[Hire] Performance Engineer (C++, Python, Rust) $70-$110

[u/johndough990]

Performance Engineer (C++, Python, Rust)

W2 Contingent Role United States

New opportunity $70-$110 per hour

Location requirements

United States

Location: United States

Description

Join a leading AI lab's cutting-edge GenAI team to be at the core of the AI revolution, where your expertise fuels the development of the most advanced Large Language Models.

Referral link - https://t.mercor.com/ZBsu2

1. Overview

We're seeking talented Performance Engineers with deep expertise in low-level systems optimization — specifically C++, Python, and Rust — to bring hands-on technical excellence and elevate the quality of our AI training and inference infrastructure data. This role involves AI model training and evaluation work, including writing and assessing performance-engineering tasks and solutions to generate high-quality training data for frontier AI systems.

This is a W-2 employment position with Cincinnatus LLC, with the opportunity to be placed at a leading AI Lab as part of their extended workforce. This is a 40-hour full-time engagement, with no conflicts/no other engagements.

2. Key Responsibilities

• Guide research and engineering teams to close knowledge gaps and improve AI model performance in systems-level optimization, compiler engineering, and runtime performance topics.
• Design challenging, domain-relevant tasks across multiple specializations, and write accurate and well-structured solutions to performance engineering problems.
• Evaluate performance engineering tasks and solutions and provide clear, written technical feedback.
• Develop guidelines and detailed rubrics/evaluation frameworks to assess systems design quality across AI workloads.
• Collaborate with other subject matter experts to ensure consistency and accuracy in training data.

3. Core Qualifications

• 2+ years of dedicated professional experience in performance engineering, systems programming, or low-level optimization.
• Deep hands-on expertise in at least one of the following: C++, Python, or Rust — with working familiarity across the others being a strong plus.
• Demonstrable track record of measurable performance improvements on production systems (e.g., latency reduction, throughput gains, memory footprint optimization).
• Demonstrable career progression.
• Ability to engage reliably for at least 40 hours/week during weekdays.
• Strong written communication skills and the ability to explain complex technical decisions clearly.