We needed extra AI engineers to keep our ambitious project running.
- Hours for perfect match
- 24
- Senior engineers
- 4
- Hr interview before the final hiring decision
- 1
The startup on a mission to energy and AI abundance
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 need for extra hands
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.
Making sure developers care about what they’re doing — beyond competency — is still a hard problem. Lemon.io was able to provide such developers.
Where the magic happens
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.
On a final call, we were estimating the “raw force power” of engineers. We explained our stack, infrastructure, and goals to see how they tracked the conversation and how fast they understood the new context.
Divine devs that get things done
Ten years in the IT industry indicate that Matheus is well-versed in complex tasks. As a Team Lead, his robust technical expertise, practical skills, and positive demeanor make him the ideal developer you need to build your dream team. Matheus specializes in React.js, React Native, TypeScript, Ruby on Rails, Node.js, and, more recently, Elixir.
Juan Patricio is a senior AI Engineer and AI Agent Architect with verified expertise in Python, LLMs, RAG, LangChain, vector databases, MLOps, PyTorch, prompt engineering, and Hugging Face. He has designed and shipped production-grade multi-agent systems, demonstrating strong ownership, pragmatic architectural decisions, and robust security practices.
Yunus is a Senior engineer with over 7 years of commercial experience across Node.js, React.js, TypeScript, and Python. Throughout his career, he has contributed to domains such as AI, environmental services, SaaS, adtech, and human resources, where his efficient solutions and architectural decisions elevated the products. With his background in start-up and corporate environments, Yunus is a perfect fit for any culture. Apart from programming, he is fond of creating new cocktails and discovering unique liquors!
Omer is a very experienced machine learning engineer with a demonstrated history of working in many quantitative industries, such as Quantitative Finance, and Nanotechnology, backed by a Ph.D. degree in Electrical Engineering. He made a significant impact on the development of the Healthcare sphere through Deep Learning models. Omer is a humble, curious, and responsible person and will be a great addition to any team.
Umer is a senior full‑stack engineer and technical lead with strong architectural and leadership skills and a calm, structured communication style. He mentors teams, designs event‑driven systems, and implements AI‑assisted workflows, backed by solid experience with AWS and Python. He consistently delivers pragmatic MVPs and handles tough pushback with composure and data‑driven reasoning.
Daniel is a senior full-stack/middle DevOps engineer with a strong product mindset, experience building and scaling SaaS platforms end-to-end, and production AI exposure. He enjoys working on technically challenging projects involving backend systems, data-heavy applications, and polished user experiences, especially early-stage or growth-phase products where he can own features from architecture through launch. Our technical interviewer recommends Daniel as a strong backend-focused engineer with solid infrastructure knowledge and excellent communication skills.
Hrittik is a Senior Full-Stack Engineer with strong expertise in Node.js, PostgreSQL, AWS, and scalable cloud architectures, along with solid experience in React and Next.js. He has led both technical initiatives and teams, working across monolithic, microservice, and serverless architectures to deliver stable, high-performing systems. With a product-oriented mindset, he focuses on incremental delivery, clear expectations, and solutions that align closely with product and business needs. He also brings practical experience with AI-driven platforms and holds a post-graduate certificate in Applied Machine Learning and AI.
Jakub is a full-stack developer with extensive experience working with Node.js, React.js, Typescript, and Next.js. He has up-to-date knowledge of technologies, a positive attitude, and the skill to ask the right questions, making him a valuable developer for any project. Jakub has extensive experience in the Fintech domain and is ready to work in healthtech, education, or gaming. With a strong passion for education and technology, he has led a variety of international projects and mentored interns and junior developers.
Danilo is a senior full-stack engineer with over 8 years of commercial experience, specializing in React, Node.js, AWS, and PostgreSQL. He has led teams and delivered complex solutions in logistics, healthcare, and e-commerce, with hands-on expertise in microservices, REST/gRPC APIs, and AI integrations. Feedback highlights his strong technical skills, reliability, and excellent team fit. Communication is fluent and collaborative, with proven experience in both technical leadership and individual contribution.
Why choose us
We're looking for the right developers, that perfectly suit your team
A four-step vetting process
Our proprietary process includes professional and personal tests, live interviews, and multiple background checks.
Price-quality match
The majority of developers are from Eastern Europe, where startups can stretch their budget to do more with less.
Miraculous 48-hour matching
Two days (or less) to find you a perfect developer for your startup's needs.
98% satisfaction rate
That's the percentage of clients who hired the very first dev they were offered from the platform.
Zero-risk dev replacement
You don't wait for direction. You jump in headfirst, racking up quick wins, calling out improvements, and pushing for architectural decisions that set clients up for scale.
Full-time contributors
You're looking for work you can sink your teeth into, and can commit 20 hours or more a week to see it through.
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Nutrition
We get potential candidates who are perfectly aligned with what we’re looking for, every time.
Fitness
For non-technical founder engineering is a black box. I’ve learned how important it is to have someone in my corner who can really be a partner to me. Lemon has really shown up. They weren’t just a matching tool. They really understood what I was looking for and found me someone I could trust.
Rocket hiring ride
Top-notch developers within 48 hours, hand-picked for your team.
