Software Engineer, Applied AI - Frontier Engineering

About the Role

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.

What You’ll Do

• 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

What Makes This Role Different

• Direct frontier exposure. You’ll work closely with researchers at leading AI labs, building infrastructure that directly accelerates cutting-edge research.
• Coding + customer work. This role blends deep technical execution with customer interaction. Engineers who enjoy both building and communicating tend to thrive.

Day-to-day

• Fast-moving, high-ownership environment
• Technically demanding, collaborative work
• “Building the plane while flying it”
• In-person culture (SF, 181 Fremont)
• Aligned with frontier research timelines

What We’re Looking for

• 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

You’re Likely Someone Who

• 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

Why Engineers Join

• Direct exposure to frontier AI research
• Real ownership and visible impact
• Technical depth paired with human interaction
• Fast feedback loops and high leverage
• There are very few roles that combine this level of technical rigor, customer proximity, and research exposure.

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