Job Description
Software Engineer, AI Trainer (Remote)100% Remote | Part-Time or Full-Time | Freelance Contract | $40 to $125 per hour
Work on your own schedule. Get paid for what you already know.
A leading AI research company that works with large AI companies is seeking experienced software engineers to work as remote AI trainers and evaluate how AI coding agents handle real engineering work inside realistic codebases: implementing a change to spec, fixing a bug with a regression test, refactoring without breaking behavior, reviewing a pull request and debugging from a trace. Coding agents miss edge cases, make brittle changes and need close supervision. You bring the judgment you have built shipping production systems. This is project-based, fully remote work you can do alongside a current job, including evenings and weekends.
What the Work Involves - Design realistic tasks from your own work, such as a bug fix with a regression test, a feature built to spec with tests, a behavior-preserving refactor, a pull request review or a debugging write-up from logs
- Build the codebase and supporting files an engineer would need: repositories you construct or adapt, tests, logs, API contracts, design notes
- Run those tasks through AI coding agents and grade the diff, tests, design or review they produce
- Compare two agent outputs on the same spec and document where each fell short
- Write tests, rubrics and success criteria for what a correct deliverable must contain
- Flag concrete failures: brittle changes, missed edge cases, tests that pass for the wrong reason, thrashing in the trace, off-spec work
Areas of ExpertiseYou need depth in at least one of these, plus enough working knowledge of the others to judge work in adjacent areas:
- TypeScript or JavaScript
- Python
- Java, Kotlin or C#
- Go or Rust
- C++
- Ruby, PHP or Swift
- Frontend-only, backend-only and mobile specialists are welcome
Who This Is For - 2+ years of professional software engineering, shipping and maintaining production code on a team
- You write code today, or very recently, as an individual contributor
- Comfortable in a terminal with git, tests and a debugger, and able to orient quickly in an unfamiliar codebase. Docker and CI experience is a plus
- A careful reader of instructions; the assessment tests this as much as engineering ability
- No prior AI or ML experience required. A CS degree is a plus but not required
- Hands-on practitioner: you currently do, or recently did, the work yourself as an individual contributor, not solely as a manager
- Strong written English; you can explain clearly why a result is wrong, not only that it is
- Familiar with AI tools such as Claude or ChatGPT, with the judgment to tell a well-reasoned answer from a plausible-sounding wrong one
- Comfortable working independently, following detailed written instructions and incorporating feedback
Pay, Hours and Location - Pay: $40 to $125 per hour, depending on project and expertise. Paid via PayPal on a regular schedule. You are paid for every step you complete
- Hours: Minimum 10 hours per week with no maximum; full-time hours are available. Multi-day task timers let you spread work across days
- Location: Remote. Must be based in the United States, Canada, or the UK
- Tools: Access to the AI models you will evaluate is provided; no personal subscription needed
How to Apply - Apply here with your resume
- We review your background against the role
- If it's a fit, we send you a link to take the client's skills assessment. It's unpaid, takes about 2 to 4 hours and tests domain judgment and careful reading. The assessment must be entirely your own work; AI-assisted submissions are detected and rejected
- If you pass, you complete onboarding and a short training project, then propose and build tasks from your own professional experience, with expert review and written feedback at each stage
Crucial Recruiting and Sidebar Talent are working together on this search on behalf of a client in the AI research space. The client name is confidential and will be shared before any work begins. Questions: nick@crucialrecruiting.com.
Job Tags
Hourly pay, Full time, Contract work, Part time, Freelance, Remote work, 10 hours per week, Afternoon shift