Meeting Title: Brainforge AI Engineer Interview Intro Date: 2026-04-29 Meeting participants: nolanrobbins, Kaela Gallagher
WEBVTT
1 00:04:03.490 ⇒ 00:04:05.319 Kaela Gallagher: Hey, Nolan, how’s it going?
2 00:04:06.030 ⇒ 00:04:07.310 nolanrobbins: Hi, Kayla, how are you doing?
3 00:04:07.310 ⇒ 00:04:10.779 Kaela Gallagher: Good! Thanks for taking some time for me today, I appreciate it.
4 00:04:10.780 ⇒ 00:04:13.070 nolanrobbins: Yeah, likewise. At least we could do.
5 00:04:13.350 ⇒ 00:04:27.059 Kaela Gallagher: Yeah, awesome. I came across your profile on LinkedIn, because our team is, basically always growing, and right now we’re looking for an AI engineer in the Austin area.
6 00:04:28.230 ⇒ 00:04:46.570 Kaela Gallagher: CEO is based there, and, we’re, like, a fully remote organization. I think he would be excited to collaborate in person sometimes, so… Sure. Yeah, that’s what kind of sparked this search. Would love to just get to know a little bit more about you, and,
7 00:04:46.670 ⇒ 00:04:52.479 Kaela Gallagher: I guess just first off, wanted to ask, like, what is kind of making you open to new positions right now?
8 00:04:53.370 ⇒ 00:05:01.909 nolanrobbins: Sure. So, you know, at the moment, just start with a brief introduction, kind of move in. I’m Nolan Robbins, a machine learning and AI engineer based here in Austin, Texas.
9 00:05:03.010 ⇒ 00:05:21.589 nolanrobbins: you know, I started with perpetual passion for all things AI with the advent of ChatGPT back in 2022, and trying to understand the nitty-gritty of everything, how it works, how it can apply it into the workforce, and you know, what ultimately is leading me into the job search is that continual pursuit of progress in that applied nature.
10 00:05:21.590 ⇒ 00:05:31.609 nolanrobbins: Of trying to use this technology to try and help as many clients, industries, small and large, grow, and be able to use the, the technology effectively.
11 00:05:32.160 ⇒ 00:05:44.399 Kaela Gallagher: Okay, okay, cool, so just new opportunities to apply something new. Right now, I have your LinkedIn in front of me. Right now, you’re working,
12 00:05:45.080 ⇒ 00:05:50.409 Kaela Gallagher: Or you’re… you’re studying at USD, and then also doing some consulting?
13 00:05:50.740 ⇒ 00:06:01.669 nolanrobbins: Yes, on the side. Yeah, the master’s is more of a part-time thing, all online, doesn’t take too much of my day-to-day work, and then for us, our consulting is a very small startup, consultancy firm here in town.
14 00:06:02.310 ⇒ 00:06:05.090 Kaela Gallagher: Okay, okay, what kind of work are you doing with them?
15 00:06:05.730 ⇒ 00:06:15.940 nolanrobbins: So it varies. A lot of it is very, stakeholder, stuff, just… right now, we’re working on a wellness app. I can’t get too much into it, because I signed an NDA, but basically it’s…
16 00:06:15.940 ⇒ 00:06:16.290 Kaela Gallagher: Okay.
17 00:06:16.510 ⇒ 00:06:25.540 nolanrobbins: Just applying AI in any kind of format that the client asked for, Chrome extensions, different businesses, dashboard-related stuff, etc.
18 00:06:26.200 ⇒ 00:06:32.540 Kaela Gallagher: Okay, okay. Are you working mostly, like, with that one client, or are you kind of working with a couple at the same time?
19 00:06:33.250 ⇒ 00:06:42.560 nolanrobbins: It varies. At the moment, it’s just the one client, but starting off, it was multiple clients, and you know, it’s part of the reason why I’m branching out, just looking for more opportunities with it. That’s all.
20 00:06:42.560 ⇒ 00:06:46.899 Kaela Gallagher: Okay, okay. How many… how, like, large is your team at that company?
21 00:06:47.060 ⇒ 00:06:48.880 nolanrobbins: It’s less than 5. I’d say it’s around.
22 00:06:48.880 ⇒ 00:06:49.230 Kaela Gallagher: Okay.
23 00:06:49.230 ⇒ 00:06:53.489 nolanrobbins: From 3 to 5, people come in and out of the workforce with them, so…
24 00:06:53.720 ⇒ 00:06:59.970 Kaela Gallagher: Okay, okay, got it. And then what, what part of Austin are you located in?
25 00:07:00.640 ⇒ 00:07:07.320 nolanrobbins: So currently South Austin, but I’m very, very close to the city, so East Austin is a short drive away, and…
26 00:07:07.650 ⇒ 00:07:10.970 nolanrobbins: Any part of the northeast, west, and south.
27 00:07:11.170 ⇒ 00:07:24.680 Kaela Gallagher: Okay, cool. Yeah, our… I actually just visited Austin for the first time last week, and our CEO is in… I think it’s East Austin. 6th Street? Does that sound right? Okay.
28 00:07:24.680 ⇒ 00:07:30.469 nolanrobbins: Sure, sure, that’s the party street, but there’s certain parts of it that are more of the high-end tech hubs, if you will.
29 00:07:30.890 ⇒ 00:07:34.990 Kaela Gallagher: Okay, okay, yeah, we drove past the, like, Atlassian offices. I was like.
30 00:07:34.990 ⇒ 00:07:35.500 nolanrobbins: Yes.
31 00:07:35.500 ⇒ 00:07:35.950 Kaela Gallagher: really nice.
32 00:07:36.690 ⇒ 00:07:37.820 nolanrobbins: Yes, they do, yep.
33 00:07:37.820 ⇒ 00:07:38.210 Kaela Gallagher: Okay.
34 00:07:38.210 ⇒ 00:07:39.700 nolanrobbins: I know exactly where that’s at.
35 00:07:39.700 ⇒ 00:07:44.910 Kaela Gallagher: Okay, okay, cool, yeah, he’s somewhere close to there. Okay, awesome.
36 00:07:45.270 ⇒ 00:07:48.189 Kaela Gallagher: I guess in terms of, like.
37 00:07:49.200 ⇒ 00:07:58.679 Kaela Gallagher: what you would like your next role to look like. Are you wanting to work 40 hours a week? And, like, what is the compensation you’d be targeting?
38 00:07:59.440 ⇒ 00:08:18.530 nolanrobbins: Sure. So, 40 hours is just kind of, like, the standard. I live and breathe this stuff, so outside of my day-to-day work, I’m constantly reading books, taking online courses, self-projects as well, so if it goes past that in more of, like, the startup atmosphere that you might be looking for, that’s something that I can definitely, discuss.
39 00:08:18.530 ⇒ 00:08:24.769 nolanrobbins: In terms of, like, the compensation package as well, transparently speaking, I am in a couple interview rounds as well at the moment.
40 00:08:24.770 ⇒ 00:08:29.060 nolanrobbins: Some are in the later stages of those interviews as well.
41 00:08:29.060 ⇒ 00:08:43.719 nolanrobbins: So to not put a cap on everything, I really do like to do negotiations in terms of market ranges and other benefits that come with the company, but I’ll give you, like, a very broad range. The lowest is at 180,000 for all of these rules.
42 00:08:44.049 ⇒ 00:08:58.979 Kaela Gallagher: Okay, okay. I will say, just transparently, so right now, we have everybody on a 1099 basis, so that would kind of result in, like, an hourly rate with us. Okay.
43 00:08:59.269 ⇒ 00:09:11.169 Kaela Gallagher: And then, obviously, like, independent contracting is kind of how that’s set up. So, just want to be transparent ahead of time. We are, like, building out W-2 capabilities right now, and…
44 00:09:11.520 ⇒ 00:09:23.830 Kaela Gallagher: being able to offer benefits down the line, but I would say, realistically, that’s, like, late this year, so just want to be transparent, like, the independent contracting setup would be, for… Okay.
45 00:09:24.460 ⇒ 00:09:25.120 nolanrobbins: Okay.
46 00:09:26.280 ⇒ 00:09:26.970 nolanrobbins: No problem.
47 00:09:27.650 ⇒ 00:09:46.230 Kaela Gallagher: Cool, and just to tell you a little bit more about Brainforge and kind of what we do, so we are a data and AI consultancy, seems kind of similar to what you’re doing now. We’re about 25 people right now, globally. We have quite a few clients, mostly small to mid-sized organizations, but…
48 00:09:46.230 ⇒ 00:09:51.479 Kaela Gallagher: Some are actually on the shelves at, like, Target and Walmart, so I feel like you might recognize.
49 00:09:51.480 ⇒ 00:09:54.519 nolanrobbins: Sure, sure, Vita Coco was definitely one that I’ve recognized, too.
50 00:09:54.520 ⇒ 00:10:12.739 Kaela Gallagher: Okay, yeah, so the ones on our website are, like, past clients that we’ve worked with. I can’t disclose, like, current clients, but yes, like, very recognizable, brands, and, yeah, so, like, a lot of, like, e-com, CPG kind of retail side, but then also,
51 00:10:12.790 ⇒ 00:10:34.509 Kaela Gallagher: healthcare and, like, kind of SaaS companies as well, so we have a good variety that you would get to work on. You’d probably support, like, two to three clients at a time, but then our AI team is also super invested in, what we call, like, our internal platform, so we have a huge repository that has every
52 00:10:34.510 ⇒ 00:10:38.140 Kaela Gallagher: call that we’ve ever had, all of our company information.
53 00:10:38.140 ⇒ 00:10:46.050 Kaela Gallagher: Sure. And we have, like, an interactive, kind of, platform where we have our own, like, ChatGBT, and we have, like.
54 00:10:46.620 ⇒ 00:11:04.070 Kaela Gallagher: of all the calls, and, like, I could go into this call afterwards and, you know, ask it to create an AI summary, or tell me what the action items are. So just, like, really cool features we’ve built out. We have a whole, like, learning and development hub on there. So.
55 00:11:04.070 ⇒ 00:11:04.670 nolanrobbins: us.
56 00:11:04.810 ⇒ 00:11:13.469 Kaela Gallagher: our AI team and just the team in general is, like, super invested in our internal tooling beyond, you know, working with clients as well, so…
57 00:11:13.470 ⇒ 00:11:14.569 nolanrobbins: Okay.
58 00:11:14.840 ⇒ 00:11:19.830 Kaela Gallagher: That’s… that’s the setup there. In terms of the interview process.
59 00:11:19.830 ⇒ 00:11:40.499 Kaela Gallagher: I can send you an email after this to book the first round. The first round would be with Sam. It’s kind of just an overview of your background, and a great place to ask questions about maybe the kinds of projects you would support. Second round is technical, no live coding or anything, but, just diving deep into technical concepts.
60 00:11:40.500 ⇒ 00:11:42.770 Kaela Gallagher: And then, round…
61 00:11:43.040 ⇒ 00:11:52.660 Kaela Gallagher: Three, the final round is a panel. We’d give you a take-home challenge ahead of time, and you’d come to the panel and present a solution as if you were presenting to, like, a client.
62 00:11:53.060 ⇒ 00:11:53.570 nolanrobbins: Sure.
63 00:11:53.790 ⇒ 00:12:05.660 Kaela Gallagher: So, yeah, in terms of how quickly that can move, like, we’ll send you a booking link for each round, so the quicker you book each one, the faster we move forward. And…
64 00:12:05.970 ⇒ 00:12:10.060 Kaela Gallagher: I think… I know that’s a lot of information. Any questions from you?
65 00:12:10.480 ⇒ 00:12:18.149 nolanrobbins: Yeah, I’ve been writing down notes, I always like to do these, you know, kind of going off the independent contracting thing, let’s say,
66 00:12:18.680 ⇒ 00:12:28.430 nolanrobbins: So, you’re still looking for a candidate, specifically the AI automation engineer, to do the 40-plus hours a week, or is this more of, like, a part-time fill-in as needed for clients?
67 00:12:28.820 ⇒ 00:12:43.920 Kaela Gallagher: So we’d be looking at 40 hours a week. If you, you know, I don’t know, need a few extra hours one day to wrap up something for a client, if you just shoot, your boss a note, hey, I need a couple extra hours, then you can do more than 40.
68 00:12:44.350 ⇒ 00:12:46.640 nolanrobbins: Okay. Okay, cool.
69 00:12:46.850 ⇒ 00:13:02.109 nolanrobbins: And then, was that market range that we kind of talked about more acceptable, or is there other ranges that, you know… you said, besides the W-2-related stuff, I’m guessing, like, health insurance is not on there, 401K matching, anything like that, that would kind of take into…
70 00:13:02.990 ⇒ 00:13:17.009 Kaela Gallagher: Yeah, so all of that would come later with… with W-2. So right now, we’d be looking at more of a flat rate. The range you provided, honestly, I think we’re looking kind of, like, more…
71 00:13:17.010 ⇒ 00:13:23.919 Kaela Gallagher: in the middle of that, so probably, like, 120 to 150 is most realistic for us. Okay.
72 00:13:23.920 ⇒ 00:13:24.240 nolanrobbins: Okay.
73 00:13:24.240 ⇒ 00:13:26.770 Kaela Gallagher: We can dive into that a little bit deeper later, too.
74 00:13:26.980 ⇒ 00:13:44.670 nolanrobbins: Sure, that sounds fine with me. Initially to get the round started, like I said, too, I’d like to give you guys the chance as well to get to know me, and then also me get to know you guys, so, like I mentioned, I am in these final rounds with others, so, you know, what’s good about the three rounds here is if I could book them, you know, relatively quickly, and then…
75 00:13:44.670 ⇒ 00:13:47.519 nolanrobbins: Yeah. We’ll just see if it’s a, you know, mutual good fit.
76 00:13:47.810 ⇒ 00:13:58.490 Kaela Gallagher: Okay, okay, awesome. We’ll let me get the first round link sent over to you, and throughout the process, like, as you’re going through the interviews, any questions, feedback, anything for me, just let me know, I’m here to help.
77 00:13:58.840 ⇒ 00:14:03.450 nolanrobbins: Yeah, sure. I was gonna mention, are you in El Segundo? I saw your profile.
78 00:14:03.450 ⇒ 00:14:07.630 Kaela Gallagher: I… I am. Are you familiar?
79 00:14:08.010 ⇒ 00:14:16.580 nolanrobbins: I just visited there, last week. I did have an onsite, for a company there, so I… it was, like, my first time in Los Angeles, so the first time I saw that, it was pretty cool.
80 00:14:17.180 ⇒ 00:14:17.790 nolanrobbins: We’re not about…
81 00:14:17.790 ⇒ 00:14:20.750 Kaela Gallagher: part of LA to visit. It’s a cute little town.
82 00:14:20.940 ⇒ 00:14:24.150 nolanrobbins: Yeah, I went to, Jane, the Italian restaurant.
83 00:14:24.360 ⇒ 00:14:27.819 Kaela Gallagher: No way! That’s, like, one of my favorite spots!
84 00:14:29.330 ⇒ 00:14:30.589 Kaela Gallagher: Ugh! I know.
85 00:14:30.590 ⇒ 00:14:31.860 nolanrobbins: I was looking for stuff in the area.
86 00:14:31.860 ⇒ 00:14:44.690 Kaela Gallagher: Wow, okay, so I live in Culver City, which is, like, half an hour away, but I used to work in El Segundo, and, like, me and my office would go to JAME literally all the time.
87 00:14:44.690 ⇒ 00:14:48.009 nolanrobbins: All the time. How cool is that? It was very, very good. It was very good.
88 00:14:48.010 ⇒ 00:14:48.519 Kaela Gallagher: Oh my god.
89 00:14:48.830 ⇒ 00:15:00.490 nolanrobbins: I just had to, ask really quickly. Yeah, I’m sure if I have, like, other questions, I kind of move through here. A lot of them are going to be more technical in terms of, like, how I would be working if I have a team, relatively, how is work assigned.
90 00:15:00.770 ⇒ 00:15:04.379 nolanrobbins: Etc. So maybe with, you said Sam was the first round?
91 00:15:04.380 ⇒ 00:15:13.229 Kaela Gallagher: Sam will be the first round, yes. Yeah, he can provide, like, a ton of insight into, kind of, project structure and the kinds of problems you might be solving.
92 00:15:13.660 ⇒ 00:15:20.759 nolanrobbins: Okay, really cool. Yeah, I guess we can keep it relatively quick, unless you had some more additional information, but if not, we can…
93 00:15:21.150 ⇒ 00:15:31.139 Kaela Gallagher: I… I don’t think I have anything else for you. Yeah, thank you for, like, your quick response, and hopping on the call with me so quickly, and yeah, excited to have you meet the team.
94 00:15:31.380 ⇒ 00:15:38.679 nolanrobbins: Yeah, appreciate it. Thank you for reaching out and getting the ball rolling on this, and I’m excited to look for, you know, the interviews kind of moving forward here, so…
95 00:15:38.680 ⇒ 00:15:41.669 Kaela Gallagher: Hey, awesome! Cool! Well, thanks so much for your time.
96 00:15:41.920 ⇒ 00:15:42.880 nolanrobbins: Alright, thank you, Kayla. Have a good night.
97 00:15:43.280 ⇒ 00:15:45.200 Kaela Gallagher: You too. Alright, buddy.