C++ Backend Engineer - AI Data Platforms

Alignerr Corp.; Seattle (WA); Remote; USD 124,000 - 179,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Fully remote

Contract-based project work

Potential for ongoing contracts

Job summary

Alignerr is seeking a Senior C++ Backend Engineer to design, build, and optimize data pipelines, annotation tooling, and evaluation infrastructure for AI systems. The role focuses on high-performance C++ systems, scalable backend services, and collaboration across data, research, and engineering teams.

Remote hourly contract (20–40 hours/week) with potential for ongoing work. 5+ years of production C++ experience and strong asynchronous networking background are required.

Qualifications

• 5+ years of professional experience writing production-grade C++.
• Strong background in asynchronous network programming (event loops, RPC frameworks, or similar).
• Experience interfacing with high-throughput databases or message queues.
• Full-stack development experience with solid systems programming foundation.

Responsibilities

• Design, build, and optimize high-performance C++ systems for AI data pipelines and evaluation workflows.
• Develop backend services and tooling for data annotation, validation, and quality control at scale.
• Improve reliability, performance, and correctness across production C++ codebases.
• Identify bottlenecks and edge cases in system and data behavior and implement scalable fixes.
• Collaborate asynchronously with data, research, and engineering teams to support model training and benchmarking workflows.
• Participate in synchronous design reviews to iterate on architecture and implementation decisions.

Skills

C++ production-grade

Async network programming

Databases / message queues

Full-stack systems programming

RPC frameworks

Job description

C++ Backend Engineer — AI Data Platforms

What if your expertise in high-performance C++ could directly shape the infrastructure powering the world's most advanced AI systems? We're looking for a Senior C++ Backend Engineer to design, build, and optimize the data pipelines, annotation tooling, and evaluation infrastructure that leading AI labs depend on to train and improve next-generation models.

• Organization: Alignerr
• Type: Hourly Contract
• Location: Remote
• Commitment: 20–40 hours/week

What You'll Do

• Design, build, and optimize high-performance C++ systems supporting large-scale AI data pipelines and evaluation workflows
• Develop backend services and tooling for data annotation, validation, and quality control at scale
• Improve reliability, performance, and correctness across existing production C++ codebases
• Identify bottlenecks and edge cases in system and data behavior, then implement scalable, maintainable fixes
• Collaborate asynchronously with data, research, and engineering teams to support model training and benchmarking workflows
• Participate in synchronous design reviews to iterate on architecture and implementation decisions

Who You Are

• Native or fluent English speaker with clear written and verbal communication
• 5+ years of professional experience writing production-grade C++
• Strong background in asynchronous network programming — event loops, RPC frameworks, or similar patterns for high-performance microservices
• Experience interfacing with high-throughput databases or message queues
• Full-stack development experience with a solid systems programming foundation
• Able to commit 20–40 hours per week consistently

Nice to Have

• Prior experience with data annotation pipelines, data quality systems, or evaluation infrastructure
• Familiarity with AI/ML workflows, model training pipelines, or benchmarking systems
• Experience building distributed systems or developer tooling
• Background working alongside research or ML engineering teams

Why Join Us

• Work on production systems used by leading AI research labs — real impact, not toy projects
• Fully remote and flexible — work from wherever you do your best thinking
• Freelance autonomy with the focus and structure of high-stakes engineering work
• Collaborate with sharp engineers and researchers on some of the most challenging infrastructure problems in AI today
• Potential for ongoing work and contract extension as new projects launch