How quickly can you start?

Kickoff starts immediately after you provide the briefing materials and the initial session. Sourcing starts right after.

Do you replace our in-house recruiter?

Not necessarily. Many clients keep an internal coordinator and use us as the delivery arm. The Guru FTE fits either as sole recruiter or as a force-multiplier for an existing team.

What happens if a hire leaves in the first months?

On RPO we replace them inside the contract at no extra cost. On headhunting (per-hire) a 3–6 month replacement guarantee is included.

Which collaboration model fits us?

The Guru model fits companies with continuous hiring (3+ roles per year) - a monthly retainer, dedicated team, everything included, technical screening built in. Headhunting works for a specific critical role - you pay on success only, no retainer. IT contracting fits long-term specialist reinforcement without adding to headcount. A 20-min call is enough to figure out which makes sense for you.

Do you also recruit senior backend / DevOps roles, not just AI?

Yes. We specialize in AI, ML and tech lead roles, but we also recruit senior backend, frontend, platform, DevOps and data engineers. The common thread is technical seniority, not a specific stack.

Do you have candidates who've shipped LLM models to production?

Yes. Our database includes ML/LLM engineers with hands-on production experience: RAG systems, fine-tuning, prompt engineering, serving infrastructure. A senior developer technically validates every candidate before they reach your shortlist.

AI and tech recruitment agency.

With hands-on AI team-building experience.

Specialized in AI/ML, senior engineering and tech lead roles. Choose a monthly retainer (Guru model) or success-fee headhunting based on your needs. For startups, scaleups and tech companies across CEE.

Book a 20-min intro call →See the AI teams we've built →

First qualified shortlist: 2 weeks
Typical senior close: 4–6 weeks
Part of every process: Technical interview

Three ways to work with us.

Why CEE? The talent arbitrage opportunity.

Central & Eastern Europe offers a rare combination of AI engineering depth and competitive rates, ideal for scaleups building serious AI teams.

Fraction of US salary cost

Senior AI/ML engineers with 5–8 years of experience at a fraction of Silicon Valley all-in cost. Same output, materially lower burn.

EU timezone overlap

Solid overlap with US East Coast business hours. Near-perfect sync for remote-first teams; no async lag for critical standups.

World-class STEM education

Strong technical universities across Slovakia, Czechia, Poland, and Hungary. High research output, especially in ML and applied mathematics.

English-fluent engineers

Business-level English is standard across the senior CEE engineering community. No language barrier for documentation, code reviews, or client calls.

GDPR-ready by default

EU-based contractors and employees, natively compliant with European data regulations. No extra compliance overhead for your legal team.

Lower cost of living, higher retention

Competitive salaries by local standards translate to loyalty. CEE engineers are not job-hopping to the next funding round every 18 months.

We specialize in roles that are hard to find.

AI talent in CEE is scarce, fewer than 800 professionals in Slovakia. We know where to find them and how to verify whether they can actually ship ML models to production.

AI DeveloperML Engineer / Neural Network ResearcherLLM/RAG EngineerData EngineerTech Lead / Engineering ManagerStaff / Senior BackendSenior Fullstack (React + Backend)System ArchitectSenior Frontend (React, Angular)DevOps / Cloud EngineerQA Lead / AutomationUX/UI Designer Senior

See AI Hiring service →

From first call to signed offer.

01
Week 0
Intake (week 0)
After the 20-minute intro call, if we agree to move forward we schedule a proper intake working session (45–60 minutes) on the role, your team, your tech stack, and what a great hire looks like for you.
→ Role profile + sourcing plan
02
Weeks 1–2
Sourcing (week 1–2)
Your Guru launches ads, outbound, and referral channels in parallel. We communicate with candidates via LinkedIn, email and a phone call.
03
Continuous
Screening (continuous)
We run intro calls, technical interviews, and task reviews. You receive a shortlist with written notes on every candidate, ranked.
04
Weeks 3–6
Close (week 3–6)
You run final interviews. Your Guru handles scheduling, references, offer negotiation, counteroffer defense, and onboarding handover. Most roles close in 4–6 weeks.
→ Signed offer, onboarded

You're losing weeks to hiring you didn't sign up for.

Posting on Profesia and LinkedIn. Screening 80 CVs to find three. Setting up calls that get cancelled. Running tech interviews while your own backlog burns. The people you really want (senior developers) don't apply to job ads. They need to be found, approached warmly, and walked through a careful process. That's not a 2-hour-a-week job. That's a full-time job.

Here's what the Guru model looks like in practice.

If you choose Recruiter on Retainer, this is exactly what you get.

One FTE. A whole team behind them.

Your Guru is a single point of contact who owns every hire end-to-end. Behind them is a small team of recruiters, an IT expert who runs technical interviews, a content specialist, and a toolkit of AI automations and Jira-based frameworks. You get the clarity of one person, the capacity of a team.

Job ads
Profesia, LinkedIn, social networks, targeted channels.
Outbound sourcing
Warm approaches to senior talent.
Technical interview
IT expert reviews tasks and runs technical interviews.

Your Guru

Candidate comms
Every reply, every update, handled.
Scheduling
Interviews on your calendar, not your list.
Offer & close
Negotiation, references, counteroffer defense.

Everything in one place

Job ads on Profesia and LinkedIn, outbound sourcing, inbound triage, candidate communication, technical interview, interview scheduling, reporting. No handoffs, no dropped threads.

Real technical interview

Your Guru is paired with an IT expert who reviews tasks and runs first-round technical interviews. You only meet candidates who are technically pre-qualified. Your engineers stay focused on their real work.

Every candidate, handled

Agency submissions, referrals, friends-of-friends, cold applicants: everyone gets a reply and a fair evaluation. Your brand stays clean. No ghosting.

Read the full service overview →

Why quality-conscious teams choose us.

Technical interview done by an IT expert
An IT expert reviews technical assignments and runs the first technical interview. You only meet candidates who passed the bar.
Quality candidates, not volume
The goal isn't "as many CVs as possible". It's a shortlist that actually fits.
Wide, quality sourcing
We actively reach out to passive candidates, including those who won't apply on their own. LinkedIn, referrals, our own database.
Systematic process, no one overlooked
Every candidate (ad applicants, referrals, direct outreach) gets a response. No silence. No unanswered CVs.
Slower if it has to be, but better
We don't promise "shortlist in 5 days". We promise a shortlist with the right person. Even if it takes a few weeks longer.
Transparent reporting
You see progress regularly: who's in the pipeline, where the blockers are, what's next. No 'where do we stand?' questions, no surprises.

For startups and scaleups

AI teams we've built for international clients.

AI software consultancy

For an AI software consultancy building AI solutions for clients, DevelGuru built an entire team from scratch — including AI developers and a CEO.

Read the case study

AI research LAB

For our partner doing research in molecular dynamics and protein design using AI, we exclusively handle the entire process — from talent search and technical interviews to successful hiring.

Read the case study

DevelGuru built our entire IT and AI team from scratch, drawing on deep technical expertise to guide every hiring decision. They continue to connect us with exceptional talent we would not have found on our own.

We handed the entire recruitment process to DevelGuru and they delivered brilliantly. Their IT expertise meant only high-quality candidates came through, making the process faster, leaner, and far more effective.

A good fit if…

This is for you if:

Hiring is taking too much of your time and energy.
Your current recruiting is eating days of your team's time, and quality is inconsistent.
You care about candidate experience and long-term retention, not just filling seats.

Not a fit if:

You need someone very quickly for a very short time.
You're looking for the cheapest option per hire.
You want to outsource the hiring decision itself.

Frequently asked questions.

Ready to build your AI team in CEE?

Book a free 20-minute intro call. We work out whether we're the right fit for your roles - no pitch deck, no pressure.

Book a 20-min intro call (free) →

Or send an RFP to sales@develguru.com