Backend Engineer - Ai Coding Agent

Mercor; San Francisco (CA); Hybrid; GBP 73,000 - 104,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Remote

Job summary

Mercor is seeking a Backend Engineer to work on AI-driven coding agents in a remote contract role. You will build and review APIs, scalable backend services, and data stores, applying strong engineering judgment to complex backend tasks.

You'll regularly evaluate model-generated code, identify bugs and edge cases, and compare outputs across frontier models to improve performance. Independent, asynchronous work is essential.

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 and architectural tradeoffs.

Responsibilities

• Use frontier AI coding agents to complete 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

APIs

Distributed systems

Microservices

Backend platforms

Databases

AI coding agents

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 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

Must-Have

• 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
• Compensation is tied to accepted work.

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: [e-mail]