Hire an AI engineer or AI architect in Sri Lanka, embedded for three to twelve months.
This page is for firms that want to hire an AI engineer, AI architect or AI expert in Sri Lanka — not for engineers looking for a job. specshop.dev places one of its own AI automations engineers or automation leads inside your team in Colombo or remotely, for a fixed engagement of three, six or twelve months, at a price published below. They report to you, work your hours, ship your automation programme, and leave your people able to run it without them.
If you are an engineer looking for work, we are not hiring through this page, but the journal is where we publish how we build.
AI engineer, or AI architect?
- AI Automations Engineer. Builds and ships the workflows: maps a process, writes the spec, wires the agent to your systems, puts a named approver in the loop, measures the approval rate, hands it over. The right hire when you know what you want automated.
- Automation Lead (the AI architect). Does everything the engineer does and also owns the roadmap, the standards, the security posture and your team’s training. The right hire when you want automation to become a standing function, not a project.
Both are billed at the same rate. Which one you need is a question we will answer honestly on the first call, and we will say if a single agent would do the job for less.
Fixed prices, on the page.
Enough to ship two or three workflows and prove the shape.
Long enough to hand the programme to your own people.
For firms making automation a standing function, not a project.
Two posts, one rate. An AI Automations Engineer builds and ships the workflows. An Automation Lead does that and owns the roadmap, the standards and your team’s training. Both are billed at the same rate — which one you need is a question we’ll answer honestly on the first call.
Hiring an AI engineer in Colombo: the options, honestly compared.
Search for AI engineers in Sri Lanka and you will find job boards, freelancer marketplaces and outsourcing firms. Each is right for someone. This is where an embedded engineer from specshop.dev fits.
| If you are considering | What is different here |
|---|---|
| A full-time hire from LinkedIn or ITPro.lk | Senior AI engineers in Colombo are scarce and take months to recruit. An embedded engineer starts in weeks and can be the bridge while you hire, or the reason you do not need to. |
| A freelance AI engineer on Upwork | Our engineer comes with the team behind them, the spec-first method, and a company that answers for the outcome. Fixed engagement price, not an hourly meter. |
| An outsourcing firm’s AI team | One named person inside your company, working your hours, reporting to you. Not a ticket queue in another building. |
| Hiring a single AI agent instead | Often the right call, and we will say so. An agent from US$1,225 a month does one job; an engineer builds the capability to run many. |
| An AI architect for strategy only | Our Automation Lead architects and ships. The roadmap is written by the person who then builds the first workflow on it. |
Three months, honestly described.
An engineer joins your team on day one, works your hours, and reports to you. The first fortnight is mapping: which workflows, in what order, who approves what.
Then they ship — one workflow at a time, each handed over with the approval loop already in place — and they leave your people able to run it without them.
Weeks 1–2 · map
Your three busiest workflows, staff-hours against each, the order they hand over safely.
Weeks 3–8 · ship
One workflow at a time. Each goes live behind a named approver, with the weekly approval-rate number from day one.
Weeks 9–12 · hand over
Your people run it. The engineer documents, trains, and steps back.
After · what you keep
Every workflow, every spec, everything the agents learned — yours, in writing.
// every number on this page is a price or a published policy — never a performance claim
Hiring an AI engineer in Sri Lanka: what people ask.
Short answers so the first call can be about your workflows.
How do I hire an AI engineer in Sri Lanka?
Three routes: recruit full time through LinkedIn or ITPro.lk, which takes months for senior people; hire a freelancer on Upwork by the hour; or embed an engineer from a firm like specshop.dev for a fixed three, six or twelve month engagement. We do the third. A thirty-minute call tells you which route fits, including when it is not us.
How much does it cost to hire an AI engineer in Colombo?
Full-time senior AI engineers in Colombo advertise at roughly LKR 400,000 to 600,000 a month plus recruitment time. Freelancers run US$15 to US$40 an hour. Our embedded engineer is a fixed price per engagement, published in the terms above, and includes the team behind the engineer. Before you compare our engagement price against a payroll line, read the arithmetic in AI engineer salary in Sri Lanka, which sets EPF, ETF and ramp-up against five hiring routes.
Can I hire an AI architect rather than an engineer?
Yes. Our Automation Lead is the architect role: roadmap, standards, security posture and your team’s training, plus shipping the first workflows. Same rate as the engineer.
Do they work on site in Colombo?
On site in Colombo where it helps, remote where it does not, always in your working hours. We also place engineers with clients in Oman and the UAE.
Who owns what they build?
You do. Every workflow, every spec, every prompt and everything the agents learned is in your systems, in writing, when they leave.
What if we only need one thing automated?
Then an AI agent is probably the better buy, from US$1,225 a month, and we will tell you so on the call. The engineer is for firms that want the capability, not one automation.
Are you hiring AI engineers?
Not through this page. This page is for companies that want to hire an engineer from us. If you are an engineer, the spec-first training programme and the journal are the best places to see how we work.
Thirty minutes. We’ll tell you whether it’s an engineer or an agent.
Tell us what you’d want automated first. We’ll tell you whether it’s a three-month job, a twelve-month hire, or a single agent.
specshop.dev · Colombo 5, Sri Lanka · +94 76 443 7726. See also: hire a builder · hire an AI consultant in Colombo · AI consultancy in Sri Lanka.