We find the talent.
You build the product.

Engineer-led recruiting for applied AI startups. We place senior backend, platform, infrastructure, data, and MLOps engineers — vetted by an engineer who writes production code.

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How it works

From first conversation to a closed hire — here's how we get there.

We learn your stack

30 minutes with you. We map your AI infrastructure, your team culture, and the specific shape of the role. No generic JDs, no boilerplate sourcing.

We source and vet

Every technical screen is run by an engineer who has shipped production systems — covering system design, coding, and architecture review. You only meet candidates who have already passed the bar your team would set.

We close the hire

We coordinate scheduling, manage offer logistics, and stay involved through the 90-day onboarding. Every placement comes with a 90-day replacement guarantee.

How we vet

Every candidate clears a structured technical screen run by senior engineers — not recruiters reading off a checklist.

System design

60-minute deep dive on a real architectural problem from your domain. We look for tradeoff reasoning, not memorized patterns.

Coding & debugging

Live coding session in the candidate's strongest language. We probe for clean code, testing instincts, and how they handle ambiguity.

Behavioral & culture

Structured behavioral interview focused on collaboration, communication, and prior team dynamics. Calibrated against your team's working style.

Roles we specialize in

Deep technical depth in the areas we know best.

Backend Engineering

API design, distributed systems, databases, scaling. The engineers who integrate models into your product and keep services running under load. Senior individual contributor through staff level.

Platform Engineering

Internal developer tools, deployment systems, observability, build pipelines. The engineers who make the rest of your team productive. Senior individual contributor through staff level.

Infrastructure & SRE

Cloud architecture, inference infrastructure, cost optimization, reliability engineering. The engineers who keep AI workloads running at scale. AWS, GCP, Kubernetes, Terraform.

Data Engineering

Pipelines, training and evaluation data infrastructure, feature stores. The engineers who feed the AI everything else depends on. Senior individual contributor through staff level.

MLOps & ML Platform

Model deployment, training infrastructure, evaluation pipelines, feature stores. The engineers who turn ML research into production systems. The bridge between data science and engineering.

Why KOHANTIC

Recruiting and staffing, led by people who speak your language.

Engineer-led vetting

Every candidate is technically vetted by an engineer who has shipped production systems. We evaluate problem-solving, system design, and AI infrastructure depth — not just resumes.

Built to scale with you

We start with one role and grow with you. Permanent placement is the primary engagement model, with staff augmentation through Employer of Record available as an alternative for project-based or evaluation engagements.

90-day replacement guarantee

If a placed candidate exits within 90 days, we run the replacement search at no additional fee. Your risk on a bad hire is ours, not yours.

Built by an engineer

Hi, I'm Kyro Kohan, founder of KOHANTIC.

I studied Computer Science & Engineering and Physics at UCLA, earning a bachelor's in each. Before starting KOHANTIC, I worked as a software engineer and watched applied AI startups struggle to hire the engineers who actually make their products work in production.

Most recruiters chasing AI talent are trying to find ML researchers. The hiring bottleneck is usually somewhere else — the backend engineers integrating models, the platform engineers shipping infrastructure, the data engineers feeding the AI, the MLOps engineers managing deployment.

KOHANTIC HORIZON focuses on those engineers, and I personally run the technical screens because that is what makes engineer-led vetting real.

Every candidate you meet has already cleared a real bar.

Stop searching. Start building.

Tell us what your team needs. We start sourcing within 48 hours of MSA signature.

Book a Meeting

We find the talent. You build the product.