Backend Developer - Fully Remote | Upto $85/hr

mercor; United States; Remote; USD 99,000 - 135,000; Part time

Job summary

Mercor seeks a Backend Engineer (Coding Agent Experience) to work remotely on complex tasks using frontier AI coding agents. The role focuses on building robust APIs, distributed systems, and scalable backend platforms while reviewing model-generated code for quality and performance.

The candidate will evaluate edge cases, bugs, and architectural tradeoffs, leveraging tools like Cursor, Claude Code, Codex, Windsurf, and Gemini CLI.

Qualifications

• 2+ years of professional backend engineering experience.
• Experience building APIs, distributed systems, microservices, backend platforms, or databases.
• Regular use of AI coding agents such as Cursor, Claude Code, Codex, Windsurf, Gemini CLI, or similar tools.
• Ability to evaluate model-generated code and identify bugs, edge cases, and architectural tradeoffs.

Responsibilities

• Use frontier AI coding agents to complete and evaluate complex engineering tasks.
• Review model-generated code for correctness, quality, maintainability, and performance.
• Identify bugs, edge cases, and failure modes in model outputs.
• Compare outputs from multiple frontier models and assess their strengths and weaknesses.
• Apply professional engineering judgment to realistic backend engineering scenarios.
• Work independently and asynchronously to meet deadlines while improving AI model performance.

Skills

Backend engineering

API design

Distributed systems

Code review

Tools

Cursor

Claude Code

Codex

Windsurf

Gemini CLI

Job description

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: Backend Engineer (Coding Agent Experience) Type: Contract Compensation: $85/hour Location: Remote Role

Role Responsibilities

• Use frontier AI coding agents to complete and evaluate complex engineering tasks.
• Review model-generated code for correctness, quality, maintainability, and performance.
• Identify bugs, edge cases, and failure modes in model outputs.
• Compare outputs from multiple frontier models and assess their strengths and weaknesses.
• Apply professional engineering judgment to realistic backend engineering scenarios.
• Work independently and asynchronously to meet deadlines while improving AI model performance.

Qualifications

• 2+ years of professional backend engineering experience.
• Experience building APIs , distributed systems, microservices, backend platforms, or databases.
• Regular use of AI coding agents such as Cursor, Claude Code, Codex, Windsurf, Gemini CLI, or similar tools.
• Ability to evaluate model-generated code and identify bugs, edge cases, and architectural tradeoffs.

Preferred

• Experience working on large-scale production systems.

Compensation & Legal

• $400 per accepted task.
• Typical tasks take approximately 1–3 hours after ramp-up.
• No fixed task limits.
• Compensation is tied to accepted work.