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 Prompt Engineer
Projects where your prompts are code: versioned, evaluated and defended, not chat recipes. Shakers connects you with companies that need consistency, not tricks.
The trade reads in two places: the tricks guide that teaches you to ask better and the prediction that it will disappear. Neither tells how prompt-as-code lives inside a real company, engagement by engagement. Here is that.
- Higher-paying projects
- More continuity between projects
- Greater recognition for your experience
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6 months
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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 prompt engineer decides every week
A prompt engineer turns prompts into a product artefact: designing system prompts that set the model's behaviour, writing few-shot examples, versioning every change like code and evaluating the result before production. Not the person who writes well for ChatGPT: the one who guarantees the model behaves the same tomorrow as today. Context system design belongs to the context engineer; product integration to the AI Engineer.
You decide the system prompt that sets behaviour and the few-shot examples that anchor it. You decide what enters the evaluation battery and which change doesn't ship. You also decide what the prompt refuses to absorb: if the problem is the data the model receives, you say so at kickoff and knock on the context engineer's door.
LLMsystem promptsfew-shotprompt evaluationprompt injectionversioningtokensOpenAI APIAnthropic APIPythonLLM-as-judgeRLHF
System promptsFew-shotEvaluationVersioningPrompt injectionToken cost
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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 prompt engineer delivers on a Shakers project
The brief arrives with the use case
Shakers is hiring infrastructure: the project arrives with what the company needs its AI to do consistently, not a list of technologies.
Prompts you can audit
You deliver the system prompt, the examples and the evaluation battery, including the case you dropped and why it stays out.
What happens when the model changes
You set what gets re-evaluated when the model or prompt changes, and who answers for behaviour in production.
Prompts used, not just written
Having sustained prompts in production and being able to tell which evaluation saved you, and what you did when the model changed unannounced.
Prompt, context or product
Recognising when the problem is the prompt's, the context's or the integration's: the honest frontier beats absorbing it all.
How far your brief goes
You set behaviour; you don't design the RAG or integrate the API. If the project needs that, you say so at kickoff and don't absorb it.
Frequently asked questions
Any other questions? Write to us and we will reply.
What does a prompt engineer actually do?
They turn prompts into product: system prompts that set behaviour, few-shot examples, a version per change and evaluation before shipping. From trick to system.
What do you need to study to be a prompt engineer?
The discipline is learned by doing: courses help, but what the certification measures are real deliveries, prompts someone sustained in production with evaluation.
What tools does a prompt engineer use?
The model is OpenAI's or Anthropic's; the trade lives in the system prompt, the examples, the evaluation battery and versioning. Python comes in when evaluation automates.
How much does a freelance prompt engineer earn?
You invoice per project, and scope sets the band: use cases, evaluation and injection defences. The budget is agreed before accepting.
Can prompt engineering projects be done remotely?
Almost all: the work happens over APIs and repositories, and sessions with the team are remote. Only the occasional kickoff asks for presence.
How do I join Shakers as a Prompt Engineer?
Create your profile, pass the certification process and join the collective: only 4 percent make it. Then you choose which prompt projects to work on.
The day to day of the trade
The prompt nobody versions, the improvement that breaks another case and the injection nobody tested. The trade is learned with prompts in production: fewer viral recipes, more evaluation batteries.
The trade exists as a skill, not a title
971 live UK tech vacancies mention prompt engineer, according to Shakers' market analysis (n=39,811, September 2026), almost always inside AI Engineer titles. Whoever masters prompts finds projects in the collective, not ads with that title.
The frontier the SERP debates
Prompt versus context: the prompt sets behaviour; context designs what the model receives. Both rows live at Shakers and cross paths on every agentic project.
The bar is evaluation
Writing a good prompt is fast; proving it's still good after the last change is not. What the certification measures is discipline, not inspiration.
Roles that cross a prompt project
Four roles from the collective cross your path on a prompt project, from who integrates the model to who designs its context.
AI Engineer
Integrates the model into your product: the APIs and application layer that consume the prompts your specialist designs.
AI Agent Developer
When prompts move inside agents with tools and memory: the person who orchestrates the whole conversation.
Context Engineer
Designs the data reaching the model's window: RAG, memory and curation. Behaviour is the prompt's; context is theirs.
Python Expert
The scripts that automate your evaluation and deployment when the process outgrows a notebook and needs a real pipeline.
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 prompt is code?
Pass Shakers' certification and choose your prompt projects.
