Experience behind the search.
Our founder brings more than seven years in technical recruitment and more than 150 placements made before founding Corellia Talent. His previous placement markets include London, New York and San Francisco. These are personal career facts, not the new company’s placement totals.
What we recruit for in San Francisco
We recruit across engineering, AI, research and technical leadership. Start with the outcome and responsibilities, then choose the title and level that describe the work.
Explore the roles in detail
- Software engineering
- Product, full-stack, frontend, backend, forward deployed, platform, infrastructure and site reliability engineers, from junior through principal.
- Founding engineers
- Founding engineers, founding product engineers, founding full-stack engineers, founding AI engineers and technical leads.
- AI and machine learning
- AI engineers, machine learning engineers, applied AI specialists, ML infrastructure engineers, MLOps engineers and data engineers.
- Research
- Research engineers, research scientists and applied scientists within technology businesses.
- Technical leadership
- Technical leads, engineering managers, Heads and Directors of Engineering, VPs of Engineering, CTOs, Heads of AI or ML and Heads of Research.
For several hires, we help plan the mix and order of recruitment so that responsibilities and support are clear. Explore engineering team builds.
Clarify the work behind the AI title.
Our founder placed a Staff Engineer into a Series B AI startup in San Francisco before founding Corellia Talent. This experience sits alongside his wider work with early-stage engineering and research profiles.
These accounts describe our founder’s personal placement experience before Corellia Talent. Names are kept confidential; no Corellia client endorsement is implied.
Explore our founder’s placement experienceClarify the work behind the AI title
An AI search should begin with the output you need: a product, an experiment, an evaluation system or a research contribution. Titles overlap. A person whose strength is implementing research experiments may want a different role from someone building a dependable customer-facing AI product.
Describe the available data, technical support and constraints. Explain who sets research direction, who owns production systems and how the team decides whether an approach works. Candidates can then discuss relevant experience rather than trying to guess what your AI engineer title means. This is particularly useful when a small team needs work across several disciplines.
What a Staff Engineer brief should explain
A Staff Engineer brief needs to describe influence as well as delivery. Identify the technical decisions, systems and cross-team responsibilities the person will own. Explain whether they will establish architecture, develop other engineers, resolve a specific reliability problem or coordinate work across teams.
Our founder placed a Staff Engineer into a Series B AI startup in San Francisco before Corellia Talent. That is personal career experience, not a Corellia client endorsement. It informs questions about the scope behind a senior title, the support around the hire and the evidence needed to assess someone’s contribution.
Assess research and product work differently
Research and product roles need assessment criteria that reflect their expected output. For research, discuss experimental design, evaluation and failed approaches. For production engineering, explore reliability, latency, cost and the decisions behind a delivered system. Where the role combines both, make the balance explicit.
A publication, open-source contribution or previous founder role can provide evidence to explore. Ask what the candidate personally contributed and which constraints shaped the result. Do not require confidential code, unpublished research or information they are not permitted to share. A candidate should understand what the interview is testing before committing time to it.
Define the output behind each AI role
The assessment should follow the work. These distinctions help shape a brief; job titles are not standardised definitions.
Compare AI role definitions
| Role | Expected output | Evidence to discuss |
|---|---|---|
| AI engineer / applied AI specialist | A product using AI | Product behaviour, evaluations and production constraints |
| Machine learning engineer | Models and the systems that use them | Training, evaluation and deployment decisions |
| ML infrastructure / MLOps engineer | Systems that support model development and operation | Reproducibility, reliability and operational ownership |
| Research engineer | Experiments and research infrastructure | Implementation, experimental rigour and collaboration |
| Research scientist / applied scientist | Research questions and methods | Experimental design, contribution and limitations |
| Forward deployed engineer | Technology delivered in a customer environment | Customer context, integrations and delivery trade-offs |
Make the brief specific.
For an AI business, a search can centre on product engineering, model evaluation, research, infrastructure or technical leadership. We separate those responsibilities before approaching candidates. A Staff-level brief also needs to explain the person’s influence across the team, not only the systems they will build.
- Is the priority applied AI, research, product delivery or infrastructure?
- What technical decisions and cross-team responsibilities will the hire own?
- What are the Bay Area location, compensation and working arrangements?
Agree the first six months’ outcomes, the decisions this person can make and the support they will receive. Set assessment criteria before interviews begin so each conversation explores relevant evidence rather than repeating the same questions.
Local context without assumptions
San Francisco brings founders together through programmes such as Y Combinator’s in-person batch. That is useful ecosystem context, not a claim that every participant stays in the city or is available to hire.
YC’s batch information describes its San Francisco format. Ask candidates about their current location, working arrangements and reasons for joining your team.
Salary, equity and bonus in San Francisco
Compare the actual role, seniority and company context in USD. Our salary guide brings together selected public employer advertisements and links to the sources behind them.
How to interpret salary, equity and bonus evidence
Advertised ranges are not market averages, accepted offers or recommended packages. Some listings span different responsibilities or levels. An undisclosed bonus or equity amount is not zero, and the overall spread across a city is not a typical salary for one role.
Separate cash salary, any bonus conditions and equity terms. For equity, ask about the grant percentage, vesting and the basis of any valuation. Use the compensation planner to explore your own assumptions; its scenarios are not forecasts or guaranteed proceeds. Do not transfer US benchmarks to London.
Open the compensation planner · Inspect the employer sources
How a search works
Every search is led by a senior specialist, from brief to start date. You have one accountable contact for introductions, feedback and offer discussions.
- Agree the brief. Define outcomes, technical expectations, working arrangements, compensation and trade-offs.
- Research and speak with candidates. Explore relevant work, motivation and the questions that still need answering.
- Make considered introductions. Explain the evidence and context behind the match. A candidate’s CV is never sent without naming the company and getting their agreement.
- Support interviews and the decision. Share feedback, clarify expectations and keep unresolved questions visible through the offer.
Choose the engagement
Contingent, exclusive and retained search are available for permanent, contract and interim recruitment. We agree scope, fees and responsibilities before work begins.
- Contingent: a success-based search, with a fee payable when you hire an introduced candidate under the agreed terms.
- Exclusive: one recruitment relationship for an agreed period and a clear point of accountability.
- Retained: a committed engagement with agreed scope, milestones and staged payments.
Questions about hiring in San Francisco
Should our next AI hire be an AI engineer or a research engineer?
Start with the output you need. Applied AI work may focus on a reliable product, evaluations and production constraints, while research engineering may focus on experiments and the systems that support them. Explain the balance in the brief and assess relevant work. Titles alone do not establish the scope.
What should a Staff Engineer brief explain?
Describe the decisions the engineer will own, the systems they will influence and how they will work across the team. Separate individual delivery from technical direction and support for other engineers. our founder’s placement of a Staff Engineer into a Series B AI startup in San Francisco predates Corellia Talent and informs the questions we ask.
How should we compare San Francisco salary and equity offers?
Keep USD base salary, bonus and equity separate. Compare the role’s scope and level as well as the company’s stage; the same title can cover different responsibilities. Use the salary guide’s source-linked adverts as reference points, then test the grant terms and dilution assumptions in the compensation planner. Advertised ranges are not confirmed offers or guaranteed equity outcomes.
Do you recruit founding engineers in San Francisco?
Yes. We recruit founding engineers, founding product and full-stack engineers, founding AI engineers and technical leads. We define the outcomes, decisions and support attached to the role before approaching candidates.
Do you recruit researchers and AI specialists in San Francisco?
Yes. We cover AI and machine learning engineers, applied AI specialists, research engineers, research scientists and applied scientists. Research recruitment focuses on technology businesses, not laboratory or pharmaceutical roles.
Can you help hire a Head of Engineering or CTO in San Francisco?
Yes. Technical leadership searches cover engineering managers, Heads and Directors of Engineering, VPs of Engineering and CTOs, as well as Heads of AI, ML and Research. We agree the decisions, team responsibilities and authority attached to the role.
Do you offer contract and interim recruitment in San Francisco?
Yes. We offer permanent, contract and interim recruitment. The engagement structure, scope, responsibilities and commercial terms are agreed before the search starts.
Do you only work with venture-backed companies?
No. Our founder’s recruitment experience is mainly with venture-backed technology businesses, but funding is not a requirement. We work with startups and scaleups from the first technical hire to established teams, including pre-seed through Series E.
Does Corellia Talent have an office in San Francisco?
San Francisco is a market we serve, not an office location we claim. Calls are available into US working hours, subject to the booking calendar.
A direct relationship with us.
You work with a senior specialist throughout the search. We usually reply within the hour, seven days a week, though this isn't guaranteed.
This page describes a market we serve. It does not represent a local office.
Read a practical hiring guide