A
Research
- Research scientists (PhD)
- Research engineers
- LLM agents
- Reasoning systems
- Evals
- Multimodal research
People who can move from papers and experiments into working systems.
Driving precision
through search.
Specialist search for teams building for tomorrow.
Research scientists (PhD)✦Research engineers✦AI / ML engineers✦Founding engineers✦Members of technical staff✦LLM inference✦Inference systems✦Pre-training✦Post-training / RL✦Evals✦AI infrastructure✦Infrastructure engineers✦Distributed systems✦Backend engineers✦Product engineers✦Rust engineers✦Go engineers✦Research scientists (PhD)✦Research engineers✦AI / ML engineers✦Founding engineers✦Members of technical staff✦LLM inference✦Inference systems✦Pre-training✦Post-training / RL✦Evals✦AI infrastructure✦Infrastructure engineers✦Distributed systems✦Backend engineers✦Product engineers✦Rust engineers✦Go engineers✦
How we search
The people you want
are rarely looking.
The highest quality talent always leave evidence behind. Systems shipped. Ideas developed. Problems solved. We follow that evidence and personally approach.
Talent channels
Research papersarXivPhD networksResearch communitiesOpen-source workEvals and benchmarksConference talksReferralsTechnical writingSystems shippedPast relationshipsFounder networks
Read / assess
Call / qualify / introduce
Role profiles
- 01AI research scientist
Research output · experiments
ResearchEvals - 02Forward-deployed engineer
Customer systems · product delivery
DeploymentProduct - 03Backend engineer
Distributed systems · production services
BackendInfrastructure
We start with the work, not the job title.
- 01
Brief
One call to pin down what the person will actually build in their first year. Job specs rarely say.
- 02
Map
Every company and team where that experience exists.
- 03
Approach
Direct outreach from a specialist team. No mass InMail.
- 04
Close
We manage the offer: comp benchmarking, counter-offers, notice periods. Most hires are lost here.
Expertise
What we
hire.
B
Engineering
- AI / ML engineers
- AI infrastructure
- Inference
- Model serving
- Training systems
- Applied ML
Production depth across training, serving, evaluation and the systems around them.
C
Senior roles
- Founding engineers
- Staff engineers
- Principal engineers
- Members of technical staff
- Research leads
- Heads of AI
Technical judgement, research taste and the ability to set direction.
D
Infrastructure & Product
- Infrastructure engineers
- Distributed systems
- Database infrastructure
- Backend engineers
- Product engineers
- Forward-deployed engineers
- Rust and Go specialists
The systems engineers who keep AI products fast, reliable and shipping.
Talent pathways
Where we look.
Four routes into the best people, closest to the work.
Proof
Our Proof
Most client work is confidential. Recommendations and selected evidence below.
No upfront costThree-month replacement guaranteeFull-time placements
Selected work
AI research company
Building the research team with PhD researchers, alongside backend and product hires.
Observability platform
Scaled a core infrastructure team with multiple senior hires, including its lead.
Inference infrastructure company
Placed inference and AI research engineers focused on model performance and production serving.
“Aston helped me to raise the bar for the recruiters I work with.”
AlikHead of Engineering, NewStore
“Usually, if you get contacted by a recruiter there is little understanding of what you do or how you could fit a new challenge. Aston is proof that this does not have to be the standard.”
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KayEngineering Lead, DoorDash
“Aston is a great recruiter, very engaging and caring about the candidate needs and the alignment with the recommended opportunity. Highly recommended.”
RicardoLead Infrastructure Engineer, MongoDB
“Aston is a very talented senior recruiter with a strong knowledge of tech recruitment and market trends, which quickly gained my trust through his clear communication.”
LilyHead of Talent, AppLovin
About Aston RS
Specialist
Search
9+ years of specialist technical search experience.
Aston RS runs specialist search for AI teams, from the initial brief to the signed offer.
Built for technical teams where research depth and judgement matter.
Hand-built, bespoke AI systems handle admin and low ROI processes. My time goes on sourcing, qualifying, managing and closing.
Started in London and Berlin. Now hiring across the US, with key focuses on NYC, CA and VA.
Engagement & contact
Three ways
to work together.
No upfront cost. Success fee only on a full-time placement. Retained work is agreed in three stages.
Discuss a searchRetained
For leadership and research hires. Fee in three stages.
Contingent
For clearly defined roles. You pay on hire. Success fee: 25% of gross annual salary for a full-time placement.
Consultation
A focused review of the current market, with intelligence on talent availability, role scope, and likely routes to hire.
Three-month replacement guarantee on full-time placements.
For candidates
Researchers, engineers and technical leaders: we only get in touch when the role is genuinely relevant.
For candidates