Machine Learning Engineer - AI Trainer

AfterQuery; North Carolina; Remote; USD 153,000 - 219,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Fully remote

Flexible schedule

Job summary

AfterQuery is seeking a seasoned ML Research Engineer focused on inference and GPU kernel engineering. You will work on frontier AI research problems, evaluating model reasoning and building reference solutions and grading rubrics. This is research-and-evaluation work, not production engineering.

The role requires 6–10 years of hands-on experience and a PhD or a Master's with a strong research record. Fully remote, asynchronous work with flexible scheduling and thorough background checks.

Qualifications

• Currently or recently active in the field—hands-on, not purely academic-adjacent.
• Strong written communication; able to author explanations and feedback.
• Comfortable with independent, asynchronous, remote work.
• Meets the experience and education bar described in Full Description.

Responsibilities

• Design realistic technical scenarios and problem sets within your track.
• Author expert-level reference solutions and grading rubrics.
• Evaluate AI-generated outputs for correctness, depth, and domain judgment.

Skills

ML inference

GPU kernel engineering

Technical communication

Remote work

Education

PhD or Master with strong research record

Tools

TensorRT-LLM

vLLM

SGLang

Job description

ML Research Engineer — Inference & GPU Kernels

Remote

Contract

$135/hr

What you'll need 1 step

• 1 Resume

Job Description

We're building a research cohort of senior domain experts in ML inference and GPU kernel engineering — spanning inference serving systems, kernel optimization, and large-model deployment infrastructure — to help evaluate how frontier AI models reason about hard, real-world expert-level problems. This is research-and-evaluation work, not production engineering: you'll be defining what "correct" and "excellent" look like on problems you already know deeply.

• Experience: 6–10 years
• Education: PhD/Doctorate, or Master's with a strong research record

Candidates who meet the requirements and provide the requested materials will be prioritized for review. As part of this process, we conduct thorough background checks.

Why Apply

• Work directly on frontier AI research problems in your area of deep expertise
• Fully remote, flexible, asynchronous — fits around existing work
• Competitive hourly compensation ($100–$170/hr, based on experience)

Responsibilities

• Design realistic technical scenarios and problem sets within your track
• Author expert-level reference solutions and grading rubrics
• Evaluate AI-generated outputs for correctness, depth, and domain judgment

Required Qualifications

• Currently or recently active in the field — hands-on, not purely academic-adjacent
• Strong written communication — you'll be authoring technical explanations and structured feedback, not just doing the work itself
• Comfortable with independent, asynchronous, remote work
• Meets the experience and education bar described in Full Description

Preferred Qualifications

• Prior research publication record, open-source contributions, or recognized work product in your track's domain
• Experience evaluating, reviewing, or grading others' technical work (peer review, code review, grading, editing)
• Track-specific bonus signal ML: SGLang, vLLM, Mamba/Mamba2, TensorRT-LLM, or GPU kernel work

About AfterQuery

AfterQuery is a research lab investigating the boundaries of artificial intelligence through novel datasets and experimentation. We believe great AI comes from exceptional, human-generated data.

We're backed by top investors, including Y Combinator and Box Group, and support all leading AI labs.