AI-native engineers · Seed stage · Series A
AI-native engineers for early-stage startups racing to ship product.
Outcraft AI helps companies bring in vetted engineers who use Claude Code, Codex, Cursor and modern agentic workflows to ship real product work.
The result: you ship 3x more PRs per engineer than industry baseline
- 01 Highly vetted engineers
- 02 Measured in your repo
- 03 Built for early-stage speed
- 04 Founder-led hiring
The bar
Four stages. Every engineer. No exceptions.
This is the filter Outcraft is built around. It is public so clients can hold us to it and engineers know exactly what they are walking into.
01
Proof of ownership
Years do not qualify someone. Evidence does. We look for shipped work they can explain clearly: GitHub projects, production AI features, private repo walkthroughs, technical write-ups, or systems they owned end to end.
02
Systems interview
We are not testing whether they know system-design vocabulary. We are testing whether they can take a messy founder problem, shape it into a system that can ship, and clearly explain the tradeoffs and risks.
03
AI-native build
They complete a realistic product task using an agentic workflow: understand the repo, plan the change, implement it, test it, and explain how AI changed their delivery loop. If the task involves LLMs, we also look for evals, cost awareness, and failure paths.
04
Adversarial review
They defend their own code while we attack it. We're looking for engineers who can name every tradeoff they made, not ones who got a good result by accident.
The rule: if nobody clears the bar for your role, we tell you. The failure mode of this category is sending the best available person instead of the right person.
Start without a Onboarding call
Get a practical team plan before you hire.
Tell me what you are trying to build. I will reply with the kind of engineer you need, what the trial should measure, and whether Outcraft is a fit.
What you get back
- Role recommendation: full-stack, AI product, automation or platform.
- Trial scope: the smallest piece of real work that proves fit.
- Success criteria: what should be measured before any monthly commitment.
- Honest fit call: if this is not a good use of Outcraft, I will say that.
Roles
Pick the engineering capacity your roadmap actually needs.
The right engineer depends on what is blocking the roadmap: product scope, AI capability, internal operations, or delivery infrastructure.
Full-stack AI-native engineer
Build the full product slice, from interface to database, with AI-assisted speed and senior judgment.
Best when your next milestone needs engineers who can own frontend, backend, and delivery end to end.
AI product engineer
Turn an AI product idea into a dependable user workflow.
Best when the model-backed feature needs to become part of the core product, not a side experiment.
Automation and internal tools engineer
Ops workflows, CRM/admin tools, reporting, data cleanup and manual-process replacement.
Best when the fastest ROI is removing repetitive work from your team.
Platform and DevOps engineer
CI/CD, cloud infrastructure, deploys, observability, incident response and developer velocity.
Best when your team is losing days to brittle deploys, slow pipelines or unclear ownership.
How it works
From problem brief to measured trial without a long hiring loop.
01
Velocity audit
30 minutes
We map what you are trying to ship, where engineering is slowing down, and what kind of AI-native engineer would actually move the milestone.
02
Success criteria
Same day
We convert the audit into a clear mission: what needs to ship, what the engineer owns, and how you will know the engagement is worth continuing.
03
One matched engineer
Within 10 days
You get one matched engineer with context: what they have owned before, how they work with AI, and why they fit the milestone.
04
Two-week trial
Real work, real repo
They work inside your codebase on the agreed scope. You judge cycle time, review quality, communication and shipped output.
05
Continue, or walk
Your call
Keep the engineer if the milestone is moving. If the match misses, we replace them within five business days or end the engagement cleanly.
Who's setting the bar
Ten years shipping software where mistakes cost real money.
I'm Vinall. I've spent a decade building systems inside institutions where reliability, security and delivery discipline mattered, and then inside a startup where slow execution becomes existential quickly.
I built Outcraft for the engineer I kept wishing I could hire: fast with AI, careful with systems, clear about tradeoffs, and accountable when the work reaches production.
Global asset manager
Platform engineering and CI/CD in a high-control financial environment.
Big Four Australian bank
Open Banking delivery across full-stack product and AWS infrastructure.
Wealth-tech platform
Built risk-profiling software used inside superannuation fund customer journeys.
Superannuation software provider
Backend engineering for fund, wealth and client administration platforms.
Startmate-backed startup
CTO for an AI product turning financial content into product intelligence.
Zero-to-one product leadership
Led engineering teams from product idea to shipped platforms across apparel ERP and student accommodation marketplace.
Pricing
Senior AI-native engineering without Bay Area burn.
Outcraft AI gives early-stage teams access to strong AI-native engineers from India, where the cost base is lower but the engineering bar stays high.
Engagements typically range from $1,000-$2,500/month depending on scope, availability, and the level of ownership required.
You are not paying for a local hiring market, recruiter margin, or agency overhead. You are paying for vetted engineering capacity that can move the product.
Typical range
$1k-$2.5k/mo
Scoped around the milestone, engineer availability, and level of ownership required.
Straight answers
The questions you're actually asking.
Why should I trust the quality at this price?+
The price advantage comes from vetted Indian engineering talent and a lower cost base, not a lower bar. We still screen for proof of ownership, systems judgment, AI-native workflow and the ability to ship inside a real codebase.
What if nobody clears the bar for my role?+
Then we tell you that, and you go elsewhere. The failure mode of every staffing agency is sending you the best of a bad shortlist to keep the deal alive. We would rather lose the contract than place someone who didn't clear all four stages.
How is this different from just hiring a contractor?+
Most contract engineers are strong generalists who use AI as autocomplete. We select for senior engineers who can use agentic workflows to ship production systems, including the unglamorous parts: tests, evals, cost, latency, observability and failure paths.
Who owns the code?+
You do. Every line, from day one, including anything built during the trial you didn't pay for.
How long until someone is working?+
We aim to present a matched engineer within 10 days of the velocity audit, and they can typically start immediately after you say yes.
What does it cost?+
Engagements typically range from $1,000-$2,500/month, depending on scope, availability and the level of ownership required. The price advantage comes from vetted Indian engineering talent and a lower cost base, not a lower bar.