Remote Open Source Maintainer & Core Contributor

Linuxassociation; San Francisco (CA); Hybrid; USD 193,000 - 220,000; Part time

Job summary

Mercor, a San Francisco–based AI research collaboration, seeks an Open Source Maintainer / Core Contributor Software Engineer for a remote contract. You will guide research and engineering, craft challenging tasks, and evaluate AI-generated code against strict OSS standards. Docker-enabled workflows, clear rationales, and strong communication are essential.

40 hours/week commitment. Ideal candidates have a proven OSS track record, public code history, and the ability to work independently on a

Qualifications

• Maintainer (named in MAINTAINERS or CODEOWNERS or 10 PR reviews in last 12 months) or core contributor (3 substantive merged PRs in last 12 months).
• Repository is 2+ years old with real users and active code-review culture.
• Public history of sustained OSS contributions verifiable on GitHub.
• Senior code-review judgment including assessment of AI-written code and edge cases.
• Ability to build, run and test the project locally including Docker.

Responsibilities

• Guide research and engineering teams to close knowledge gaps and improve AI model performance.
• Design realistic engineering tasks grounded in the open-source codebase and provide reference solutions.
• Evaluate AI-written code, tests, and rubrics against architecture and quality standards.
• Build, run, and test the project locally including with Docker to verify solutions.
• Write precise rationales explaining strong solutions and noting AI gaps.
• Collaborate with subject-matter experts to ensure training data accuracy.

Skills

Code review expertise

Open-source leadership

Strong written communication

Problem solving

Education

Senior-level experience in OSS

Tools

Docker

GitHub

CI/CD tooling

Job description

Mercor, a San Francisco–based AI research collaboration, seeks an Open Source Maintainer / Core Contributor Software Engineer for a remote contract. You will guide research and engineering, craft challenging tasks, and evaluate AI-generated code against strict OSS standards. Docker-enabled workflows, clear rationales, and strong communication are essential.

40 hours/week commitment. Ideal candidates have a proven OSS track record, public code history, and the ability to work independently on a