Year One Budget — Personnel

People costs for Augmented Traveler's first year (studio setup + the Maria Mitchell production), M0–M11, in two scenarios. Rates are US remote market rates researched on 19 September 2026. Hardware and software are in Year One Budget — Draft; everything is combined in Year One Budget — Combined Summary.

The two scenarios

Scenario A — Full-time studio Scenario B — Lean core + task contracts
Idea Build an in-house team that carries from one character to the next Keep a small permanent core; contract specialists for the hours each task needs
Full-time hires 11: AI Conversation Engineer, Unreal Engineer, DevOps Engineer, Conversation Designer, Character Artist, Technical Animator, Environment Artist, Character Technical Artist (Groom and Cloth), XR Engineer, Mobile AR Engineer, QA Tester 3: AI Conversation Engineer, Unreal Engineer, DevOps Engineer
Full-time people incl. founders 13 5
Contracted Research, costume, performance, installation, accessibility Everything else: modeling, grooms, Marvelous Designer, writing, animation, environments, XR, mobile AR, QA, performance, installation
Year-one personnel cost $978,364–$1,619,004 $567,806–$1,104,792

Assumptions

Roll-out and cost by role

Role Group A: engagement A: window A: cost B: engagement B: window B: cost
Position — CEO (Founder) Founders Founder (in place) M0–M11 not included Founder (in place) M0–M11 not included
Position — CTO (Founder) Founders Founder (in place) M0–M11 not included Founder (in place) M0–M11 not included
Position — AI Conversation Engineer Engineering Full-time remote employee M1–M11 $126,042–$198,000 Full-time remote employee M1–M11 $126,042–$198,000
Position — Historian of Record Research Contract, 480–620 hours M1–M11 $24,000–$62,000 Contract, 480–620 hours M1–M11 $24,000–$62,000
Position — Corpus Editor Research Contract, 300–450 hours M1–M3 $9,000–$22,500 Contract, 300–450 hours M1–M3 $9,000–$22,500
Position — Conversation Designer Writing Full-time remote employee M1–M11 $80,208–$123,750 Contract, 360–520 hours M1–M11 $18,000–$44,200
Position — Character Artist Art Full-time remote employee M2–M11 $93,750–$146,250 Contract, 480–640 hours M2–M7 $28,800–$64,000
Position — Technical Animator Art Full-time remote employee M2–M11 $88,542–$140,625 Contract, 360–520 hours M2–M8 $21,600–$52,000
Position — Character Technical Artist (Groom and Cloth) Art Full-time remote employee M2–M11 $83,333–$129,375 — — —
Position — Groom Artist Art — — — Contract, 160–240 hours M2–M4 $8,000–$24,000
Position — Cloth Artist Art — — — Contract, 200–280 hours M2–M4 $9,000–$25,200
Position — Costume Designer Art Contract, 60–100 hours M2–M3 $3,000–$10,000 Contract, 60–100 hours M2–M3 $3,000–$10,000
Position — Environment Artist Art Full-time remote employee M3–M11 $65,625–$106,312 Contract, 560–720 hours M3–M6 $25,200–$57,600
Position — Unreal Engineer Engineering Full-time remote employee M3–M11 $99,375–$158,962 Full-time remote employee M3–M11 $99,375–$158,962
Position — DevOps Engineer Engineering Full-time remote employee M4–M11 $91,667–$135,000 Full-time remote employee M4–M11 $91,667–$135,000
Position — Voice Director and Dialect Coach Performance Contract, 30–50 hours M4–M5 $2,250–$7,500 Contract, 30–50 hours M4–M5 $2,250–$7,500
Position — Voice Actor Performance Session / weekly fee (union scale) M4–M5 $7,014–$22,014 Session / weekly fee (union scale) M4–M5 $7,014–$22,014
Position — Performance Capture Actor Performance Session / weekly fee (union scale) M4–M5 $4,058–$8,116 Session / weekly fee (union scale) M4–M5 $4,058–$8,116
Position — Mocap Technician Performance Contract, 32–48 hours M4–M5 $2,400–$6,000 Contract, 32–48 hours M4–M5 $2,400–$6,000
Position — Sound Designer Performance Contract, 100–140 hours M5–M7 $6,000–$12,600 Contract, 100–140 hours M5–M7 $6,000–$12,600
Position — QA Tester Deployment Full-time remote employee M6–M11 $31,250–$47,250 Contract, 220–300 hours M6–M11 $5,500–$12,000
Position — UX and Accessibility Designer Deployment Contract, 60–100 hours M6–M8 $4,500–$12,500 Contract, 60–100 hours M6–M8 $4,500–$12,500
Position — XR Engineer Engineering Full-time remote employee M6–M11 $56,250–$87,750 Contract, 440–560 hours M6–M11 $30,800–$67,200
Position — Mobile AR Engineer Engineering Full-time remote employee M6–M11 $62,500–$94,500 Contract, 300–420 hours M6–M11 $21,000–$50,400
Position — Kiosk and AV Integrator Deployment Contract, 60–120 hours M7–M8 $5,100–$18,000 Contract, 60–120 hours M7–M8 $5,100–$18,000
Position — Second Historian Research Contract, 20–40 hours M7–M8 $1,500–$5,000 Contract, 20–40 hours M7–M8 $1,500–$5,000
Position — visionOS Developer Optional Contract, 100–160 hours M9–M10 $9,000–$24,000 Contract, 100–160 hours M9–M10 $9,000–$24,000

Scenario A — Full-time studio: roll-out

gantt
  title Full-time studio (months from M0)
  dateFormat X
  axisFormat M%s
  section Full-time employees
  AI Conversation Engineer : 1, 12
  Conversation Designer : 1, 12
  Character Artist : 2, 12
  Technical Animator : 2, 12
  Character Technical Artist (Groom and Cloth) : 2, 12
  Unreal Engineer : 3, 12
  Environment Artist : 3, 12
  DevOps Engineer : 4, 12
  XR Engineer : 6, 12
  Mobile AR Engineer : 6, 12
  QA Tester : 6, 12
  section Contracts
  Historian of Record : 1, 12
  Corpus Editor : 1, 4
  Costume Designer : 2, 4
  Voice Director and Dialect Coach : 4, 6
  Mocap Technician : 4, 6
  Sound Designer : 5, 8
  UX and Accessibility Designer : 6, 9
  Second Historian : 7, 9
  Kiosk and AV Integrator : 7, 9
  section Performer fees
  Voice Actor : 4, 6
  Performance Capture Actor : 4, 6

Scenario B — Lean core + task contracts: roll-out

gantt
  title Lean core + task contracts (months from M0)
  dateFormat X
  axisFormat M%s
  section Full-time employees
  AI Conversation Engineer : 1, 12
  Unreal Engineer : 3, 12
  DevOps Engineer : 4, 12
  section Contracts
  Conversation Designer : 1, 12
  Historian of Record : 1, 12
  Corpus Editor : 1, 4
  Character Artist : 2, 8
  Technical Animator : 2, 9
  Groom Artist : 2, 5
  Cloth Artist : 2, 5
  Costume Designer : 2, 4
  Environment Artist : 3, 7
  Voice Director and Dialect Coach : 4, 6
  Mocap Technician : 4, 6
  Sound Designer : 5, 8
  XR Engineer : 6, 12
  Mobile AR Engineer : 6, 12
  QA Tester : 6, 12
  UX and Accessibility Designer : 6, 9
  Second Historian : 7, 9
  Kiosk and AV Integrator : 7, 9
  section Performer fees
  Voice Actor : 4, 6
  Performance Capture Actor : 4, 6

Totals

Line A: low A: high B: low B: high
Employees $878,542 $1,367,774 $317,084 $491,962
Contracts and fees $68,822 $186,230 $236,722 $582,830
Other personnel costs $31,000 $65,000 $14,000 $30,000
Personnel total (excluding founders) $978,364 $1,619,004 $567,806 $1,104,792

Scenario B saves about $410,558–$514,212 in year one.

Other personnel costs

Item A: low–high B: low–high
Recruiting (job boards, portfolio tests, background checks) / Recruiting and contractor sourcing $8,000–$15,000 $3,000–$6,000
Payroll provider / PEO for about 10 remote employees in several states / Payroll provider / PEO for 3 employees + contractor payments platform $8,000–$20,000 $3,000–$8,000
Team travel: 2 in-person weeks (one on Nantucket) / Team travel: 2 in-person weeks (founders, engineers, key contractors) $15,000–$30,000 $8,000–$16,000

Spend by quarter

Quarter A: low A: high B: low B: high
Q1 (M0–M2) $85,381 $150,034 $55,151 $117,259
Q2 (M3–M5) $259,804 $447,493 $186,802 $378,499
Q3 (M6–M8) $324,140 $532,688 $183,055 $355,477
Q4 (M9–M11) $309,040 $488,788 $142,798 $253,558

People working each month (excluding founders)

Scenario M0 M1 M2 M3 M4 M5 M6 M7 M8 M9 M10 M11
A: full-time studio 0 4 8 10 13 14 14 16 15 12 12 12
B: lean core + contracts 0 4 9 11 14 13 13 14 12 8 8 8

Trade-offs

A: full-time studio B: lean core + contracts
Year-one cost Higher Lower
Cost after the Mitchell production Salaries continue whether or not the next figure is funded Contracts end with the task
Speed on the second figure Faster; the team already knows the pipeline Slower; re-hire or re-book contractors
Knowledge retention Stays in-house Must be written down (this vault helps)
Management load on founders Managing about 11 people Coordinating many contractors across time zones
Quality risk Lower once the team settles Higher for character art and animation, the most specialized work

A middle path worth pricing next: scenario B plus the character artist as a fourth full-time hire. Likeness is the hardest skill to contract well and the one every future figure needs.

On DevOps: in scenario B, full-time DevOps from M4 costs $91,667–$135,000. If the CTO or AI engineer can carry infrastructure until the kiosk opens, a part-time contract (about $13k–$29k) would save most of that.

Rate sources

Positions: roles/positions/. Sources page: Sources — 2026-09-19