Parvessh Agarwal
Founder & CEO
An entrepreneur at heart. He links business analysis, strategy, clear goals and ROI to practical technology.
LinkedIn →Hire prompt engineers
who test before they ship.
PixelCrayons is your point of contact for hiring a prompt engineer. We scope the role, write the proposal and supply the specialist, or a small team. They treat your prompts, the instructions your AI is given, as something to test and track. A prompt is not typed once and left alone. Each specialist is vetted on real testing work before they touch yours. They work inside your tools and stand-ups, and you can scale up or down monthly without a hiring cycle. You meet the specialist who would own your test suite before anything is signed.
Interview before signing · One contact throughout · Scale monthly
Tell us about the role
Start Your Enquiry
Send a short brief. Once we have a complete brief, we confirm the date you will receive your itemised proposal.
What you get
PixelCrayons is your point of contact for hiring a prompt engineer. We supply the specialist under one proposal. They design and track the instructions your AI is given. They build tests that catch problems before your users do. They write down what changed and why, in your tools. You interview the specialist first and scale monthly.
- Vetted on prompts in live featuresEvery specialist has designed and tested prompts for live features, vetted against our standards.
- One point of contact for everythingPixelCrayons handles scope, proposal, escalation, billing and status, and answers for the prompts and tests.
- Working inside your teamYour prompt files, project tools and stand-ups, and your email domain if you prefer.
Our work
See what we've built
and the results it brought.
Real projects for real clients, with results we can show.
2004
Established
500+
Agencies served
4,500+
Projects delivered
340%
Revenue growth · 7 months
eCommerce
+127%
Organic traffic · 5 months
SaaS
85%
Faster delivery · backlog cleared
via agency partner
Technologies we work with
- Commerce and web
- Shopify
- WooCommerce
- Magento
- WordPress
- Webflow
- Next.js
- Marketing
- Google Ads
- Meta Ads
- GA4
- Klaviyo
- Cloud
- AWS
- Microsoft Azure
- Google Cloud
- AI models
- OpenAI
- Anthropic
- Google Gemini
- Build and deploy
- Docker
- Kubernetes
- Terraform
- GitHub Actions
- CRM and automation
- HubSpot
- Salesforce
- Zapier
- n8n
Product names and marks are trademarks of their owners. Naming a technology means our teams build with it. It does not mean a partnership, certification or endorsement.
What they cover
Prompt engineering skills
that keep AI answers tested and reliable.
A prompt engineering specialist works between your product and the AI model. They handle what it's told, how that's tested, and what happens when it's wrong. This is not someone who writes one clever prompt and calls it done.
Prompt and system design
- System prompts, the standing instructions, for live features built on large language models (LLMs)
- Prompt engineering methods: clear instructions, formatting and limits on what the model may do
- Few-shot examples and step-by-step (chain-of-thought) prompts where the task really needs them
- Choosing a model for each task on ability, cost and speed
- Structured output: JSON formats and function-calling rules the app can rely on
Testing and reliability
- Evaluation sets: test inputs, scoring rules and tracking of anything that gets worse
- Testing for made-up answers and other failures before a feature ships
- Rules and checks on what the model may say in replies to users
- Testing with hostile and unusual inputs
- A person's review, designed in for the outputs that need it
Accuracy, cost and records
- Answers based on real data, using retrieval-augmented generation (RAG), where the AI looks up your documents first
- Prompt version history: change logs, reasons and a way to roll back
- Balancing cost and speed: token budgets, caching and cheaper models where they work
- Clear reports tied to reliability, not just demos
- Notes a developer can pick up without a handover call
In practice
What a prompt engineer
does after the demo works.
A prompt that works in a demo is where this job starts, not where it ends.
Where the week goes
Much of it goes on the evaluation set, not the prompt. That is the fixed list of test inputs with known good answers. They add real user inputs that caused trouble last week, and note what a good answer looks like. They rerun the tests after every change. They read samples of live output, looking for patterns. Examples are a refusal that should not happen, a date format that drifts, or an invented policy detail. They test whether a cheaper or faster model can handle one step. And they write down why each prompt change was made, so nobody undoes it by accident.
What good looks like in an interview
Ask how they would know a prompt change made things better, not just different. Strong candidates describe a test set, a scoring method and a comparison across versions. Only then do they mention wording. Ask about a failure they caught before users did, and one they missed. Give them a short prompt from your product and ask what inputs would break it. Good answers are specific. An empty field, a hostile instruction pasted into user text, or a question outside the product's scope. Candidates who only share clever prompt tricks are showing you the easy part.
What they need from you first
Real examples. Collect a set of genuine user inputs, including the awkward ones, with personal data removed. Write down what a correct answer looks like for a handful of them. Ideally, someone who knows the subject checks these. Give access to the prompts wherever they live now. Add logs of model inputs and outputs if you keep them, and a test setup away from live users. Agree a spending limit for model use during testing, so test runs do not surprise finance. Decide who can approve a prompt change for release. Without examples and an approver, the work drifts into opinions about wording.
Who owns what, and when it's the wrong hire
A prompt engineer owns what the model is told and how its output is checked. Your developers own the code around it. Your subject experts own what counts as correct. When those three are not talking, bugs bounce between them. This is the wrong hire if you have not decided what the feature should do. A test set needs a definition of good. It is also the wrong hire if the real problem is finding the right documents in the first place. That is usually data and search engineering.
How it works
How hiring works,
with one contact throughout.
Start
Brief and a call
We sign an NDA, and you describe the feature, the AI models you use and the gap to PixelCrayons.
Once the brief is complete
Proposal and interview
We confirm when your proposal will arrive. We propose the specialist whose track record fits. You interview them before anything is signed.
Your decision
You sign off
You confirm the scope, the payment and the access we need. Nothing starts before this.
Typically 2 to 3 business days later
The specialist starts
They connect to your prompt files, review any existing test sets and join your stand-ups. Then work on your prompts and tests begins.
Every month
Scale up or down
Add a second specialist when there are more AI features to cover, and step down when there aren't. You resize monthly through the same PixelCrayons account team.
You make requests, give approvals and see the weekly review in your Prism workspace. Each decision is written down with the result it was meant to bring. See how Prism runs the work →
Get a Proposal
Meet the people who will do the work before you sign
Why through us
Why hire through us:
the specialist and the account support behind them.
PixelCrayons scopes the prompt engineering hire, supplies the specialist and manages your account. You get one contact and a well-matched specialist. It is always clear who answers for the work.
Vetted on prompts in live features
Every specialist we propose has designed and tested prompts for live features. They are vetted against our own delivery standards. A track record tells you more than an interview. One shows what happened when a prompt met a real unusual case. The other shows how someone talks about unusual cases.
One point of contact for everything
PixelCrayons scopes the prompt engineering role and writes the proposal. As your one account team, we then handle escalation, billing and status. You sign with PixelCrayons, and we answer for every commitment in the proposal for as long as the work runs.
Working inside your team
They work in your prompt files and project tools and attend your stand-ups. They can use your email domain if you prefer. Dedicated means working the way you already work. Prompts are never thrown over a wall into someone else's queue.
Quality checks you can see
Every prompt change is versioned with its reason. Every test run is logged with what passed and what got worse. Failures are written down, not quietly patched over. Ask what the month delivered, and the version log and test runs answer before we say a word.
Side by side
Hiring on your own,
compared with hiring through us.
An in-house hire is still right when the role is permanently full-time and central to your product. We'll say so when it is. This is for every other case.
| Hiring it yourself | Through PixelCrayons | |
|---|---|---|
| Time to a working specialist | A full recruiting cycle: sourcing, interviews, notice periods, onboarding | A shortlist and an interview before anything is signed |
| Vetting | CV screening and interview performance: you find out the truth on the job | A track record on live prompts, checked against our own delivery standards |
| Management work | All yours: test design, prompt review, sorting out what broke, and cover | PixelCrayons' account team handles the day-to-day contact; you set the feature priorities, not the on-call rota |
| Scaling | A new hiring cycle each way: months to find someone for a role often misnamed, then an awkward exit | Resize monthly: add a specialist or step down with a conversation |
| Risk when it doesn't work | A poor hire slows you down until it's noticed, then a difficult exit | If the fit is wrong, we propose someone else, who gets the test history, not a blank prompt store |
Who is accountable
The people responsible
for your work.
Saundaraya Gupta
Technical Manager
Brings technical work, client updates and project management together, so work moves smoothly from brief to launch.
LinkedIn →Every engagement
A named coordinator and escalation contact
Know who coordinates your engagement, who owns the work and how to escalate an issue.
All engagements. Roles may be combined and vary with your engagement.
Before you sign
Our commitments
Each one says where it applies and links to its full terms.
Time-zone overlap
At least four hours a day inside your core working hours. Two hours plus a daily written handover for the US West Coast.
Managed specialists only; not a staffing promise for project teams.
Full termsClear IP & Ownership Terms
Your materials remain yours. Bespoke deliverable rights, licences and handover are agreed before work starts.
All engagements.
Full termsClear Delivery & Escalation Ownership
Know who coordinates your engagement, who owns the work and how to escalate an issue.
All engagements. Roles may be combined and vary with your engagement.
Full termsWhy not just hire a freelancer?
A freelancer can be the right choice for a single, well-defined task. We are set up for work that needs an accountable team: a named coordinator, delivery reviewed by QA and a senior lead before release, and continuity arrangements written into the engagement. Confidentiality, ownership and escalation terms are agreed in writing before work starts.
How does time-zone overlap work?
Your engineers work at least four hours a day inside your core working hours. We set the window with you before the engagement starts and hold it for as long as the engagement runs. For the US West Coast the live overlap is two hours each morning, with a written handover at the end of every Indian day. We do not run night shifts: engineers who work nights leave quickly, and keeping the same people on your team matters more to us than a longer overlap.
Can we try you before we commit?
For eligible managed specialists, yes: up to 14 calendar days or 80 logged working hours, whichever comes first. Stop within it and eligible trial hours are free; continue and they're billed at the agreed rate. Unpaid trial work stays ours. Project work and other roles get a paid pilot with scope, acceptance criteria, duration and fee agreed first.
What if we want to stop?
Cancellation, notice and any renewal terms are written into your proposal or statement of work before you accept it. If an engagement ends early, we hand over completed, paid-for work and list any unfinished work separately. For an eligible specialist trial, you can stop within the trial window and pay nothing for eligible trial hours.
How we handle claims, credentials and your data: group credentials, dated ratings, how case figures are signed off, client permissions and data handling.
How we vet
How we vet a prompt engineer
and what to ask them.
Clever prompt tricks are the easy part of this job. We vet against our own delivery standards before anyone is proposed. In your interview, these tests show who measures a change and who just makes one.
| What to test | What to ask | Red flag |
|---|---|---|
| Better or just different | How they would know a prompt change made things better, not just different. | Talk of wording before any mention of a test set, a scoring method and a comparison across versions. |
| Breaking a prompt | Hand them a short prompt from your product and ask what inputs would break it. | General answers. Good ones are specific: an empty field, a hostile instruction pasted into user text, a question outside the product's scope. |
| Caught and missed | A failure they caught before users did, and one they missed. | Only the catches. |
| Model and cost | Whether a cheaper or faster model could handle one step of your task, and how they would test it. | One model for every step, chosen with no view on cost or speed. |
| The first fortnight | What they would build before changing a prompt in a live feature. | Prompt edits first. Where no proper test set exists, the first fortnight goes on building one. |
No trial on this role. Bring real user inputs and a named approver for prompt changes. Without them, the work drifts into opinions about wording.
Questions
Frequently
asked.
The prompt engineer comes from our Vinove group engineering team. You interview them before anything is signed. PixelCrayons scopes the role, writes the one proposal and is your contact throughout. You sign with PixelCrayons, and we answer for every commitment on this page for as long as the work runs.
We typically reply within four business hours. Once we have a complete brief, we confirm when your proposal will arrive. You interview the specialist before anything is signed. Eligible work can typically start two to three business days after scope, payment and required access are confirmed. Without a test set, one gets built before prompt changes go live.
It starts with an NDA, then access to your code and prompt files. Next they review what's live today and write up what they found. You agree the first month's priorities before anything changes. They join your stand-ups from week one. So they learn your release and testing routine by working in it, not beside it.
You get a written report every week. It covers what changed in the prompts, what the test runs showed, what got worse or better, and what's next. The reasoning is stated each time. Every version change is logged with its reason, so a rollback is a lookup, not an investigation. Agencies receive the report in their own templates.
No, it is a separate, related skill. A prompt engineer designs and tests what the model is told, and checks what it returns. Your developers still own the app around it: the APIs, data flows, interface and servers. If you really need a developer, we'll say so rather than stretch the brief.
Tell us early, and we bring in a different prompt engineer. That is part of the standard terms. The new specialist gets the prompt versions, test results and decisions the first one wrote down. So a switch costs days, not a restart. If you need a developer or a project rather than a person, we'll point you there instead.
Interview your prompt engineer
before you sign anything.
Tell PixelCrayons about the feature and the gap. We scope the role and stay your point of contact throughout. We supply the specialist under one written proposal. Then you interview the specialist who would own your test suite. If you really need a developer rather than a prompt specialist, we'll say so on the first call.
Reply within four business hours (typical) · Interview before signing · Scale monthly
Last updated