DataAnnotationFirst seen Mechanical Design Engineer
Up to $125/hr
Remote STEM contract with DataAnnotation, up to $125/hr, open to people in Australia, Canada, Ireland and 3 more countries. First seen Nov 6.
Up to $125/hr
Apply on DataAnnotationIs this job worth applying to?
- Pay
- Above typicalTops out at $125/hr. The typical top rate across 148 priced STEM listings is $70/hr.
- Getting in
- Hard to get in1–2 hours (one-time starter assessment). Fluent English.
- Steady work
- Comes and goesWorkload can drop to zero for weeks.
- Payout record
- Pays on timeSchedule: on request; arrives within a few days. Paid via PayPal.
- Freshness
- No post dateDataAnnotation doesn't publish post dates. First seen Nov 6, 2026; still listed Nov 6, 2026.
- Where you live
- Named countries onlyOpen in Australia, Canada, Ireland and 3 more (from the post).
The job description
Overview
We’re looking for an experienced Mechanical Design Engineer to help train AI models. You’ll write hard, verifiable engineering problems drawn from your own specialty, work out the answers yourself, and show us exactly where today’s AI systems still fall short of a practicing engineer.
This is a new and fast-growing area for our company, focused on teaching AI to reason like an engineer. The models can already talk fluently about mechanical engineering. What they can’t yet do reliably is the actual work: size a component against a real load case, catch the failure mode a spec sheet doesn’t mention, read a CAD assembly and tell you what interferes at full travel, or predict what a design change breaks downstream. Your engineering judgment becomes the benchmark those models are measured against.
What you’ll actually do
- Write challenging, closed-ended problems from your area of expertise, built so that solving them requires real engineering reasoning rather than a lookup.
- Derive the correct answer, verify it, and write a worked solution showing how you got there.
- Test your problems against AI systems and sharpen the ones they get right until they challenge the model.
- Review AI-generated engineering analysis, designs, and technical documentation for correctness and real-world applicability.
- Review other contributors’ problems and solutions for correctness, ambiguity, and rigor.
Problems draw on whatever you know best:
- Mechanical design and CAD: geometry, clearances, tolerances, mechanisms, and the effect of design changes.
- Structures and materials: stress, deflection, fatigue, buckling, material selection, and failure analysis.
- Thermal and fluids: heat transfer, thermodynamics, HVAC, pumps and piping, and fluid mechanics.
- Dynamics and controls: vibration, kinematics, rotating machinery, and control systems.
- Manufacturing: DFM/DFA, process selection, GD&T, tolerance stack-ups, and cost and quality trade-offs.
Roles this fits
Common backgrounds: Mechanical Design Engineer, Design Engineer, CAD Engineer.
What we look for
- 2+ years of professional mechanical engineering experience in any specialty: design, product development, manufacturing, thermal, structural, automotive, aerospace, HVAC, robotics, energy, or related fields.
- Fluency in the tools of your specialty, such as CAD (SolidWorks, Fusion 360, Onshape, Creo, NX, CATIA, or Inventor), FEA/CFD, or MATLAB/Python for engineering analysis.
- Strong fundamentals across mechanics of materials, dynamics, thermodynamics, heat transfer, fluid mechanics, and manufacturing processes.
- Able to write a precise, unambiguous technical problem and a clear worked solution in fluent written English.
- Meticulous: you check your own work and enjoy finding the edge case that breaks an assumption.
- A bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering or a related field (completed or in progress).
- Only applicants based in Australia, Canada, Ireland, New Zealand, the United Kingdom, or the United States will be considered for this role.
How it works
Apply
Qualify
Work & get paid
Compensation
Up to $125+/hr depending on task difficulty and specialization. Many contributors add $100k–$200k a year; some make it their full-time income.
About DataAnnotation
DataAnnotation is where 1M+ experts train the world’s leading AI models. Hundreds of millions paid to contributors to date, and the average contributor stays 5+ years. Flexible, remote, and always project-available.
Apply nowHow do you apply to DataAnnotation?
Apply on DataAnnotation
The Apply button opens this post on DataAnnotation's own site. You apply with them, not with Rubric. Budget 1–2 hours (one-time starter assessment).
Get through screening
What DataAnnotation asks for after you apply:
- Take the starter assessment; you only get one attempt
- Wait for an email with the result (many never hear back)
- Verify your identity with Persona
- Pick projects from your dashboard
Start work and get paid
Pay schedule: on request; arrives within a few days. Paid via PayPal. You're paid for the work they hand out, not a fixed salary.
DataAnnotation also needs
- Fluent English
- PayPal account
- Government ID for verification
Red flags
- Red flagAccounts deactivated without explanation, sometimes with unpaid balances reported
- Red flagNo reply after the unpaid starter assessment
- Red flagMay 2025 class action over contractor status and unpaid assessments (allegations)
What is DataAnnotation like to work for?
Surge AI's worker-facing platform: you pass one starter assessment, then pick paid writing, coding and rating tasks from a dashboard whenever you like.
| Advertised pay | $20–150/hr |
|---|---|
| Getting in | Hard to get in |
| Application takes | 1–2 hours (one-time starter assessment) |
| How you get paid | On request; arrives within a few days, via PayPal |
| Payout record | Pays on time |
| Countries | Historically limited to the US, UK, Canada, Australia, New Zealand and Ireland, with some workers reporting access from other countries. India has not been on the published list. |
Official starting rates are $25–50/hr general, $40–150/hr coding and $40–125/hr STEM/professional; workers report general tasks often settle around $20–30/hr.
