Software Engineer

San Francisco, CA - USA

Monthly Salary: Not Disclosed

Posted on: 3 hours ago

Vacancies: 1 Vacancy

Job Summary

About the Role

Mercor is seeking software engineers to support one of the worlds leading AI labs in advancing code understanding and reasoning capabilities for next-generation machine learning models.

In this role youll engage in real-world engineering work: analyzing large production-grade repositories to create and evaluate technically challenging coding questions. Youll systematically explore multiple modules connect related functions across files and assess how advanced AI systems reason about architecture data flow and performance.

Your ability to reason from evidence: citing specific files functions and line numbers will directly influence how these AI models learn to think like expert engineers.

Youre a Great Fit If You

Have 4 years of elite software engineering experience at top-tier startups quantitative trading firms hedge funds or similar high-performance environments.

Have experience using coding agents or LLMs as part of your engineering workflow (e.g. Copilot Claude GPT-4 or Replit Agents).

Hold a Computer Science degree from a leading university or equivalent practical expertise.

Are fluent in Python and JavaScript/TypeScript and can comfortably read Java Go or other modern languages (Rust C C#).

Demonstrate systematic exploration you examine multiple files and dependencies before forming conclusions.

Practice evidence-based reasoning grounding your answers in specific code references rather than assumptions.

Excel at cross-file synthesis connecting distributed logic to explain how systems work end-to-end.

Show strong architectural understanding identifying patterns abstractions and design choices in complex codebases.

Display intellectual honesty: you acknowledge uncertainty when information is incomplete or ambiguous.

Write clear structured technical documentation and communicate insights precisely and persuasively.

Example Projects & Domains

You may work across diverse systems including:

Web APIs and backend services

CLI tools and data processing pipelines

Frontend applications and DevOps tooling

Security observability and performance-critical architectures

Each task will challenge your ability to connect architecture dependencies and logic across real-world repositories.

Engagement Details

This project will be a high-impact 24-hour sprint launching in the next 12 weeks.

Compensation: Task-based pay (top performers previously earned $1000 during the sprint)

Classification: Hourly contractor through Mercor

Payment: Weekly payouts via Stripe Connect

About Mercor

Mercor connects elite creative and technical talent with leading AI research labs headquartered in San Francisco CA.

Our distinguished investors include Benchmark General Catalyst Peter Thiel Adam DAngelo Larry Summers and Jack Dorsey.

Apply today and redefine digital creativity alongside the teams building the future of intelligent software.

About the Role Mercor is seeking software engineers to support one of the worlds leading AI labs in advancing code understanding and reasoning capabilities for next-generation machine learning models. In this role youll engage in real-world engineering work: analyzing large production-grade reposito...