Lead Systems Engineer (Rust) - AI Platform
About this role
About the Role What if your deep expertise in Rust could directly shape the infrastructure powering the next generation of AI? We're looking for a senior Rust engineer to build, optimize, and lead the systems that make cutting-edge AI research and production workflows possible — working alongside world-class teams at leading AI labs. This is a fully remote contract role with flexible commitment. You'll be embedded in real production environments, solving hard problems at the intersection of systems engineering and AI infrastructure. - Organization: Alignerr - Type: Hourly Contract - Location: Remote - Commitment: 20–40 hours/week What You'll Do - Design, build, and optimize high-performance systems in Rust that power AI data pipelines and evaluation workflows at scale - Develop full-stack tooling and backend services for large-scale data annotation, validation, and quality control - Own and improve reliability, performance, and safety across existing Rust codebases - Identify bottlenecks, edge cases, and failure modes in complex systems — then implement scalable, elegant fixes - Collaborate closely with data, research, and engineering teams to accelerate model training and evaluation - Lead synchronous system design reviews and drive architectural decisions with clarity and confidence Who You Are - Native or fluent English speaker with strong written and verbal communication skills - 5+ years of professional experience writing production-grade Rust, with a focus on system architecture and API design - Deep expertise in FFI (Foreign Function Interface) and unsafe Rust, with a strong understanding of how to manage boundaries between Rust and other languages safely - Advanced command of asynchronous runtimes and multi-threaded environments — you understand concurrency deeply and write code that proves it - Confident leading system design reviews and articulating complex technical tradeoffs to cross-functional teams - Able to commit 20–40 hours per week with reliability and professionalism Nice to Have - Prior experience with data annotation, data quality pipelines, or evaluation systems - Familiarity with AI/ML workflows, model training, or benchmarking infrastructure - Experience building or maintaining distributed systems or developer tooling - Exposure to working with research teams or in fast-moving AI environments Why Join Us - Work on real, high-impact production systems alongside some of the best AI research teams in the world - Fully remote and flexible — structure your work around your life, not the other way around - Freelance autonomy with the depth and significance of meaningful engineering work - Get direct exposure to next-generation AI infrastructure at the frontier of the field - Potential for ongoing engagement and expanded scope as new projects launch
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