Software Engineer, Applied AI

As a Software Engineer on Applied AI, you’ll build, deploy, and operate systems that sit directly between frontier AI research and data delivery. This is a high-ownership, deeply technical role. You’ll work through ill-defined problems, prototype quickly with researchers and customers, and take systems from early experiments to reliable, scalable production. You’ll own projects end-to-end: spanning requirements gathering, creating data creation pipelines, and improving model-adjacent infrastructure, while partnering closely with frontier AI labs and Mercor’s internal teams to ship high-impact applied AI solutions.

Responsibilities

Build, deploy, and operate systems that sit directly between frontier AI research and data delivery; Own projects end-to-end: requirements gathering, creating data creation pipelines, and improving model-adjacent infrastructure; Partner closely with frontier AI labs to understand their data, post-training, and evaluation needs; Build and operate scalable data pipelines for post-training workflows and model evaluations; Design and build scalable systems for synthetic data generation and data quality, and work directly with customers to understand requirements and develop technical solutions; Prototype new data types, benchmarks, and evaluation frameworks; Lead technical discussions with customers

Requirements

Strong backend engineering fundamentals in a modern language (Python, Go, Rust, etc.); Experience with model training and inference; Strong grounding in statistical analysis and experimental design for measuring model performance and improvements; Familiarity with evaluation methods for large language models; Comfort working through ambiguity and shipping iteratively

Nice to have

Enjoys ownership and customer-facing problem solving; Thinks entrepreneurially and moves quickly; Balances speed with engineering rigor; Communicates clearly with technical and non-technical users

Benefits

Bi-annual performance bonus structure; Generous equity grant vested over 4 years; Up to $15k Relocation bonus; $10K proximity bonus (if you live within 0.5 miles of our office); $1.5K monthly stipend for meals; Free Equinox membership; $200 monthly laundry reimbursement; $200 monthly personal wellness reimbursement; Health, Dental, Vision insurance