Use Upwork when you need access to a broad pool of freelance developers and you can define the work well enough to screen for it.

It can work for small tasks, but you don't need to limit it to simple work. You can use it for more serious automation projects too: rebuilding a messy n8n workflow, connecting a CRM to an internal dashboard, adding error handling to an existing automation system, building a custom script around an AI workflow, or giving a freelancer one piece of a larger client build.

The selling point is speed and range. You can post a job, invite freelancers, review proposals, inspect work samples, interview people, and start with a small contract before you trust someone with more client work.

The downside is context. A freelancer can be good at the task and still have no real understanding of your agency, your clients, your standards, or how you like to deliver. They may also be working on other projects at the same time, so you have to be clear about availability, response times, and what level of ownership you expect.

Don't post, "Looking for an AI automation expert." That will attract everyone.

Post the task instead:

Write the brief like you're setting up a contained project. Include the current stack, what is broken or missing, what the finished version should do, the deadline, and what access they will need to complete the work.

Before you hire, ask for three things:

The proposal matters less than how they think. A good freelancer should slow down, ask a few useful questions, and explain the build in plain English.

Make the job title specific, choose the right scope, and add a short list of skills that match the task. Three to five skills is enough. If you list every AI tool you can think of, you make it easier for the wrong people to look relevant.

Review proposals, shortlist the strongest people, and interview before hiring. (We include interview questions and a scorecard later in this guide.) Look at the cover letter, work samples, certifications, testimonials, and portfolio, but don't stop there. Ask them to walk through one relevant build and explain the tradeoffs they made.

If it's a fixed-price Upwork project, use milestones so you can review a working piece before releasing the next payment. If it's hourly, set a weekly limit and review progress before the budget climbs past the value of the work.

The biggest mistake is treating an Upwork freelancer like they already have agency context.

A freelancer can complete the project and still be a bad fit for your agency. They may care about finishing the contract, while you care about the client relationship, the maintainability of the build, and whether your team can understand the system later.

Watch for people who jump straight into tools before understanding the workflow. Be careful with profiles that list every AI tool under the sun but don't show project depth. Reviews and portfolios help, but they don't prove the person can handle your exact client situation, so ask them to walk through the work.

Watch for availability too. If someone is working across five client projects, you may get slower responses, weaker handoff, and less initiative than you expected. Ask how many hours they can commit each week, how they prefer to communicate, and what their response time looks like during an active build.

Upwork can be a good way to find talent, test people, and get extra delivery capacity. It works best when you screen for the deeper traits early: technical judgment, communication, documentation, ownership, and the ability to handle messy client work without waiting for you to spoon-feed every step.

For long-term delivery work, Upwork probably shouldn't be your default solution. Hourly work can get expensive, the relationship can stay transactional, and you may still have to do a lot of the management yourself.

Use LinkedIn when you have a clear idea of the profile you're looking for. That means you know the kind of title, seniority, years of experience, geography, companies, schools, or technical background you want to filter for.

It works well for more senior hires: technical operators, lead builders, solutions engineers, implementation engineers, or developers who have worked with clients before. It gets harder when you don't know the profile you want. If you search broad labels like "automation specialist" or "AI builder," you'll get a lot of noise and the search won't be as productive.

Start by defining the profile before you search:

If you have LinkedIn Sales Navigator, use it for the search. It gives you more control because you can filter by the details that matter instead of opening hundreds of profiles one by one.

If you don't have Sales Navigator, you can still use LinkedIn's normal search with filters and Boolean searches. LinkedIn supports uppercase AND, OR, and NOT, quotation marks for exact phrases, and parentheses to group related terms.

For example:

Play around with different combinations. "Automation engineer" can be noisy because it can pull in people who work in hardware, QA, or industrial automation. Pair the title with a tool or client-delivery keyword, then swap the title and tool until the results start looking close to what you want.

Once you have a list, look for proof of work. Check their GitHub, portfolio, projects, featured posts, work history, and profile details. Sometimes the LinkedIn profile itself gives you enough to decide whether the person is worth a conversation.

Your first message should be short and personal. Mention the specific thing in their profile that made you reach out, explain the type of work, and ask if they would be open to a quick conversation.

If you have LinkedIn Premium, you can send an InMail. If you don't, connect first, then message them after they accept. In some cases, you can also find their email and reach out there.

Don't paste a job description. LinkedIn is closer to networking than a job board, and the stronger candidates need a reason to care before they read a long role description.

A simple message could look like:

Track the process as you go. Save strong profiles, note why you liked them, track who you've messaged, and follow up once if they don't reply.

LinkedIn takes time, so expect to spend real hours on it. You'll need to build searches, open profiles, message people, follow up, and speak with candidates before you know whether the channel is working.

Expect false positives. You will speak with people who have the right keywords, a polished LinkedIn profile, and the right-looking background, then realize on the call that they can't explain their work or communicate at the level you need.

LinkedIn can be a strong channel when you're hiring for experience, judgment, or client-facing technical leadership. It works less well when you need capacity this week or you don't have time to source, message, and screen candidates yourself.

If you're looking for a partner to help with this kind of senior search, our partner company Sourcing Sprints is a good fit. They help founders and businesses define the profile, source candidates, and run personalized outreach from your email and LinkedIn.

Use builder communities when you want to find people already spending time around the tools your clients use.

You're looking for signs that someone builds in public: shared workflows, templates, forum answers, teardown posts, Loom demos, or detailed replies to technical questions. A lot of people who are active in these communities are also looking for opportunities, so you can find builders before they show up on a job board.

This channel works best when you're already in those communities, or when you have time to observe, save profiles, and start warm conversations. It works less well when you need a neat pipeline with 50 candidates, fixed interview stages, and predictable timelines.

Start with the communities around the tools your agency already uses.

Search for the tool name plus "community," "Discord," "Slack," "forum," "jobs," "showcase," or "builders." You can also look for paid AI builder communities, paid automation communities, and cohort-based communities where people are learning and sharing work.

Paid communities can be useful because the quality of people tends to be higher. If someone is paying to be around other builders, learning the tools, and sharing what they're working on, that can be a stronger signal than a random public profile.

Start with a conversation, not a formal job post. If the community has a jobs or hire category, use it. If you find someone through their work, engage with the work first, then send a short message.

A simple message could look like:

These conversations can feel more natural than a cold interview because you already have something in common: the community or the work they shared.

On the first call, start with what they built, how they went about it, what broke, how they handled messy inputs, how they would make the workflow easier for someone else to maintain, and what kind of client work they want to take on.

Community activity is a good signal, but it's still one signal.

It doesn't prove technical ability, communication, reliability, documentation, or whether they can handle client work. You still need to speak with them, ask better questions, and treat it like a real screening process.

It also isn't the most scalable method. You can find good people this way, but it takes time to be in the right communities, notice the right people, and start the right conversations.

Use referrals when someone you trust has worked with the person previously, or when you can ask people with good taste to recommend builders they respect.

This can be a strong channel because it reduces the number of candidates you have to go through. Instead of opening up the search to everyone, you start with people who already have some level of trust attached to them.

It works best when the referrer understands the kind of work you need done. A referral from another AI agency owner, technical operator, solutions engineer, or founder who has hired technical talent before carries more signal than a referral from someone who only knows the person socially.

Skip the broad version: "Do you know any good developers?"

That question is too broad. People will either ignore it or send you someone who is generally technical but wrong for the kind of client work your agency sells.

Ask a more specific question:

You can ask:

The last group is useful. If a good developer isn't available, ask who they would trust with the work. Strong builders often know other strong builders.

Still screen them properly. A good referral should move someone to the front of the line. It shouldn't skip the line completely.

Referrals aren't scalable. You can't rely on them as your only hiring channel if you need a steady pipeline.

Referrals can also get too warm. Because the person came through someone you trust, you may be tempted to soften the screening process. Don't do that. Treat the referral as a strong starting signal, then check technical depth, communication, availability, and whether they can handle the kind of client work you need them to own.

Use training programs and placement partners when you want help with sourcing, screening, and support after the developer starts.

This makes sense when you need delivery capacity but don't want to build the entire hiring process yourself. You don't want to source candidates, review dozens of profiles, design technical tests, handle payroll, figure out contracts, and then manage the developer alone after they start.

It also makes sense if you've already tried hiring on your own and struggled to find good candidates with enough technical depth, communication, and ownership. Maybe you've been burned a few times, or maybe you don't want to spend too much time on the hiring process. You want to see a strong shortlist, speak with the candidates, pick the people who feel like the best fit, and move forward.

The partner needs to understand AI agency delivery. A generic VA program, no-code bootcamp, or offshore staffing firm may not know what makes an automation developer useful inside a client services business.

Before you work with a partner, ask what they handle:

Quality varies a lot across partners. Some programs train for basic no-code work, virtual assistant tasks, or general admin support. Some don't require a software engineering background, so the candidates may not be core technical people. That may not be enough if your agency needs someone who can handle real client builds.

Ask how the partner defines "automation developer." If the answer is mostly Zapier, Make, admin tasks, and prompt writing, the person may struggle once the work needs APIs, debugging, databases, edge cases, or anything that behaves more like software.

You should also understand what happens after placement. A partner who disappears after the intro is closer to a recruiter. A partner who stays involved can help with coaching, expectations, communication, and early performance issues before they become your full-time problem.