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Engagement · Embedded senior AI engineering

Senior AI engineering inside your team

Reserved, hands-on senior engineering capacity for a defined period — with explicit ownership, agreed priorities and a planned point to extend or hand over.

Ask about this engagement How we work
The decision you are buying
Can you strengthen delivery for a defined period?
Pricing
Quoted per engagement
Typical duration
Agreed term with review checkpoints
Afterwards
Embedded work often surfaces bounded outcomes that are better bought as sprints, or leads to an ongoing support arrangement once the system is in production.

What this engagement is for

Sometimes the right purchase is not a fixed outcome but experienced capacity: a vacancy that is delaying a launch, an architecture decision nobody on the team has made before, or a delivery push that needs someone who has taken AI systems into production. Embedded engineering provides that capacity without pretending the work can be fully specified in advance.

Embedded does not mean undefined. Each engagement begins with written priorities, the areas of the system the engineer will own, how decisions are escalated and the checkpoints at which both sides review whether the arrangement is still the right one. The aim is to leave your team stronger, not dependent.

This route is distinct from commissioning Neul Labs to deliver an agreed outcome. If the work can be expressed as acceptance criteria, a sprint or delivery project usually gives you more certainty for the same budget.

Right when

  • A senior AI engineering role is open and the delivery cannot wait for hiring.
  • Your team needs architecture leadership while continuing to build.
  • The work is evolving too quickly to fix as a single statement of work.
  • You want hands-on engineering, not advisory hours.

Not the right shape for

  • Permanent headcount by another name — the engagement has a defined term and review points.
  • Arrangements where the engineer would be managed like an employee with no defined ownership.
  • Work that can be specified as a bounded outcome, which is better bought as a sprint.
Deliverables

What you receive

Committed capacity

Reserved senior engineering time for the agreed term, working in your repositories and delivery process.

Owned outcomes

Explicit ownership of agreed components or workstreams, with progress visible in your normal tooling.

Decision records

Architecture and design decisions written down where your team can find and challenge them.

Planned exit

A handover plan maintained throughout, so knowledge transfers continuously rather than in a final week.

Process

How it runs

  1. 1

    Define the term

    Agree priorities, ownership, working pattern, review checkpoints and the conditions for extension or handover.

  2. 2

    Onboard

    Gain access, understand the system and agree the first deliverables within the opening days.

  3. 3

    Deliver

    Work as part of the team with clear ownership, reporting progress against the agreed priorities.

  4. 4

    Review and transition

    At each checkpoint, decide together whether to continue, change focus or hand over.

What we need from you
  • The priorities for the term and the outcomes they serve.
  • The parts of the system the engineer will own and the decisions they can make.
  • A sponsor who sets priorities and reviews progress at agreed checkpoints.
  • Access to repositories, environments and team rituals needed to work effectively.
How it is accepted
  • Priorities and ownership are written down before the term starts.
  • Progress is reviewed against those priorities at each checkpoint.
  • Knowledge is transferred continuously through code review, documentation and pairing.
Not included
  • Line management of your staff.
  • Responsibility for systems outside the agreed ownership.
  • Out-of-hours on-call cover unless explicitly agreed.
Commercial terms
Embedded engagements are quoted on a time basis for the agreed term. The rate depends on the commitment, duration and working pattern. Employment status for tax purposes (IR35) is assessed for each engagement on its actual circumstances; a contract label alone does not determine it.

Situations that lead here

Make AI useful for a team

AI tools are bought. Now make them useful.

Common follow-on →

Questions people ask

Is this the same as hiring a contractor?

It is a business-to-business engagement with Neul Labs Limited for senior engineering capacity with defined ownership. How the off-payroll working rules apply depends on the engagement’s actual circumstances and is assessed case by case; see the GOV.UK guidance on understanding off-payroll working (IR35).

Who will actually work with us?

The founder by default. If a different engineer would be a better match, they are named and agreed with you before the engagement starts.

Can we convert an embedded engagement into a fixed outcome?

Yes. When a piece of work becomes clear enough to specify, it can be moved into a sprint or delivery project with its own acceptance criteria.

What is the minimum term?

It is agreed per engagement. Very short terms rarely work for embedded roles, because onboarding consumes a large share of the time; a focused sprint is usually better value for short, well-defined work.

Off-payroll working rules: see GOV.UK, Understanding off-payroll working (IR35).

Other engagements: readiness or feasibility review · focused engineering sprint · ongoing engineering support. Compare them all on the engagements overview.

Can you strengthen delivery for a defined period?

Quoted per engagement · Agreed term with review checkpoints

Ask about this engagement