Software Engineer Intern

Mercor; San Francisco, Northern (CA, KY); Hybrid; USD 15,000 - 18,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Mentorship from engineers

Meal stipend of $1,500/month

Equinox membership

Team events and offsites

Potential full-time return offer

Job summary

Mercor is seeking a Software Engineer Intern to join a small, product-driven engineering team building modern backend systems powering AI workflows. You will own projects end-to-end, write production-grade code, and work closely with product and design to deliver impact.

You will be team-matched to areas like talent platform tooling or applied AI data work, collaborating with researchers and engineers and supporting production-ready systems.

Qualifications

• Pursuing a degree in Computer Science or related field (graduating 2026–2028).
• Strong programming skills in Python, Go, or JavaScript.
• Understanding of data structures, algorithms, and distributed systems.
• Familiarity with APIs, SQL/NoSQL databases, and cloud platforms.
• Curiosity and passion for AI and startups.
• Excited to work in person and thrive in a fast-paced environment.

Responsibilities

• Own projects end-to-end, designing, building, and shipping production systems.
• Write production-grade code and reason about systems holistically.
• Collaborate with product and design to deliver impact.
• Be team-matched to a role with the most impact (Talent platform or Applied AI).

Skills

Python

Go

JavaScript

Education

Pursuing a CS related degree (graduating 2026–2028)

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

As a Software Engineer Intern at Mercor, you’ll join a small, product-driven engineering team building modern backend systems that power critical workflows for some of the most advanced AI companies in the world. You’ll own projects end-to-end, designing, building, and shipping production systems that directly impact customers. From day one you’ll write production-grade code, reason about systems holistically, and make decisions that tie directly to business outcomes. You’ll work closely with product and design, moving fast while upholding a high bar for code quality, scalability, and simplicity.

At the end of the process, you’ll be team-matched to where you can have the most impact, on one of the following:

• Talent platform side – building next-generation tools that automate recruiting end-to-end, intelligently match candidates to roles, and power global hiring with seamless contracts and payments.
• Applied AI/human data side – partnering with top AI researchers from the AI labs like OpenAI, Anthropic, and Google to create post training datasets to improve foundational model capabilities.

What We’re Looking For

• Pursuing a degree in Computer Science or a related field (graduating 2026–2028).
• Strong programming skills in Python, Go, or JavaScript.
• Understanding of data structures, algorithms, and distributed systems
• Familiarity with APIs, SQL/NoSQL databases, and cloud platforms
• Curiosity and passion for AI and startups
• Excited to work in person and thrive in a fast-paced environment

Why Mercor

Impact: Your work powers how AI labs train and deploy their models

Learning: Get early exposure to frontier AI research and engineering

Growth: Work with a high-velocity team where interns ship to production

Benefits

• Mentorship from experienced engineers.
• Work on real, high-impact projects.
• $1.5K monthly stipend for meals
• Free Equinox membership
• Team events and offsites.
• Potential full-time return offer.