How to hire a Claude developer (and what to look for)

What a Claude developer does

A Claude developer builds automations using Anthropic's Claude API. That means writing Claude Skills (structured prompts and workflow logic that run consistently across your team's work), building or configuring MCP servers that connect Claude to your tools, and designing agentic workflows where Claude handles multi-step reasoning tasks with minimal human intervention. It's a mix of prompt engineering, API integration, and operations design: understanding the workflow well enough to automate the right parts of it.

The role is different from general software development, and it's different from the kind of prompt engineering that produces good demos. A Claude developer has to know how Claude behaves under production conditions, which edge cases it handles poorly, and how to design the workflow so it produces reliable output at volume, not just clean output on the first try.

What separates a good Claude developer

Prompt engineering is table stakes. The harder skill is workflow design: knowing which part of a process Claude handles well, which part needs a human in the loop, and where the automation will break down under real conditions. The best Claude developers have built systems that ran in production and had to debug them when they failed. That failure experience is what makes them good.

Look for someone who can describe not just what they built, but what went wrong and how they fixed it. A developer who has only built demos hasn't encountered the edge cases that matter. Production systems surface behavior that demos don't, and handling that behavior well is what separates a system that holds up from one that requires constant intervention.

Hiring options

You can hire a Claude developer as a full-time employee. That's the most expensive path: a senior Claude developer with production experience commands $120,000 to $180,000 a year plus benefits, and the sourcing process takes months. You can hire a freelancer, which costs less upfront but leaves you without accountability for the system working long-term: the freelancer's job ends when the build is delivered, not when the system is reliable.

The third option is a Claude Partner's staff augmentation model. TEG places certified Claude developers directly on your team, on an hourly basis, billed as a single invoice with no contractor overhead, directed by your technical leadership. The developer is embedded in your team, knows your stack, and is accountable for the system working over time.

What to look for

Ask for specific automations they've built and what happened when they broke. Ask how they handle the gap between what Claude can do in a demo and what it does reliably in production. Ask what MCP integrations they've worked with and what the build and testing process looked like. Ask how they think about the handoff between Claude and a human in the workflow, because that handoff is where most automations fail.

Check whether they're certified by Anthropic or just familiar with the API. Anthropic's Claude Partner certification reflects demonstrated production experience, not just technical knowledge of the API. It's a meaningful signal when you're evaluating whether someone can build something that holds up.

TEG's staff augmentation model

TEG places certified Claude developers with B2B teams on an hourly basis. One invoice, no contractor overhead, directed by your technical leadership. The developer is embedded in your team, knows your stack, and is accountable for the system working, not just for the build. Engagements are scoped per timeline and certification level.

This model works well for teams that need ongoing Claude development capability without the overhead of a full-time hire, and for teams that already have a technical lead who can direct the work but need a specialized Claude developer to execute it. Learn more at theendurancegroup.com/staff-augmentation.