Question and answer

How do you hire your first AI engineer?

Only hire your first AI engineer once you know which problem that person has to solve in production. Then choose an experienced engineer who can take an AI application from idea to live on their own, not a junior and not a pure researcher, and make sure the data and a colleague to spar with are in place.

Step by step

  1. Pick one concrete problem. For example answering customer questions faster or processing documents automatically. "Doing something with AI" is not a role.
  1. Check the data. An AI engineer can do little without access to the data and systems where the problem lives. If the data is not in order yet, a data engineer may be the better first hire.
  1. Choose seniority. A first AI engineer works without AI colleagues. That takes someone who makes their own choices on models, cost, evaluation and security.
  1. Test for production. Ask about an application they took live, with real users, and how quality was measured.
  1. Plan the fit. Who will be their sparring partner: the CTO, a senior software engineer? An AI engineer without a place in the team leaves quickly.

What it costs

A senior AI engineer in the Netherlands earns €78,000 to €107,000 gross per year, excluding the 8% holiday allowance; the midpoint is €92,000 (Chase IT Salary Report 2026, updated October 2026).

More questions

Read more: tech recruitment agency in the Netherlands. In Dutch: dezelfde vraag in het Nederlands.

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