ML Research Engineer - PyTorch Expert

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: Machine Learning Expert

Type: Contract

Compensation: $150–$200/hour

Location: Remote

Role Responsibilities

• Develop challenging machine learning engineering tasks for a long-horizon AI research project .
• Design tasks that challenge frontier models, ensuring they are solved in no more than 2 out of 8 attempts.
• Focus on inference, evaluation, and systems work rather than heavy model training. Tasks run on both GPU and CPU .
• Clearly explain why each problem is difficult for a frontier model.
• Contribute ideas without needing to build or review the tasks yourself.

Qualifications

Must-Have

• Current or recent role as an ML research engineer , research scientist , or applied scientist .
• Experience with training, fine-tuning, or optimizing models in PyTorch or JAX .
• Deep knowledge in at least one area: LLMs , GPU inference and performance , Reinforcement learning (RL) , or Scientific ML .
• Ability to explain why a problem is hard for a frontier model.

Preferred

• Experience writing benchmark or evaluation questions.
• PhD in ML , CS , or physics , or an MSc with strong research output.
• Publications.
• Prior Mercor contracts with strong performance.

Application Process (Takes 20–30 mins to complete)

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

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