Advisory · Capability Blueprint
Capability Blueprint: design the AI team before you hire it
A Capability Blueprint is Kernavique’s fixed-scope org design for an AI platform practice, a data center delivery team or an expert program. It sets out each role, the order to hire them, which should be contract and which permanent, what each costs in your market, and whether to build the capability or buy it. It is for engineering and operations leaders who need a plan their leadership can approve before headcount is committed.
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Capability Blueprint
What you get
Role specifications
Each role with its scope, the skills and certifications it needs, and who it reports to.
Hiring sequence
Which role comes first, which roles depend on it and which can wait until the work proves the need.
Contract and permanent mix
Where engineers on contract carry the early work, and where you need permanent people to own it.
Cost in your market
What each role costs where you plan to hire, from published pay ranges with employer and date.
Build-versus-buy recommendation
Build the capability in-house, buy a platform and the people to run it, or bring in experts.
How it runs
- DiagnoseAfter the brief call, working sessions with the people who own the work and a review of your hiring markets.
- DesignRoles, sequence, mix and cost, tested against your deadline and constraints.
- RecommendOne written document you own, walked through with you and your leadership.
When it fits
- You are about to make your first AI platform or infrastructure hires and want the order right.
- A consultancy is standing up an AI platform or data center practice and needs a team shape to sell against.
- Leadership has asked whether to build an AI capability, buy a platform or bring in experts.
Who it is for
- VP Engineering or Operations at Series A to C AI companies
- Practice leads at consultancies standing up an AI platform or data center practice
- Heads of data at AI labs and data vendors
Questions buyers ask
- How is a Capability Blueprint scoped and quoted?
- It is fixed scope, quoted after the brief call, once we know what you are building and which markets matter. The scope, the timing and the deliverable are agreed in writing before work starts.
- Do we have to hire through Kernavique afterwards?
- No. The Blueprint is yours. Team builds in Search start from a Blueprint, so we can carry it out, but the plan works just as well with an in-house team or another firm.
- Can one Blueprint cover a data center team and an AI platform team?
- Yes. A Blueprint can cover an AI platform practice, a data center delivery team such as commissioning and mission-critical engineering, or an expert program. Where you need more than one, it treats them as one plan with one hiring sequence.
- Should we build an AI team or buy a platform?
- It depends on what you need to own. The common failure is buying a platform with nobody to run it, so the Blueprint names the people each route needs before you choose.
Related services
- SearchTeam buildsSeveral permanent roles hired against one plan, in sequence, so the first hires shape the later ones. It starts with a Capability Blueprint.
- AdvisoryCompensation BenchmarkingWhat commissioning leads, mission-critical engineers and platform engineers cost in the main US data center hubs, each figure tied to a dated job ad.
- CapacityPlatform engineersIndividual Foundry, AIP, LLM and MLOps engineers on contract for a defined scope and term, each matched to a written scope before they start.