Sourcing 4 Engineers for a High-Stakes Nuclear AI Startup

Building AI for nuclear — one of the world’s most heavily regulated industries — requires exceptional talent. The Everstar.ai team already includes nuclear domain experts and engineers from SpaceX, Tesla, Google, Microsoft, and Lockheed Martin.

But their ambitions outpaced their headcount.

Everstar.ai builds AI systems that turn weeks of nuclear licensing work into days. The U.S. Department of Energy tested their Gordian AI solution and compressed a 4–6 week document process into a single day. To keep producing high-performing products for such high-stakes clients, Everstar.ai needed more qualified full-stack engineers.

Despite being understaffed, the company was operating without an internal HR or recruiting function and needed a fast path to qualified talent that matches their high standards. The choice fell on Lemon.io, a provider of pre-vetted senior engineers with proven production-first experience.

The team looked for autonomous senior engineers with 3–8 years of commercial experience owning the entire AI lifecycle end-to-end. Candidates needed to:

• Build and deploy production-grade AI systems rather than focus solely on prompt engineering
• Quickly absorb and consolidate information across AI, physics, and nuclear domains
• Show genuine interest in solving difficult real-world math problems

For Mike Lukiman, Founding Senior Software Engineer at Everstar.ai, technical skills were only part of the equation. As AI-generated resumes and interview answers become overly common, identifying engineers with legit experience has become harder.

Mike wasn’t looking for polished responses like those from a textbook. He wanted to work with self-motivated people who could follow and support complex technical conversations, explain how they approach real-world technical problems, and demonstrate interest in the company’s mission.

After a short discovery call, Lemon.io took over the time-consuming part of the hiring process: sourcing, screening, and vetting candidates.

Mike shared the technical requirements, experience level, and personal qualities he was looking for. In return, he received a shortlist of engineers who closely matched both the role and Everstar’s fast startup culture.

Instead of spending weeks filtering applications and conducting preliminary interviews, Mike could focus entirely on evaluating engineering judgment and team fit during a single 2-hour call.

With their entire team working on-site, Everstar.ai brought on 4 remote senior engineers within Lemon.io, their first remote hires ever.