Sometimes the thing slowing you down is a capability gap: a role that doesn't exist yet, a function nobody owns, a team that needs one more strong person to move. When that's the problem, I don't hand you a job description. I find the right person for the specific gap, integrate them properly, and stay accountable for how it goes.
Most agencies optimize for passing your screen, not for performing on your team. Six weeks in, you're writing follow-up messages that never get answered.
Their job was the placement. Nobody on their side has skin in whether the engineer ships anything or stays for six months.
Technical skill is table stakes. What actually costs you sprints is someone who can't read the room and can't make judgment calls in ambiguous situations.
Senior augmentation should reduce your overhead, not add to it. If you're spending more time on the new hire than the roadmap, the placement was wrong from the start.
I don't review resumes. I evaluate how a candidate thinks about your specific problem, how they handle ambiguity, and whether they will make your existing team better or slower. Fifteen years building product and engineering orgs shapes that screen.
If you're building anything AI-adjacent, your team needs to understand the context, not just the syntax. I don't place engineers who treat ML as a black box. It's a non-negotiable for any modern product team.
Everyone works in your tools, attends your standups, and reports to your team lead. I'm not managing them. You are. I stay in the loop for the first 30 days so problems surface before they cost you a sprint. That means a weekly check-in with you, not with them.
Before I recommend anyone, I need to understand where your team actually is: what's breaking, what's missing, and what the gap is really costing you. Most people come in asking for one role and leave knowing they needed a different one.
I evaluate candidates against your situation, not a job description. You get a written brief on each person explaining why they fit your problem. You interview the ones you want to meet. You make the call. I give you the context to make it well.
The new person joins your team on your tools, in your standups, reporting to your lead. I stay in the loop for the first 30 days, check in at 60, and stay available if anything needs adjusting. Everything built is yours to keep.
You know what you need to build. You don't have a recruiting function. You can't afford to spend three months on a search that produces the wrong person.
The diagnostic is done. You know what's broken. The fix requires a person who doesn't exist on your team yet. You need that person in the seat fast and integrated properly.
You can't afford to bring on someone who needs to be taught what you're building from scratch. You need engineers and product operators who already reason about AI as part of the job, not people who will have to be trained on it.
Toptal is a marketplace with a test. An agency has a quota. I have a reputation. Every person I place reflects on me directly. I'm still embedded with you when they show up. That's a different incentive structure, and it produces different results.
You tell me. I'm in the loop for the first 30 days specifically so problems surface early. If it's not the right fit, I address it before it costs you a sprint. Placement isn't the finish line for me.
No. If you had a perfect job description you'd probably have filled the role already. Bring the problem. I'll work out the right profile from there.
Depends on the scope. Short-build engagements are typically 4 to 8 weeks. Longer team buildouts run on 3-month rolling terms. I'll tell you on the discovery call which fits your situation.
No. Engineering and product operations across the stack. But if you're building anything AI-adjacent, I won't place someone who can't reason about that layer. It's a baseline expectation for any modern product team.
Before any work begins, we agree on what the first phase delivers and what it costs. A written scope: the problem we're solving, how we'll know it's working, what it costs to get there. Every phase ends with a defined output. You see what moved before you decide whether to continue. Nothing gets added to scope without your sign-off.
Book a free discovery call. I'll tell you within 30 minutes whether the gap you have is a people problem or a systems problem. And what the fastest path to closing it looks like.