Engineering Manager, Applied AI

Mercor

San Francisco (CA)

On-site

USD 250,000 - 400,000

Full time

6 hours ago

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Benefits offered by this job

Bonus program

Equity grant

Relocation bonus

Housing stipend

Meals stipend

Equinox membership

Laundry reimbursement

Wellness reimbursement

Health insurance

Job summary

Mercor is hiring Engineering Managers to lead teams within our Applied AI organization. You’ll guide a group of engineers, partner with product and research, and shape how Mercor stays at the frontier of AI by building evaluation infrastructure, annotation tools, and multimodal capabilities.

This role requires substantial ownership, hands-on leadership, and the ability to translate ambitious AI goals into clear roadmaps.

Qualifications

6–10 years in engineering and 2–3+ years managing teams.
Strong background in building scalable systems.
Ability to lead in ambiguous environments with sound technical judgment.
Proven ability to coach engineers and drive execution.
Strong ownership mindset with pragmatic decision-making.

Responsibilities

Build and scale teams.
Drive Applied AI systems and outcomes.
Own technical direction.
Operate across a broad scope.
Shape the organization.

Skills

Team leadership

Building scalable systems

Ambiguity navigation

Coaching engineers

Ownership mindset

Job description

About Mercor

Mercor's mission is to organize human intelligence to power the AI economy. We're a leading AI data company, building the layer between human expertise and frontier models. Millions of domain experts on the platform are paid over $4 million per day to train frontier AI models. Mercor's APEX benchmark family measures AI's real-world impact on professional work. Mercor Enterprise brings this same infrastructure to Fortune 500 companies: helping companies capture how their best people actually work, translating that expertise directly back into agents. Mercor is creating a new category of work where expertise powers AI advancement. Achieving this requires an ambitious, fast-paced and deeply committed team. You’ll work alongside researchers, operators, and AI companies at the forefront of shaping the systems that are redefining society. Mercor is a profitable Series C company valued at $10 billion. We work in-person five days a week in our San Francisco, NYC, or London offices.

About The Role

We’re hiring Engineering Managers to lead teams within our Applied AI organization. Applied AI builds systems that directly improve model quality, including evaluation infrastructure, annotation products, and emerging multimodal capabilities. You’ll lead a team of engineers, partner with product and research, and help define how Mercor stays at the frontier of AI. You will also build partnerships with leading AI labs and directly contribute to improving the quality of frontier models through data, evaluation, and systems. This role requires high ownership and abstraction: setting direction, driving outcomes, and staying hands-on while leading. What You’ll Work On

Build and scale teams

Manage and grow a team of 6–10 engineers
Coach and develop high-potential engineers
Establish strong ownership, culture, and execution standards
Shape the team: define hiring processes, establish engineering practices, and scale a high-performing team from the ground up

Drive Applied AI systems and outcomes

Drive insights and methodology behind evaluation systems that benchmark and improve model performance
Lead development while driving improvements in data quality, operational efficiency, system stability, and scalability
Scale products that generate high-quality training data and improve human-in-the-loop workflows

Own technical direction

Lead system design for complex AI systems
Stay close to the technical work and guide engineers through ambiguous problems
Translate high-level AI goals into clear engineering roadmaps and execution plans

Operate across a broad scope

Partner with product, research, operations, and external AI labs
Work across systems, data insights, and custom partnerships to drive model quality

Shape the organization

Introduce lightweight processes as the organization scales
Hire and develop strong engineering talent
Help define engineering management at Mercor

What We’re Looking For

6–10 years in engineering; 2–3+ years managing teams
Strong background in building scalable systems
Ability to lead in ambiguous environments with sound technical judgment
Proven ability to coach engineers and drive execution
Strong ownership mindset with pragmatic decision-making

Who Thrives Here

We’re looking for engineering leaders who take ownership in ambiguous environments, make pragmatic decisions, and consistently deliver measurable impact.

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