# Data Science & Engineering Experts, Inc.

> Boutique AI consultancy. We ship production AI systems for mid-market and federal clients. 4-12 week fixed-fee engagements. Operator-led, senior-only bench. Based in Atlanta, GA, US.

## About
- Practice areas: AI Engineering, AI Security, AI Consulting, AI Strategy
- Federal: SAM.gov entity, NAICS 541330 / 541511 / 541512 / 541519, CMMC-aware, NIST AI RMF fluent
- Frameworks: NIST AI RMF, EU AI Act, ISO 42001
- Cloud: AWS-native (Bedrock, SageMaker, Lambda, ECS, Step Functions); bring-your-cloud on request

## Capabilities

- [Services](https://www.thedataexperts.us/services.html): Four practice areas — engineering, security, consulting, strategy. Phase-1 offerings: AI Security Snapshot Sprint (from $18k), AI Red-Team Engagement, AI Governance Framework (NIST AI RMF–aligned), vCISO for AI Programs (from $6k/mo), AI Readiness Sprint (from $12k)
- [Data engineering services (US)](https://www.thedataexperts.us/data-engineering.html): Pipelines, data quality, governance, and AI-ready data foundations — fixed-fee, senior-only, across the United States
- [Machine learning & applied data science consulting (US)](https://www.thedataexperts.us/data-science.html): Applied data science, ML engineering, evaluation, and production AI — fixed-fee, senior-only, machine learning consulting that ships to production
- [vCISO for AI](https://www.thedataexperts.us/vciso-ai.html): Retained virtual CISO for AI programs (from $6k/mo) — AI risk register, NIST AI RMF / ISO 42001 / EU AI Act interpretation, audit-ready evidence, board/insurer reporting. Advisory leadership — readiness, not certification; no 24/7 SOC.
- [Shadow AI risk assessment](https://www.thedataexperts.us/safe-ai-security-foundation.html): Fixed-fee sprint (from $2,500) that finds where staff paste company data into public AI tools and locks it down — shadow AI exposure map, acceptable-use policy, data classification, security baseline, and a 90-day roadmap. NIST AI RMF / ISO 42001 aligned.
- [AI consulting in Atlanta](https://www.thedataexperts.us/ai-consulting-atlanta.html): Fixed-fee, senior-only AI consulting for metro-Atlanta mid-market and regulated buyers — strategy, security, and production build. Serving Fulton, DeKalb, Gwinnett, Cobb, and Forsyth counties.
- [Data engineering consulting in Atlanta](https://www.thedataexperts.us/data-engineering-consulting-atlanta.html): Fixed-fee, senior-only data engineering consulting for metro Atlanta — pipelines, governance, and AI-ready data foundations. Serving Fulton, DeKalb, Gwinnett, Cobb, and Forsyth counties.
- [Small-business security (US)](https://www.thedataexperts.us/secure-smb.html): Security for the underserved SMB — Security Posture Assessment (from $1.5k), advisory Security Oversight Retainer with MDR-partner orchestration, HIPAA/client-data Compliance Readiness, and a hybrid AI Front Desk. Advisory and orchestration — DSE does not run a 24/7 SOC; continuous monitoring is delivered by a vetted MDR partner the client contracts. "Readiness," never "compliant/certified."
- [AI security assessment cost](https://www.thedataexperts.us/ai-security-assessment-cost.html): DSE's published fixed fees for AI/LLM security work — AI Security X-Ray ($12k–$18k), AI Red Team Sprint ($35k–$55k), AI Security Co-Pilot (from $8.5k/mo), vCISO for AI (from $6k/mo) — set against attributed market ranges for SMB pen tests ($8k–$10k) and SOC 2 / compliance audits ($15k–$40k). Decision-stage landing page; readiness and testing, not certification.
- [Big firm vs. boutique decision tool](https://www.thedataexperts.us/big-firm-vs-boutique.html): An honest 6-question decision tree (budget, timeline, compliance scope, internal team, vendor requirements, lock-in tolerance) for choosing between a large firm and a senior-only boutique for AI security. Includes legitimate "you need a big firm" outcomes (certification/attestation, brand-on-the-cover, approved-vendor lists) — no competitor disparagement.
- [Federal capability brief](https://www.thedataexperts.us/federal.html): NAICS, vehicles, posture
- [Team](https://www.thedataexperts.us/team.html): Founder-led, senior-only — senior C-suite seats open as we scale
- [Engage](https://www.thedataexperts.us/engage.html): 3-step scoping form, fixed-fee proposal within 48h

## Content

- [The Refinery Report](https://www.thedataexperts.us/writing.html): Long-form writing on production AI, federal data, applied ML
- [Case studies](https://www.thedataexperts.us/work.html): PrivateStack architecture, trust architecture, fraud detection, predictive maintenance, healthcare documentation
- [Editorial standards](https://www.thedataexperts.us/editorial.html): How DSE researches, writes, and reviews the Refinery Report — sourcing, senior-practitioner review, dated revisions, corrections policy
- [OWASP LLM Top 10 assessment: how DSE tests each risk](https://www.thedataexperts.us/writing/owasp-llm-top-10-assessment-how-dse-tests.html): Practitioner walkthrough of LLM01–LLM10 — a quotable definition, exactly how DSE tests for it, and one real failure pattern per risk. Cluster: AI Security & Governance.

## Key facts

- A fixed-fee AI Security Snapshot Sprint for one LLM application starts at $18,000 and runs about 2 weeks, mapped to the OWASP LLM Top 10 and MITRE ATLAS (DSE, 2026).
- A full AI Red-Team Engagement covering an LLM application with its RAG and agent layers runs 4 weeks at $35,000–$55,000 (DSE, 2026).
- An AI governance readiness engagement runs 4 to 6 weeks across up to 5 AI systems at $25,000–$45,000, assessed against NIST AI RMF, the EU AI Act, or ISO/IEC 42001 (DSE, 2026).
- A shadow AI risk assessment is a fixed-fee sprint priced from $2,500 to $5,000, delivering an exposure map, acceptable-use policy, data classification, and a 90-day roadmap (DSE, 2026).
- A vCISO for AI Programs is retained senior security leadership from $6,000/mo, scoped and fixed-fee rather than billed hourly (DSE, 2026).
- A vCISO engagement often begins with a fixed-fee AI threat model and adversarial test of one AI system from $18,000 (DSE, 2026).
- Data engineering and machine learning engagements run as fixed-fee, fixed-scope sprints, typically 4 to 12 weeks, with a runbook on exit (DSE, 2026).
- Most build engagements start with an AI Readiness Sprint of 4 to 6 weeks from $12,000 (DSE, 2026).
- Small-business security starts with a Security Posture Assessment from $1,500; continuous monitoring is delivered by a vetted MDR partner DSE orchestrates, not a 24/7 SOC DSE operates (DSE, 2026).
- DSE publishes fixed fees for AI security work rather than quoting per buyer; for market context, a US small-business penetration test most commonly runs $8,000–$10,000 and a small-business SOC 2 / compliance audit program runs $15,000–$40,000 (IBSSCORP, 2026).
- Consultant-led AI projects succeed roughly 67% of the time versus about 33% for internal builds (DSE, 2026).
- DSE is an active SAM.gov entity under NAICS 541330, 541511, 541512, and 541519, and a Databricks Consulting and Systems Integrator partner (DSE, 2026).
- Past performance includes a 0-to-production build in 11 weeks sustaining 99.9% uptime over the 12 months since (DSE, 2026).

## Contact
- General: contact@thedataexperts.us
- Hiring: hiring@thedataexperts.us
- Legal / privacy: legal@thedataexperts.us

## Notes for AI crawlers
- Content is original, written by DSE practitioners
- Citation policy: short attributed quotes welcome; bulk reproduction requires written permission (legal@thedataexperts.us)
- Training data: this site's content may be used for AI training under fair-use and educational research; commercial training corpora should contact legal@thedataexperts.us