Engineering Manager, Applied AI

About Mercor

Mercor is defining the future of work. We partner with leading AI labs and enterprises to provide the human intelligence essential to AI development. Our vast talent network trains frontier AI models in the same way teachers teach students: by sharing knowledge experience and context that cant be captured in code alone. Today more than 30000 experts in our network collectively earn over $2 million a day.

Mercor is creating a new category of work where expertise powers AI advancement. Achieving this requires an ambitious fast-paced and deeply committed team. Youll work alongside researchers operators and AI companies at the forefront of shaping the systems that are redefining society. Mercor is a profitable Series C company valued at $10 billion. We work in-person five days a week in our San Francisco NYC or London offices.

About the Role

Were hiring Engineering Managers to lead teams within our Applied AI organization.

Applied AI builds systems that directly improve model quality including evaluation infrastructure annotation products and emerging multimodal capabilities. Youll lead a team of engineers partner with product and research and help define how Mercor stays at the frontier of AI.

You will also build partnerships with leading AI labs and directly contribute to improving the quality of frontier models through data evaluation and systems.

This role requires high ownership and abstraction: setting direction driving outcomes and staying hands-on while leading.

What Youll Work On

Build and scale teams

• Manage and grow a team of 610 engineers

• Coach and develop high-potential engineers

• Establish strong ownership culture and execution standards

• Shape the team: define hiring processes establish engineering practices and scale a high-performing team from the ground up

Drive Applied AI systems and outcomes

• Drive insights and methodology behind evaluation systems that benchmark and improve model performance

• Lead development while driving improvements in data quality operational efficiency system stability and scalability

• Scale products that generate high-quality training data and improve human-in-the-loop workflows

Own technical direction

• Lead system design for complex AI systems

• Stay close to the technical work and guide engineers through ambiguous problems

• Translate high-level AI goals into clear engineering roadmaps and execution plans

Operate across a broad scope

• Partner with product research operations and external AI labs

• Work across systems data insights and custom partnerships to drive model quality

Shape the organization

• Introduce lightweight processes as the organization scales

• Hire and develop strong engineering talent

• Help define engineering management at Mercor

What Were Looking For

• 610 years in engineering; 23 years managing teams

• Strong background in building scalable systems

• Ability to lead in ambiguous environments with sound technical judgment

• Proven ability to coach engineers and drive execution

• Strong ownership mindset with pragmatic decision-making

Who Thrives Here

• Were looking for engineering leaders who take ownership in ambiguous environments make pragmatic decisions and consistently deliver measurable impact.

Success Metrics

• Build high-performing well-supported teams

• Hire and retain strong engineers

• Improve team velocity and execution quality

• Contribute to systems that measurably improve model performance

Location

• San Francisco (preferred) or New York

• Relocation assistance will be provided as needed

Why This Role

• Direct impact on frontier AI development

• Build partnerships with leading AI labs and shape how frontier models improve

• High ownership across team systems and hiring

• Opportunity to shape a rapidly scaling organization

• Work at the intersection of engineering product data and AI

Required Experience:

Manager