Álvaro
Data Scientist
“In a climate this uncertain, Shakers gives you a layer of reassurance and confidence. What I like most, without a doubt, is the flexibility and getting to work on top-tier projects.”
Join ShakersShakers for expert talent
Work as a Context Engineer
Projects where the knowledge the AI receives is yours: what gets retrieved, what gets remembered and what gets curated. Shakers connects you with companies whose AI needs to know their business.
The trade reads in two places: the post that coined the term and the guides listing its five layers. Neither tells how a real company's knowledge is sustained inside a window, engagement by engagement. Here is that.
- Higher-paying projects
- More continuity between projects
- Greater recognition for your experience
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Amelia
AI Agent Developer
“I have been building AI agents for years. Thanks to Shakers I stopped chasing clients and started genuinely choosing which projects I wanted to work on. I work with some of the best companies in Europe, at my own rate, and I focus on what I am good at and what I love: building.”
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Luz
Backend Developer & Data Engineer
“Shakers adds a lot of value because it connects you with sharper projects, already filtered and better defined. It saves you a big part of the upfront work of understanding the client, quoting and weighing up whether it is worth it, and that means that as a contractor you can go far more directly to the opportunities that genuinely fit you.”
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Rubén
Software Developer
“Life as a contractor has a lot going on and it is not always easy. We like to focus on what we are good at, but you also have to manage clients, invoicing and go looking for work. For me, Shakers has been key because it does that prospecting for me, it gives the client confidence from the very first moment, and it lets us be part of a community with real enthusiasm.”
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Alejandro
AI Developer
“Shakers was key to getting my company off the ground: it gave me the flexibility to keep contracting while I built my next chapter. Without Shakers, I would have had to raise funding or push the project back.”
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Toño
Product Designer
“With Shakers I have landed recurring projects that give me peace of mind and room to grow professionally. It is not just about reaching quality clients: it is feeling that you have a network behind you, one that connects you with real opportunities and helps you move forward as a freelancer.”
Join ShakersWhat a context engineer decides every week
A context engineer designs the system feeding the model's window: what the RAG retrieves for each question, what memory remembers, what data gets curated before reaching the model. Anthropic coined the term; the trade already existed: the natural evolution of RAG work. Not the master prompt (prompt engineer) nor model integration (AI Engineer): their territory is the knowledge the model receives.
You decide what the RAG retrieves for each type of question and what memory remembers, which sources get curated and which get retired, how you measure that context arrived complete. You also decide what doesn't enter: ownerless knowledge doesn't reach the window. The model belongs to the client; what it knows when answering, to you.
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Free to join, no hidden fees
How Shakers works for talent
Create your profile
Tell us who you are, what you can do, the projects you want to work on and what your availability and rate are.
Get your certification
We certify your experience and your use of AI so companies understand and trust what you bring.
Match with projects
We connect you with well-paid projects that fit your expertise and your preferences.
New Roles for AI Era projects that live up to your expectations
Work on real projects, with teams that need your expertise, without wasting time looking for opportunities.
Projects that fit you
Work with companies that need your stack and experience to take their projects to production.
Opportunities that come to you
Our AI matching connects your profile with the projects that fit your preferences.
You build. Shakers handles the rest
Set your own terms based on your seniority. We manage contracts, payments and paperwork.
What a context engineer delivers on a Shakers project
The brief arrives with the symptom
Shakers is hiring infrastructure: the project arrives with the AI that doesn't know the business and its sources, not a list of technologies.
A context you can audit
You deliver the source map, the memory policy and the retrieval evaluation, including the source you dropped and why.
What happens when data changes
You set what gets re-indexed when a source changes, what memory expires and who answers for knowledge the day the AI hesitates.
Context sustained, not diagrammed
Having sustained RAG and memory in production and being able to tell which evaluation saved you, and what you did when the window overflowed.
Context, prompt or product
Recognising when the problem is context's, prompt's or integration's: the honest frontier beats absorbing it all.
How far your brief goes
You design what the model receives; you don't train it or write the master prompt. If the project needs that, you say so at kickoff.
Frequently asked questions
Any other questions? Write to us and we will reply.
What's the difference between prompt and context engineering?
The prompt sets how the model behaves; context decides what it knows when answering. A good prompt with poor context improvises: they cross paths on every project.
How do you learn context engineering?
The vocabulary reads in an afternoon; the trade is learned with RAG and memory in production. That's what the certification measures: real deliveries, not repeated framework.
What tools does a context engineer use?
RAG with vector databases and embeddings to retrieve, conversational memory with expiry judgement, and retrieval evaluation to know the context arrived.
How much does a freelance context engineer earn?
You invoice per project, and scope sets the band: sources to curate, memory to design, evaluation to build. The budget is agreed before accepting.
Can context engineering projects be done remotely?
Almost all: sources are accessible and sessions with the team happen remotely. Only the initial discovery occasionally asks for presence.
How do I join Shakers as a context engineer?
Create your profile, pass the certification process and join the collective: only 4 percent make it. Then you choose which context projects to work on.
The day to day of the trade
The document the RAG can't find, the memory overflowing the window, the internal data nobody curated. The trade is learned with context in production: less framework, more evaluation.
The category is being born and you were already here
171 live UK tech vacancies already mention context engineering, according to Shakers' market analysis (n=39,811, September 2026), inside AI Engineer titles. If you work with RAG and memory, your trade now has a name and demand.
The anchor that avoids fashion
The term is young and the SERP is vendor thought-leadership. The trade is measurable: retrieval that gets evaluated, memory with judgement, documented curation.
How people arrive
The doors: backend with RAG in production, data people who already curated knowledge, or the AI Engineer tired of watching the model improvise. The certification measures deliveries.
Roles that cross a context project
Four roles from the collective cross your path on a context project, from who orchestrates agents to who serves the model.
AI Agent Developer
The agents consuming your context: whoever orchestrates the tools needs the window designed well and measured.
Prompt Engineer
Sets the behaviour of the model your context feeds: the how is theirs, the what-it-knows is yours to design.
AI Engineer
Integrates the model receiving your context: the API, inference and product layer where it all meets.
Backend Developer
The APIs and databases your knowledge originates from: when clean data must come from development, it's their brief.
The boundaries between these roles are agreed on each project: the title does not set them.
Take the next step with Shakers
Want projects where the context is yours?
Pass Shakers' certification and choose your context projects.
