Senior Systems Engineer – AI Data & Infrastructure
$50–75/hr
Remote STEM contract with Alignerr, $50–75/hr. Posted Oct 23.
$50–75/hr
Apply on AlignerrIs this job worth applying to?
- Pay
- About typicalTops out at $75/hr. The typical top rate across 148 priced STEM listings is $70/hr.
- Getting in
- Hard to get in~1–2 hours of assessments. Valid government photo ID.
- Steady work
- Work is patchyFeast-or-famine project volume.
- Payout record
- Some delaysSchedule: weekly, by Friday for the prior Monday–Sunday. Paid via Stripe or PayPal (depends on country).
- Freshness
- RecentPosted 2w ago. Still listed on Alignerr on Nov 6, 2026.
- Where you live
- Not statedThe listing names no country.
The job description
About the Role
What if your systems engineering expertise could directly shape how the world's most advanced AI models are built, trained, and evaluated? We're looking for Senior Systems Engineers to work alongside leading AI labs — designing and building the high-performance pipelines, annotation tooling, and evaluation infrastructure that make next-generation AI possible.
This is a fully remote contract role for engineers who move fast, think deeply about systems, and want their work to matter. If you write production-grade Go, Rust, Python, or C++ and care about correctness, performance, and scale — this is built for you.
What You'll Do
- Design, build, and optimize high-performance backend systems using Go, Rust, Python, or C++
- Develop tooling and services powering large-scale data annotation, validation, and evaluation workflows
- Build and maintain reliable data pipelines that support AI model training and benchmarking
- Improve performance, scalability, and correctness across production codebases
- Collaborate with data, research, and engineering teams on model-facing infrastructure
- Identify bottlenecks, edge cases, and failure modes across systems and data flows
- Participate in architecture and implementation reviews to continuously raise the bar
Who You Are
- 5+ years of professional experience in Go, Rust, Python, or C++
- Strong systems or backend engineering background with production experience
- Proven track record building reliable services, internal tooling, or data pipelines
- Sharp instincts for performance, reliability, and correctness at scale
- Clear communicator — both in writing and in technical discussions
- Able to commit 20–40 hours per week consistently
Nice to Have
- Experience with data annotation, data quality systems, or evaluation pipelines
- Familiarity with AI/ML workflows, model training, or benchmarking infrastructure
- Background in distributed systems or high-throughput data processing
- Experience building developer tooling or internal platform infrastructure
Why Join Us
- Work on real, high-impact infrastructure alongside leading AI research labs
- Fully remote — work from wherever you do your best work
- Flexible contract engagement with meaningful, senior-level technical problems
- Contribute to systems that directly influence how the next generation of AI is built and evaluated
- Potential for ongoing work and contract extension as projects scale
How do you apply to Alignerr?
Apply on Alignerr
The Apply button opens this post on Alignerr's own site. You apply with them, not with Rubric. Budget about 1–2 hours of assessments.
Get through screening
What Alignerr asks for after you apply:
- Take the TestGorilla skills assessment (usually one attempt per role)
- Verify your identity with Persona
- Join the Alignerr Slack community
- Set up payouts once you are assigned to a project
Start work and get paid
Pay schedule: weekly, by Friday for the prior Monday–Sunday. Paid via Stripe or PayPal (depends on country). You're paid for the work they hand out, not a fixed salary.
Alignerr also needs
- Valid government photo ID
- Degree or professional experience for expert roles
- Webcam for proctored assessments on some roles
Red flags
- Red flagLong gaps with no project after passing
- Red flagWorker reports of delayed or withheld payments on Glassdoor
What is Alignerr like to work for?
Labelbox's contractor network, which hires generalists and domain experts to label data and write and grade AI training tasks.
| Advertised pay | $15–150/hr |
|---|---|
| Getting in | Hard to get in |
| Application takes | ~1–2 hours of assessments |
| How you get paid | Weekly, by Friday for the prior Monday–Sunday, via Stripe or PayPal (depends on country) |
| Payout record | Some delays |
| Countries | Accepts most countries but blocks signups from about two dozen; posts India-specific roles such as Hindi, Telugu and Indian-English language and cultural review work. |
Generalist and bilingual work is around $15–20/hr, coding QA $30–40/hr, and senior software, advanced math, medical and law roles $70–150/hr; some projects pay per approved task.
