Lead Backend Engineer - AI Tooling

About The Role

What if your engineering skills could directly shape the infrastructure powering the next generation of AI? We're looking for a Lead Backend Engineer to build the data pipelines, annotation systems, and evaluation tooling that leading AI labs depend on to train and improve their models.

This is a fully remote contract role working at the cutting edge of AI development — on real production systems that matter. If you've spent years writing serious Python backend code and want to apply that craft to one of the most consequential technical challenges of our time, this is the role for you.

• Organization: Alignerr
• Type: Hourly Contract
• Location: Remote
• Commitment: 20–40 hours/week

• Design, build, and optimize high-performance Python systems supporting AI data pipelines and evaluation workflows
• Develop backend services and full-stack tooling for large-scale data annotation, validation, and quality control
• Architect robust APIs (REST/GraphQL), design database schemas, and implement authentication and authorization flows
• Improve reliability, performance, and safety across existing Python codebases
• Identify bottlenecks and edge cases in data and system behavior, and implement scalable solutions
• Collaborate closely with data, research, and engineering teams to support model training and evaluation workflows
• Lead code reviews and system design sessions with clear, precise communication

• 5+ years of professional experience writing production-grade Python backend services
• Full-stack developer with a strong systems programming background
• Expert in modern Python web frameworks and strict type enforcement patterns
• Proven experience architecting APIs, designing database schemas, and building auth flows
• Clear, confident communicator — able to lead technical discussions and code reviews
• Native or fluent English speaker
• Available to commit 20–40 hours per week

• Prior experience with data annotation, data quality, or evaluation systems
• Familiarity with AI/ML workflows, model training, or benchmarking pipelines
• Experience with distributed systems or developer tooling

• Work on cutting-edge AI projects directly alongside leading research labs
• Fully remote and flexible — work where and when you do your best work
• Freelance autonomy with the structure of meaningful, high-impact engineering work
• Make a tangible contribution to the systems that shape how AI models are built and evaluated
• Potential for ongoing work and contract extension as new projects launch