Senior Software Engineering Experts

Mercor is working with a leading AI research lab on a project to improve how AI systems do real-world software engineering work. Mercor is looking for senior software engineers with deep experience at top technology, quantitative or financial firms, who will use that expertise to train and evaluate frontier AI models. Open to candidates based in the United States, United Kingdom, Canada, Australia or New Zealand.

Key Responsibilities

• Design realistic, challenging software engineering tasks drawn from real-world work: feature changes in large codebases, debugging and root-cause analysis, code review, system design and architecture decisions, codebase Q&A, technical documentation and planning
• Write clear task proposals explaining why each task is realistic, how it is verified and what makes it hard for current AI models
• Write reference solutions, tests and precise criteria covering correctness, architecture, maintainability, style and scope
• Assess AI-generated code and work alongside AI coding agents to judge where they succeed and fail
• Apply consistent, evidence-based judgment and iterate on structured feedback from senior reviewers

Ideal Profile

• 4+ years of professional software engineering experience at one of: a leading technology or quant firm (FAANG+, Magnificent 7+, top-tier quant funds) with a mid-senior title (ML, Infrastructure, Data, Security and Quant Developer roles may also qualify); a top financial institution as a software engineer; or a household-name high-growth tech company with a senior title
• Experience may be split across more than one qualifying employer
• Strong command of at least one major language (Python, Java, C++, Go, TypeScript or Rust), plus system design, testing, debugging and code review
• Proven ability to work in large, complex production codebases and judge code quality beyond "it passes the tests"
• Excellent written English and a bachelor's degree from an English-speaking country
• Detail-oriented, consistent and comfortable calibrating judgment against set standards

Contract and Payment Terms

• Independent contractor, fully remote, on your own schedule
• Projects can be extended, shortened or concluded early depending on needs and performance
• Payments are weekly via Stripe or Wise based on services rendered
• Mercor is unable to support H1-B or STEM OPT candidates at this time