Reference
Hiring, AI talent and GCC terms, defined
Short, plain definitions of the terms we use, each linked to the page that goes deeper.
Hiring models
How a person is engaged and how recruiting is run.
- Permanent hiring
An open-ended hire who joins your company. It suits roles that are ongoing and central to the business.
- Contract staffing
Engaging a professional for a defined period or project, on a short-term or long-term contract.
- Contract-to-hire (C2H)
A contract that can convert into a permanent role after a trial period, so both sides see the fit before committing.
- Recruitment process outsourcing (RPO)
An outside team runs all or part of your recruiting function as an extension of your HR team, rather than being briefed role by role.
- Interview as a Service (IaaS)
On-demand screening and interview support for your hiring pipeline.
AI and data roles
The engineering roles behind AI products, and what each one does.
- Forward Deployed Engineer (FDE)
A software engineer who works directly with customers or an internal business team to turn a messy problem into deployed software. The job mixes engineering, integration work and customer communication.
- Machine learning (ML) engineer
An engineer who trains, tunes and evaluates machine learning models.
- GenAI engineer
An engineer who builds products on top of existing foundation models using prompts, retrieval and tools. Also called an LLM engineer.
- Retrieval-augmented generation (RAG)
A technique where a language model looks up relevant documents at question time and uses them to answer. It lets an application use your own data without retraining the model.
- Data engineer
An engineer who builds and maintains the pipelines and warehouses that feed analytics and models.
- MLOps engineer
An engineer who deploys, monitors and retrains machine learning models in production.
- LLMOps engineer
An engineer who does the equivalent of MLOps for LLM applications: prompt and version management, evaluation, cost and latency tracking, and safety controls.
Global delivery and GCCs
How work is set up and delivered across countries.
- Global Capability Center (GCC)
A company-owned center in another country, often India, that does engineering or operations work for the parent company.
- Build-Operate-Transfer (BOT)
A model where a partner builds your team and operational capability, runs day-to-day delivery under agreed service levels, and transfers legal ownership and operations to you when you are ready.
- Onsite, nearshore and offshore delivery
Onsite means client-facing technical leaders working in your region. Nearshore means teams in time zones close to yours, with working-hour overlap. Offshore means a center of excellence far from you, such as Chennai.
Executive hiring
Terms for senior and leadership searches.
- Retained executive search
A search where the firm is engaged for a defined mandate and works it through to a hire. It is typical for C-suite, VP and confidential roles.
- Fractional executive
A senior leader engaged part-time or on demand to provide C-level steering, rather than as a full-time hire.
Still unsure which term applies to you?
Tell us what you are trying to hire or build, and we will point you to the right model.