Software Engineer - Backend

About the Role

As a Backend Software Engineer, you will contribute to the development of advanced reinforcement learning environments aimed at improving frontier AI models. You will be responsible for designing complex, authentic software engineering tasks that reflect real-world development challenges. By leveraging your professional expertise, you will create problems that require advanced technical reasoning, architectural decision-making, and performance optimization, moving beyond basic coding tasks to test genuine mastery of the software development lifecycle.

Requirements

• The ideal candidate possesses significant hands-on expertise in at least one of several core languages, specifically Python3, Java, Rust, Go, C++, or TypeScript.
• A deep understanding of fundamental data structures, algorithms, and broader software engineering principles is essential for success.
• You should have a proven track record of debugging complex systems, resolving deep-seated software issues, and delivering effective performance optimizations.
• Experience with large-scale codebase refactoring and the modernization of legacy systems is highly valued, as is a demonstrated ability to shepherd high-impact features from initial conception to final delivery.
• Strong communication and documentation skills are also necessary to articulate technical concepts clearly, and while a technical interest in AI is important, prior experience in artificial intelligence is not required.

Responsibilities

• Your primary duties involve creating realistic and challenging coding tasks derived from your personal professional experience.
• You will be tasked with designing environments that test a model's ability to handle complex refactoring, bug fixes, and feature development.
• It is essential that you build reproducible environments for every task and write comprehensive, deterministic verifiers that validate correct solutions while filtering out incorrect attempts.
• Furthermore, you will provide a complete reference solution for each task to serve as a benchmark.
• You are also expected to demonstrate professional judgment by flagging any tasks that are ambiguous or unverifiable to ensure the highest quality of the project.

Benefits & Perks

• This is a flexible, project-based contractor role requiring a commitment of approximately 15 hours per week.
• Compensation is output-based, with pay ranging between 50 and 100 dollars per task depending on the specific requirements and your efficiency, providing a clear structure for earnings based on approved work.