Connecting Talent
With Opportunity.
Placement Force is a placement firm built exclusively for data science, machine learning, and AI roles. We don't recruit generalists. We speak the language of transformers, pipelines, and production ML, and we place the people who build them.
Your Next Role Starts Here
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How We Place AI Talent
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AI Hiring Is Different
Generic recruiters can't tell a prompt engineer from a platform engineer. The market for AI talent moves fast, titles blur, and a bad hire costs up to 30% of annual salary. Specialization is the only edge that matters.
For a $180,000 ML engineer, that's a $54,000 mistake before you count the lost roadmap time, team disruption, and the cost of starting the search over.
Every week a technical seat sits empty, projects slip and the rest of the team absorbs the load. Our pre-vetted network means the search starts warm, not from zero.
Most interview processes simply can't measure real ML skill. We vet candidates technically, against work they've actually shipped, before you ever meet them.
Titles in this field overlap and shift constantly. Knowing exactly which one your problem requires is the difference between a great hire and an expensive miss.
SOURCES: SHRM · LINKEDIN TALENT SOLUTIONS · ABERDEEN GROUP · GARTNER · GALLUP WORKFORCE RESEARCH 2024–2025
Vetted Like an Engineer, Placed Like a Partner
Deep Technical Vetting
BEYOND THE RÉSUMÉEvery candidate is screened against the actual work: model architectures shipped, pipelines owned, papers published, not keyword matches. You interview finalists, not applicants.
Role-Precise Matching
25+ TITLE FAMILIESAn Applied Scientist is not an MLE. An AI Engineer is not a Data Engineer. We map your real need to the right title family, and to candidates who've done that exact job.
Fit That Sticks
CULTURE & MANAGEMENT FITWe profile your team, management style, and stack before we search, so placements perform in role, gel with the team, and stay. Retention is our success metric.
Every Title in the AI Talent Stack
Data Science
- Data Scientist (Jr → Principal)
- Applied / Product Data Scientist
- Decision Scientist
- Quantitative Analyst / Researcher
- Statistician
Machine Learning
- ML Engineer (Sr / Staff / Principal)
- Applied Scientist
- MLOps / ML Platform Engineer
- Computer Vision Engineer
- NLP / Speech Engineer
Generative AI & LLM
- AI Engineer / GenAI Engineer
- LLM Engineer
- AI Agent / Agentic AI Engineer
- Prompt Engineer
- Conversational AI Engineer
AI Research
- AI Research Scientist
- ML Researcher
- Research Engineer
- NLP / Computer Vision Scientist
Data & Analytics Engineering
- Data Engineer
- Analytics Engineer
- Big Data Engineer
- Data / AI Product Manager
AI Leadership
- Head of Data Science / AI / ML
- Director of ML · VP of AI
- Chief Data Officer (CDO)
- Chief AI Officer (CAIO)
Need AI Talent That Actually Delivers?
Tell us the problem you're hiring to solve. We'll tell you the right title, the market rate, and show you vetted candidates.
Start a SearchYour Career, Represented Professionally
No spamming your résumé across the internet. Just a knowledgeable advocate having the right conversations on your behalf, in complete confidence, at no cost to you.
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From the first conversation to your first day on the job, here's how we work alongside you every step of the way.
A Stress-Free Discovery Interview
We start with a relaxed, no-pressure conversation to understand what your next position really looks like, and to get a solid understanding of your skill set, experience, and what matters most to you in a role.
We Research Opportunities That Fit
Our team goes to work, researching opportunities across the market that are a genuine fit for your background, goals, and the kind of environment where you'll thrive.
We Discuss Them With You
Once we've identified opportunities for you, we reach out and discuss each one, so you decide which roles are worth exploring. You're always in control.
We Present You to Hiring Managers
Next, we present your background directly to the hiring managers at the company to arrange an interview, positioning your experience in the best possible light.
We Prepare You to Win the Interview
Once an interview is arranged, we prepare you thoroughly with the details of the position, upcoming projects, the team's management styles, and everything you need to walk in confident.
We Guide You Through the Finish Line
Finally, we provide guidance on offers and resignations, and prepare you for a strong start on your first day at your new job. We're with you the whole way.
A Short List of the Right People, Not a Flood of Résumés
We do the filtering work so you don't have to. Every candidate we present is technically vetted and matched for fit, so you interview finalists worth your time.
How We Place AI Talent
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From an open requisition to a placed hire, here's how we deliver the right person for your team.
We Screen the Entire Market
We screen thousands of active and passive candidates to arrive at a focused pool of people who could genuinely fit your role, reaching talent that job ads never will.
We Vet for Far More Than Skills
That pool is then screened for technical skills, industry relevance, personality and culture fit, compensation alignment, and professional goals, so the match works on every dimension that matters.
You Receive Your Top 2–3 Candidates
Once we have our top two to three candidates, we provide you with a professional profile on each one and arrange interviews, so you meet only people worth your time.
We Manage the Process to a Close
We schedule the next interviewing steps, provide guidance on offers, and prepare the candidate to start their new position with you, keeping momentum from first interview to first day.
Current Openings
Roles we're actively recruiting for on behalf of our clients. Apply below, and your application goes straight to our placement team.
Featured Available Talent
A sample of pre-vetted candidates currently open to new roles. Identities are confidential. Request details and our team will follow up within one business day.
The People Behind the Placements
Recruiters who know the difference between a transformer and a random forest, because placing AI talent requires speaking the language.
What Clients and Candidates Say
Results speak louder than pitches. Here's what the people we've worked with have to say.
Built for the Hardest Hiring Market in Tech
Placement Force is a specialized placement firm for data science, machine learning, and artificial intelligence roles. We exist because AI hiring broke the generalist recruiting model: titles overlap, skills evolve quarterly, and the difference between a great hire and a costly mistake is invisible to anyone who doesn't work in this field every day.
Our practice covers the full AI talent stack, from Data Scientists and ML Engineers to LLM Engineers, AI Research Scientists, and executive placements like Chief AI Officer. We maintain a continuously vetted network across all 25+ title families, so when a client engages us, the search starts warm.
Every placement follows the same discipline: we profile the client's team, management style, and technical stack first; vet candidates against real delivered work, not keywords; and match for capability and fit, because a bad hire costs up to 30% of annual salary, and the right one compounds for years.
We serve companies from fast-scaling startups to the mid-market and enterprise, partnering with HR directors, VPs of talent acquisition, engineering leaders, and founders who need AI talent that actually delivers.
Fluent in the Field
Our recruiters can read a GitHub profile and an arXiv citation. Candidates respect it; clients benefit from it.
Vetted, Not Forwarded
We never blast résumés. Every candidate we present has been screened technically and for fit with your specific team.
Retention Is the Metric
A placement that leaves in six months is a failure by our standard. We match for the long term and stand behind it.
Confidential Always
Candidate identities and client searches stay protected on both sides until there's mutual interest.
Work With Us
Hiring AI talent, or ready for your next AI role? Either way, start the conversation.
Contact UsStart the Conversation
Hiring managers, candidates, and partners, we respond within one business day.
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