Software Engineer (SWE) — LLM Superuser

Uplift Trial Participant

About the Role

We're recruiting an exceptional engineer to participate in a structured AI Uplift Trial — a research initiative measuring the productivity and quality gains that expert LLM usage confers on complex software engineering tasks.

This is not a role for someone who occasionally uses AI tools. We need an LLM Superuser: a practitioner with deep, intuitive command of how frontier models think, fail, and excel.

What We're Looking For

Engineering Baseline

• 4+ years professional software engineering experience.

• Strong proficiency in at least two languages (Python, TypeScript, Go, Rust, etc.).

• Comfortable across the stack: APIs, databases, cloud infrastructure, application logic.

LLM Expertise — This Is the Role

• Expert command of prompt engineering: chain-of-thought, few-shot, ReAct, structured outputs, and beyond.

• Experience building agentic systems: tool-calling loops, multi-step reasoning pipelines, orchestration frameworks.

• Deep familiarity with context management: RAG, chunking, vector search, avoiding context degradation.

• Ability to critically evaluate model outputs — catching hallucinations and subtle failures a casual user would miss.

• Strong opinions about where LLMs genuinely help in engineering workflows and where they don't.

What "LLM Superuser" Means

You can look at a hard engineering problem and immediately formulate an LLM strategy. You have a personal library of hard-won prompt patterns. You can explain why an approach works — and adapt it on the fly when it doesn't. You treat the model as a collaborator you understand deeply, not a black box you poke randomly.

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.