I'm seeking advice on how to effectively find and assess a professional to set up a high-end local AI workstation for AI model workloads. My boss has invested over $10k in a powerful system that includes an AMD Threadripper PRO, NVIDIA RTX PRO 6000 with 96GB VRAM, 128GB ECC RAM, and Gen5 NVMe storage, running on Windows. We're focused on security and maintaining local operations with minimal external dependencies. Since none of us have much technical expertise, I want to ensure we hire someone qualified. I'm specifically looking for recommendations on:
- Where to find suitable candidates for this project.
- The best role or background to look for (like ML engineer, MLOps, systems engineer, etc.).
- Questions or practical assessments we can use to evaluate their skills.
- Red flags to be cautious of during the hiring process.
- Whether this type of setup typically requires in-person work or if it can be managed remotely.
My boss prefers someone local to East Brunswick, NJ, but I'm unsure how feasible that is for such a specialized role.
3 Answers
To start, create an NVIDIA developer account and figure out the specific tasks you want your LLM to perform. Following NVIDIA's step-by-step tutorials should really help you through the process. Finding someone locally for this could be tricky given the niche requirements, though.
Honestly, the hardware you've got isn't that complex. It's just a powerful PC with a good GPU. You could have someone like Geek Squad set it up, and there are plenty of YouTube tutorials out there for setting up AI environments like Ollama or LM Studio. Also, checking Craigslist in the Services section could yield some local options too.
Setting this up is more about the effort and integration than just the hardware. I recently had a go at setting up Llama for fun, and it was a simple afternoon project. But keep in mind, it's the training and integration that take time. Make sure to avoid anyone who claims it’s quick and easy to get the AI system to perform exactly how you want.
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