Principal Infrastructure Engineer

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: Software Engineer
Type: Freelance
Compensation: $75–$80/hour
Location: Remote
Duration: 1–2 weeks
Commitment: 15–40 hours/week

Role Responsibilities

• Evaluate and compare the performance of AI-powered CLI coding agents on real-world infrastructure debugging tasks.
• Solve TerminalBench tasks using AI CLI agents to diagnose and fix failing systems.
• Write bash scripts to address root causes and ensure they survive service restarts.
• Diagnose broken systems inside Docker containers involving databases, TLS, pipelines, and more.
• Compare and rank agents' approaches after each task to inform product decisions.
• Work independently and asynchronously with flexible hours.

Qualifications

Must-Have

• 3+ years of experience in software engineering with hands-on debugging of systems and infrastructure.
• Strong bash/shell scripting proficiency.
• Experience with Docker and containerization.
• Skills in infrastructure and systems debugging with PostgreSQL, MySQL, Redis, nginx, TLS, systemd, and log analysis.
• Familiarity with version control workflows (Git, PRs, issue tracking).

Preferred

• Experience with AI coding tools like Copilot, Cursor, or Claude.

Start Date

• Immediate

Application Process (Takes 20–30 mins to complete)

• Upload resume
• AI interview: A short, 15-minute conversational session to understand your background, experience, and interest in the role
• Follow-up communication within a few days with next steps and onboarding details

Resources & Support

• For details about the interview process and platform information, please check: https://talent.docs.mercor.com/welcome
• For any help or support, reach out to: [email protected]

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