AI consultant or AI engineer?

Hire an AI consultant when you need to decide what to build and need help building the first version. Hire an AI engineer when the plan is set and you need someone to ship and run it.

Can we hire an AI consultant remotely?

Yes. Set remote or on-site, the country, and the overlap hours on the role. carbon.talent is global. To employ someone in another country without a local entity, use an employer of record.

Post your role free with a company account. You can also test a candidate you already found.

What happens after we post a role?

You see who applied. Review the profile, run the interviews you want, and hire vetted data and AI talent on carbon.talent.

What can we review before an interview?

When they are on the profile: a real-world data experience test, a working-style profile, and a video interview. ID checks are on Team and Scale.

Do you cover contract and permanent hires?

Yes. Permanent, contract, or fractional. You set that on the role, then see who applied.

Are SQL and Python skills tests on this page?

SQL and Python skills tests are on paid plans. On this page you review a real-world data experience test, a working-style profile, and a video interview when they are on the profile. ID checks are on Team and Scale.

Hire an AI Consultant: Contract or Fractional

What this hire does

An AI consultant helps you decide what to build with AI, then helps build it. The work is part advice and part delivery. You get a plan someone can defend and a first feature that works on your data.

Day to day they own:

Use cases. Which problems are worth solving with AI, and which are better solved another way.
Data readiness. Whether the data behind each use case is complete, current, and allowed to be used.
A first release. A working feature, with an evaluation set and a check before it reaches users.
Handover. Documentation and a plan your team can run without them.

When to hire

You probably need this hire when:

The board or leadership wants an AI plan, and nobody owns it.
You have a long list of AI ideas and no way to rank them.
A pilot worked in a demo but not on real data.
You need to know what your data can support before you hire a full team.

If you already know what to build and need someone to ship it, see AI engineers. For a classical model in production, see machine learning engineers. If the data platform is the gap, see data engineers.

Contract or fractional

Question	Contract	Fractional
Shape of the work	A defined project with an end date	Ongoing days each month
Best for	An assessment, a pilot, or a first AI feature	Owning the AI roadmap while the team grows
Watch for	Scope that grows after the brief is agreed	Decisions that wait for their next day in

See contract AI engineers and fractional AI and ML engineers for delivery roles on the same terms.

What good looks like

They say no. They can name a use case they advised against, and why.

They measure. Every feature they shipped had an evaluation set and a way to tell when quality dropped.

They hand over. A teammate can run the work after they leave.

What to ask

Walk through a use case you ranked. What made it worth doing first?
How did you check the data could support it before you built anything?
How do you know when a language-model feature is good enough to release?
If we serve customers in the EU, how would you approach the EU AI Act for this use case?

Know where you stand first

Before the consultant starts, run the carbon.iq AI readiness assessment. It gives you and the consultant a shared view of where your data, people, and processes stand, so the first weeks go to decisions instead of discovery.

How hiring works on carbon.talent

carbon.talent is a data and AI talent platform. Post a role, see who applied, and hire.

Post a role. Title, scope, seniority, and whether you want contract or fractional. Set remote or on-site, the country, and the overlap hours.
See who applied. Open each profile. Review a real-world data experience test, a working-style profile, and a video interview when they are on the profile.
Hire. Interview, agree the terms with the person, and hire on the platform. ID checks are on Team and Scale.

Already found someone? Test a candidate you found, then decide.

Questions companies ask

AI consultant or AI engineer?: Hire an AI consultant when you need to decide what to build and need help building the first version. Hire an AI engineer when the plan is set and you need someone to ship and run it.
Contract or fractional?: Contract suits a defined project, such as an assessment or a first AI feature. Fractional suits ongoing ownership of the AI roadmap for a few days each month.
Can we hire an AI consultant remotely?: Yes. Set remote or on-site, the country, and the overlap hours on the role. carbon.talent is global. To employ someone in another country without a local entity, use an employer of record.
How do we start?: Post your role free with a company account. You can also test a candidate you already found.
What happens after we post a role?: You see who applied. Review the profile, run the interviews you want, and hire vetted data and AI talent on carbon.talent.
What can we review before an interview?: When they are on the profile: a real-world data experience test, a working-style profile, and a video interview. ID checks are on Team and Scale.
Do you cover contract and permanent hires?: Yes. Permanent, contract, or fractional. You set that on the role, then see who applied.
Are SQL and Python skills tests on this page?: SQL and Python skills tests are on paid plans. On this page you review a real-world data experience test, a working-style profile, and a video interview when they are on the profile. ID checks are on Team and Scale.

Hire an AI consultant for advice and delivery