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Tech Lead, Systems & Platform Applied AI

mercorSan FranciscoEngineering
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Salary
$250K – $500K
Job type
Full-time
Experience
Lead · 8+ yrs
Posted
24 Sept 2026
Status
Open · checked 7d ago

About this role

This technical leadership role suits an experienced backend professional with a strong background in distributed systems who wants to build infrastructure for the artificial intelligence economy in San Francisco. The position involves owning core backend architecture, designing data models, and scaling high-throughput pipelines.

Role Overview

Mercor is hiring a Tech Lead for Systems and Platform Applied AI in San Francisco. This in-person position requires working five days a week from the office. The Applied AI organization builds the systems that convert human expertise into training data for frontier models, managing task pipelines, expert workflows, and evaluation infrastructure.

Key Responsibilities

Own the architecture of the Applied AI backend domain, covering core services, data models, orchestration systems, and pipeline execution layers.
Set technical direction and remain hands-on to build the most complex components.
Take undefined problems, determine solutions, write designs, ship code, instrument systems, and maintain production health.
Build and tune high-throughput data and job pipelines involving queuing, batching, idempotency, retries, and backpressure.
Manage infrastructure as code using Terraform at scale, overseeing tens of thousands of containers and sandbox environments.
Participate in on-call rotations, debug production incidents, and write root cause analyses.
Collaborate cross-functionally with product, operations, and research teams to translate requirements into deployed systems.

Requirements

Minimum of 8 years of professional backend engineering experience building and operating production systems.
Track record of owning architecture across multiple teams with durable technical decisions.
Experience mentoring senior engineers.
Strong backend fundamentals in data structures, algorithms, concurrency, and clear code construction.
Hands-on API design experience with REST, gRPC, or GraphQL.
Solid database skills covering relational data modeling, indexing, query performance, transactions, and safe migrations.
Expertise in distributed systems, including queues, event streams, caching, rate limiting, and failure handling.
Experience with data orchestration and workflow management systems.
Ability to inspect low-level infrastructure issues including containers, permissions, logs, and traces.
Comfort with ambiguity, high ownership, pragmatism, and clear written and verbal communication.

Nice to Have

Experience building or integrating with LLM-backed services in production.
Familiarity with AI infrastructure providers such as Modal, Fireworks, Baseten, and Temporal.

Skills and Tools

Terraform
REST, gRPC, GraphQL
Airflow, Temporal, Dagster
Modern AI development tools such as Claude Code, Cursor, and Copilot

Salary and Benefits

Salary range between $250K and $500K with equity offers
Bi-annual performance bonus structure
Generous equity grant vested over 4 years
Relocation bonus up to $15K
Housing bonus of $10K for living within 0.5 miles of the office
Monthly meal stipend of $1.5K
Free Equinox membership
Monthly laundry reimbursement of $200
Monthly personal wellness reimbursement of $200
Health, dental, and vision insurance

About the Company

Mercor organizes human intelligence to power the artificial intelligence economy, serving as a bridge between human expertise and frontier models. The company is a profitable Series C enterprise valued at $10 billion and operates in-person five days a week across offices in San Francisco, New York City, and London.

How to Apply

To apply for this role, visit the official company careers page.

Skills and tech stack

TerraformRESTgRPCGraphQLAirflowTemporalDagsterClaude CodeCursorCopilotLLMDistributed Systems

Questions candidates ask

What is the location and work schedule for this position?

The role is located in San Francisco and requires working in-person five days a week.

How many years of experience are required?

Candidates must have 8 or more years of professional backend engineering experience.

What is the compensation range for the Tech Lead role?

The salary ranges from $250K to $500K, supplemented by equity offers, performance bonuses, and multiple allowances and benefits.

What technical stack or tools are mentioned in the posting?

Mentioned tools and technologies include Terraform, REST, gRPC, GraphQL, Airflow, Temporal, Dagster, Claude Code, Cursor, and Copilot.

Is travel or remote work allowed?

No remote work is mentioned; the company operates in-person five days a week in its San Francisco, NYC, or London offices, with this specific role based in San Francisco.

Ready to apply?

The application is on the official mercor careers page.

Apply on company site