We place senior ML engineers, applied scientists, AI platform engineers, MLOps engineers, and heads of applied AI. Most placements are individual contributor through staff and principal levels, with some VP and executive search.
Median time from intake call to signed offer is 21 days. AI talent is competitive in Australia, but our network of 700+ senior engineers and structured intake means most calibrated shortlists land within 72 hours.
In 2026, senior AI engineer base salaries sit at AUD 180-220k in Sydney and AUD 175-210k in Melbourne, base only, 25th-75th percentile of accepted offers. Principal levels reach AUD 220-250k. Frontier AI scale-ups often exceed these bands by 30-50 per cent on equity.
Yes. Roughly half of recent AI placements are platform side: feature stores, vector databases, model serving, evaluation harnesses, inference scaling. We index for production capability, not just research credentials.
Yes. While we are Sydney-headquartered, we run senior AI searches across APAC, EMEA and the US, with strong networks in Singapore, London, New York and San Francisco.
Every shortlisted candidate has been through a 20-30 minute live screening conversation covering production systems they have shipped, architectural trade-offs they made, compensation expectations and motivation. We do not present profiles we have not spoken to.
A 30-minute working session covering the day-one problem the hire will own, the stack and MLOps maturity, must-have versus nice-to-have capabilities, compensation band calibration against live market data, and interview loop design. You get a written summary within 24 hours.
Yes. Senior ML engineer day rates in Sydney run AUD 900-1,200 excluding GST in 2026. The AI contract market is thinner than permanent because most senior ML engineers hold strong equity packages, so timelines can run slightly longer.
Forward deployed engineers embed with customers to ship integrations and production code post-sale, common in AI-native and enterprise SaaS. We recruit them under a dedicated specialism - see our forward deployed engineering page.
Submit a brief
30 minute working session. No fee until placement. Replacement inside 90 days.