Python Engineer - Codebase Specialist

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, Python — Codebase Q&A
Type: Contract
Compensation: $130 per approved task
Location: Remote

Role Responsibilities

• Select tasks from a pre-validated pool of Python repositories, each pinned to a specific git commit and arriving with an engineering question, positive and negative rubrics, foils, and a golden solution.
• Explore the repository until you genuinely understand the subsystem in question, including the relevant PR or issue history.
• Rewrite the task's question so it defeats frontier coding agents while remaining well-defined and fairly answerable.
• Adjust rubrics and foils so they reward correct reasoning and reject plausible-but-wrong answers.
• Run the full validation loop in Studio — Check, Golden, Run, Analyze — and iterate until every stage passes.
• Document your work in the task README and submit for expert review, addressing reviewer feedback on returned tasks.

Qualifications

Must-Have

• 3+ years of professional software engineering experience, with substantial production Python.
• Demonstrated ability to navigate a large, unfamiliar Python codebase and explain how it behaves at runtime.
• Fluency in Python internals that matter in real systems: import machinery, descriptors and metaclasses, async and event loops, packaging, and C-extension boundaries.
• Precise written English: the questions and rubrics you write are the product.
• Comfortable with git at commit level, containerized environments, and command-line tooling.

Preferred

• Experience with web frameworks, developer tooling, type checkers, or scientific/numeric libraries is highly relevant.

Compensation & Legal

• Payment is per approved task; every task is reviewed by a second engineer and a super reviewer before acceptance.

Application Process (Takes 20–30 mins to complete)

• Submit your resume or relevant technical background to get started.
• Qualified applicants may be asked to complete a brief technical assessment or provide additional information.

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: support@mercor.com

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