Principal Software Engineering Lead

About The Job

Mercor connects elite creative and technical talent with leading AI research labs. Headquartered in San Francisco, our investors include Benchmark , General Catalyst , Peter Thiel , Adam D'Angelo , Larry Summers , and Jack Dorsey .

Position: Developer
Type: Contract
Compensation: $50–$85/hour
Commitment: 10–20 hours/week

Role Responsibilities

• Design challenging coding problems with clear input/output specs, constraints, and explicit function signatures.
• Develop complete mini-repos, including problem statements, reference solutions, comprehensive unit tests (10–20 cases), and executable test runners.
• Implement clean, production-quality code aligned strictly with test expectations.
• Write high-coverage tests covering edge cases, invalid inputs, and performance constraints.
• Ensure full executability with no missing dependencies, configuration issues, or signature mismatches.
• Contribute to globally visible projects with high impact.

Qualifications

Must-Have

• 3+ years of backend development experience in Rust, C++, C, COBOL, Java, Ruby, PHP, Python, TypeScript, Go, C#, JavaScript.
• Familiarity with Docker and basic CI/CD workflows (e.g., GitHub Actions or similar tools).
• Strong understanding of clean code, modular design, and performance optimization.
• Comfortable working with Git-based collaboration (PRs, issues, reviews).

Application Process (Takes 20–30 mins to complete)

• Upload resume
• AI interview based on your resume
• Submit form

Resources & Support

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PS: Our team reviews applications daily. Please complete your AI interview and application steps to be considered for this opportunity.