Hire AI & Machine Learning Engineers in India
ML engineers, data scientists, GenAI specialists and data engineers — panel-screened on real modelling and pipeline work, employed compliantly, profiles in 48–72 hours.
- From $39/hour
- No EOR fees in India
- Vetted profiles in 48–72 hours
- Top 5% talent, screened and recorded
- One-week free replacement
This page blends two tiers: AI, ML and data science roles start at $55/hour; general data engineering is priced at the flat $39/hour standard rate.
What's the difference between a data engineer and an ML engineer?
TalentStores places AI and machine learning talent in India starting at $55/hour, while general data engineering sits at the flat $39/hour standard rate. There are no Employer of Record fees on India-based hires, and vetted, panel-screened profiles reach you within 48–72 hours.
Roles we place most often
ML Engineer
Training, evaluation and production deployment of models.
Hire this roleData Scientist
Experiment design, statistical modelling and decision science.
Hire this roleMLOps Engineer
Feature stores, model registries, monitoring and retraining.
Hire this roleGenAI / LLM Engineer
RAG systems, agents, evaluation harnesses and prompt tooling.
Hire this roleComputer Vision Engineer
Detection, segmentation and edge inference pipelines.
Hire this roleNLP Engineer
Extraction, classification and multilingual language systems.
Hire this roleData Engineer
Warehouses, lakehouses, streaming and dbt-based transformation.
Hire this roleWhy this role works from India
A deep applied-AI bench
India's research and services ecosystem has produced a large population of engineers who have shipped models into production, not only trained them in notebooks.
Two tiers, one team
Because general data engineering sits at the standard rate, you can staff pipelines and modelling from one place without paying specialist pricing across the whole team.
GenAI momentum
Retrieval, agent and evaluation work has moved quickly into mainstream Indian delivery teams, so LLM-specific experience is genuinely available rather than aspirational.
Hiring in another market? See our country hiring guides or Employer of Record by country.
Choose how you hire
Pick a model and we'll carry it straight into your requirement.
Direct Hire
Permanent headcount on your own payroll or through our EOR.
Start hereContract-to-Hire (C2H)
Start on contract, convert to permanent once proven.
Start hereContract / Contingent
Flexible contingent capacity for defined periods.
Start hereProject-Based
A scoped outcome delivered by a managed team.
Start hereRemote Team
A distributed pod working in your time zone.
Start hereOffshore Team
A dedicated India-based delivery team under your direction.
Start hereForward Deployed Engineering (FDE)
Engineers embedded with your customers or product teams.
Learn moreEmployer of Record (EOR) only
You've found the person; we employ them compliantly.
Start hereRecruiting as a Service (RaaS)
Flat MonthlyA dedicated recruiter embedded in your team for a flat monthly fee — no per-hire charge.
Learn moreEvery model is available onsite in your country, offshore from India, or fully remote.
Tell us what you need — profiles in 48–72 hours
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How do you want to hire?
Pick the engagement model.
Questions buyers actually ask
What's the difference between a data engineer and an ML engineer?
A data engineer builds and maintains the pipelines and infrastructure that move and store data; an ML engineer trains, evaluates, and deploys machine-learning models on top of that data. Larger teams hire both; smaller teams sometimes blend the roles.
Why do AI/ML engineers cost more than general software developers?
The qualified pool is far smaller, the work requires statistical judgement alongside engineering, and production ML carries evaluation and monitoring obligations most software roles don't. That scarcity places AI and ML in our specialist tier, starting at $55/hour.
How much does it cost to hire an AI engineer in India?
AI and machine learning engineers start at $55/hour through TalentStores, with no Employer of Record fee for India-based hires. General data engineering is priced at the flat $39/hour standard rate, so blended teams can mix both tiers under one agreement.
Can I hire someone with GenAI/LLM-specific experience?
Yes. You can specify retrieval-augmented generation, agent frameworks, fine-tuning or evaluation tooling as the requirement, and the technical panel screens against that work directly. GenAI experience is verified through recorded assessment, not inferred from a resume mention.
Do I need a US entity, or does TalentStores handle employment?
You don't need an entity in India, and you hire from wherever you already operate. Employment sits with licensed Employer of Record and staffing partners who handle contracts, payroll and statutory compliance, with no separate EOR fee on India-based hires.
Hire AI & Machine Learning Engineers in India
Vetted, panel-screened talent with recorded assessments — employed compliantly, with a one-week free replacement guarantee.