Network Engineer – Talent Network (Data for Autonomous Systems)
$50–70/hr
Remote part time STEM contract with Mercor, $50–70/hr, open to people in Canada, United States. Posted Aug 14.
$50–70/hr
Apply on MercorIs this job worth applying to?
- Pay
- About typicalTops out at $70/hr. The typical top rate across 148 priced STEM listings is $70/hr.
- Getting in
- Some screening~30 min: resume upload + 20-min AI interview. Resume showing real experience in your field.
- Steady work
- Work is patchyProjects can pause or end with little notice.
- Payout record
- Pays on timeSchedule: weekly, every Wednesday. Paid via Stripe (Wise in a few countries).
- Freshness
- Older postPosted 2mo ago. Still listed on Mercor on Nov 6, 2026.
- Where you live
- Named countries onlyOpen in Canada, United States.
The job description
Are you a hands-on enterprise network engineer — Level 3 / Tier 3 support, network operations, or the person your team escalates to — interested in data science and autonomous infrastructure? Our client is building vertically integrated networking systems and using the data they generate to power the next generation of AI-driven infrastructure. They're looking for engineers experienced in troubleshooting, escalations, packet analysis and RCA workflows to help label, annotate, and structure networking data from real production systems.
This is a hands-on role that blends your troubleshooting and incident-response experience with a growing understanding of how data pipelines are built and used in AI systems.
About this talent network
This is an ongoing talent network rather than a single open vacancy. Applications are reviewed on a rolling basis, and interview rounds run periodically as the client opens new headcount. Completing the technical practicum now means your profile is ready to be put forward as soon as the next round opens — there's no need to reapply later.
In this role, you'll:
- Review real-world data from deployed networks: logs, configs, telemetry, event streams
- Label and classify network behaviors, issues, anomalies, and incident patterns
- Help define schemas and structure for large-scale data pipelines that downstream ML models will train on
Must have:
- Hands-on experience operating enterprise production networks — switches, access points and firewalls — in end-customer environments such as retail, healthcare, financial, manufacturing, university or hospitality
- At least 5 years of experience in network engineering, network operations or network support roles
- Currently, or most recently, working in a hands-on network engineering, network operations or network support role
Strongly preferred:
- Experience as an escalation point for network incidents — Tier 3, final escalations, on-call rotation, RCAs, troubleshooting outages
- Hands-on enterprise Wi-Fi — WLAN controllers (Cisco WLC/9800, Aruba, or Meraki), 802.1X / RADIUS, and wireless troubleshooting
- Packet-level troubleshooting you do yourself — Wireshark, tcpdump, SPAN captures
- Exposure to a wide variety of network environments, vendors and customer types — whether through an MSP, VAR or systems integrator, or a single enterprise with a genuinely diverse estate
- Networks operated across multiple sites or a large campus environment
- Curiosity about how raw infrastructure data becomes machine learning input
This is a maintainer role — likely not the right fit if your current work is mainly network design/architecture, cloud/SRE, security/SOC, or IT helpdesk.
Your work will directly feed into the pipelines that power client's AI models, and help shape how intelligent systems reason about networks in the real world.
Here are more details about the role:
- You will interface directly with the client team.
- You are expected to work 30-40 hours/week, with your hours overlapping the Pacific (PT) business day.
- This is an individual 1099 contract paid to a personal account — no corp-to-corp or agency billing.
- You must be authorized to work in the US or Canada without sponsorship. Please note this project cannot accommodate F-1 STEM OPT, as Mercor is unable to sign Form I-983. Standard F-1 OPT is fine.
How do you apply to Mercor?
Apply on Mercor
The Apply button opens this post on Mercor's own site. You apply with them, not with Rubric. Budget about 30 min: resume upload + 20-min AI interview.
Get through screening
What Mercor asks for after you apply:
- Take the recorded AI video interview (practice round available)
- Complete any role-specific assessment and the ID check
- Accept the offer and sign the contract
Start work and get paid
Pay schedule: weekly, every Wednesday. Paid via Stripe (Wise in a few countries). You're paid for the work they hand out, not a fixed salary.
Mercor also needs
- Resume showing real experience in your field
- Webcam with your full face visible for the AI interview
- Government ID
Red flags
- Red flagLong waits with no offer after passing the interview
- Red flagProjects ending abruptly with little warning
What is Mercor like to work for?
Hiring marketplace that screens professionals with an AI video interview and places them on hourly contracts training and evaluating models for AI labs.
| Advertised pay | $20–200/hr |
|---|---|
| Getting in | Some screening |
| Application takes | ~30 min: resume upload + 20-min AI interview |
| How you get paid | Weekly, every Wednesday, via Stripe (Wise in a few countries) |
| Payout record | Pays on time |
| Countries | Hires in many countries and runs its pay week on India Standard Time; Mercor keeps a list of locations it cannot onboard, and some projects are US-only. |
Most listings sit around $50–100/hr; healthcare, legal and finance roles pay the most, language and generalist roles the least.
