Data Engineer

Mercor is hiring a Data Engineer on behalf of a leading AI lab. In this role, you’ll design resilient ETL/ELT pipelines and data contracts to ensure datasets are analytics- and ML-ready. You’ll validate, enrich, and serve data with strong schema and versioning discipline, building the backbone that powers AI research and production systems. This position is ideal for candidates who love working with data pipelines, distributed processing, and ensuring data quality at scale.

You’re a great fit if you:

• Have a background in computer science, data engineering, or information systems.

• Are proficient in Python, pandas, and SQL.

• Have hands-on experience with databases like PostgreSQL or SQLite.

• Understand distributed data processing with Spark or DuckDB.

• Are experienced in orchestrating workflows with Airflow or similar tools.

• Work comfortably with common formats like JSON, CSV, and Parquet.

• Care about schema design, data contracts, and version control with Git.

• Are passionate about building pipelines that enable reliable analytics and ML workflows.

Primary Goal of This Role

To design, validate, and maintain scalable ETL/ELT pipelines and data contracts that produce clean, reliable, and reproducible datasets for analytics and machine learning systems.

What You’ll Do

• Build and maintain ETL/ELT pipelines with a focus on scalability and resilience.

• Validate and enrich datasets to ensure they’re analytics- and ML-ready.

• Manage schemas, versioning, and data contracts to maintain consistency.

• Work with PostgreSQL/SQLite, Spark/Duck DB, and Airflow to manage workflows.

• Optimize pipelines for performance and reliability using Python and pandas.

• Collaborate with researchers and engineers to ensure data pipelines align with product and research needs.

Why This Role Is Exciting

• You’ll create the data backbone that powers cutting-edge AI research and applications.

• You’ll work with modern data infrastructure and orchestration tools.

• You’ll ensure reproducibility and reliability in high-stakes data workflows.

• You’ll operate at the intersection of data engineering, AI, and scalable systems.

Pay & Work Structure

• Weekly Bonus of $500–$1000 USD per 5 tasks.

We consider all qualified applicants without regard to legally protected characteristics and provide reasonable accommodations upon request.

Contract and Payment Terms

• You will be engaged as an independent contractor.
• This is a fully remote role that can be completed on your own schedule.
• Projects can be extended, shortened, or concluded early depending on needs and performance.
• Your work at Mercor will not involve access to confidential or proprietary information from any employer, client, or institution.
• Payments are weekly on Stripe or Wise based on services rendered.
• Please note: We are unable to support H1-B or STEM OPT candidates at this time.

About Mercor

Mercor partners with leading AI labs and enterprises to train frontier models using human expertise. You will work on projects that focus on training and enhancing AI systems. You will be paid competitively, collaborate with leading researchers, and help shape the next generation of AI systems in your area of expertise.