Hire AI Engineers in San Francisco
Built for Founders, by Engineers
Build Smarter. Scale Faster. Hire AI Engineers Who Can Actually Execute.
San Francisco is leading the AI revolution. Venture capital is flowing again, AI labs are popping up across SoMa and the Mission, and founders are back to building bold. The only problem? Everyone’s hiring the same talent and the competition is brutal.
If you’re scaling a startup in the Bay, you’re not just shipping code. You’re racing against teams backed by Sequoia, Greylock, and Index. You need engineers who understand the velocity of startup life and know how to build production-grade AI from day one.
That’s where Thinkteks comes in.
We’re Not Recruiters. We’re Engineers Who Recruit.
We built Thinkteks because we were tired of interviewing candidates who looked good on paper but couldn’t ship. Our team comes from engineering backgrounds, so we know how to spot the difference between a prompt engineer and someone who can actually deploy a custom LLM stack in prod.
We don’t toss over resumes. We send hand-vetted, job-ready engineers who are fluent in Python, TensorFlow, PyTorch, LangChain, and whatever stack you’re running.
And we do it fast, usually under 2 weeks.
Here’s How It Works
1. We sit down and talk like founders.
No forms. No fluff. Just a 30-minute call to understand what you’re building, who you’re hiring, and what success looks like.2. We go to our network.
That includes ML engineers, applied scientists, backend devs with AI experience, and ex-Big Tech folks looking for their next zero-to-one challenge.3. You get intros. Real ones.
Clean resumes. Technical notes. No copy-paste messages. You pick, we schedule, you hire.Oh and we only charge 10% commission. No 30% recruiter markup, ever.
What Our AI Engineers Can Do For You
Our network of artificial intelligence engineers includes specialists in:
Natural Language
Processing (NLP)
Computer Vision &
Image Recognition
Generative AI & Large
Language Models (LLMs)
Deep Learning &
Neural Networks
Model Optimization
& Deployment
Predictive Analytics
& Forecasting
Data Pipeline
Engineering
AI Infrastructure
& MLOps
What Roles We Help Fill
We’ve placed AI talent across early-stage YC startups, Series A rocket ships, and late-stage fintech unicorns. Here’s where we’ve helped:
Machine Learning Engineers building recommendation engines
LLM Engineers integrating custom models with real-time pipelines
NLP Engineers designing voice assistants and chatbot frameworks
Computer Vision specialists for AR/VR, robotics, and retail
Data Scientists with startup DNA
AI Product Managers who actually write specs and ship fast
How Our Process Works
We designed our recruitment process to be fast, technical, and reliable:
1
Discovery & Strategy
We start by understanding your stack, product vision, hiring goals, and what success looks like in your AI team.
2
Sourcing From Our Curated AI Network
We don’t spray and pray. We tap into a refined talent pool of AI engineers we’ve pre-screened or built relationships with.
3
Rigorous Technical Vetting
Each candidate goes through a deep-dive evaluation, including code samples, architecture questions, and scenario-based challenges.
Why Startups in San Francisco Work with Us
Thinkteks isn’t just another AI recruitment agency. We’re a partner in your growth. We move fast, understand your stack, and care about culture fit just as much as code quality.
We’ve earned the trust of founders who’ve gone on to raise rounds from a16z, Lightspeed, and Initialized. If you want to move fast and hire right, we’d love to talk.
Let’s Chat
If you’re a founder or hiring manager trying to scale your AI team, drop us a note.