Kernel Engineer - AI Trainer

About the job

Mercor connects elite creative and technical talent with leading AI research labs. Headquartered in San Francisco, our investors include Benchmark, General Catalyst, Peter Thiel, Adam D'Angelo, Larry Summers, and Jack Dorsey.

Position: Embedded Systems / Kernel Engineer
Type: Contract
Compensation: $100–$150/hour
Location: Remote
Commitment: 20+ hours/week

Role Responsibilities

• Guide research and engineering teams to close knowledge gaps and improve AI model performance in embedded systems, kernel engineering, firmware, and hardware design.
• Design challenging, domain-relevant tasks, and write accurate and well-structured solutions to embedded systems and kernel engineering problems.
• Evaluate embedded systems and kernel engineering tasks and solutions, providing clear, written technical feedback.
• Design and evaluate low-level tasks covering memory management, concurrency, device drivers, RTOS behavior, and hardware description languages.
• Develop rubrics to assess correctness, safety, and performance of systems-level and hardware design solutions.
• Collaborate with other subject matter experts to ensure consistency and accuracy in training data.

Qualifications

Must-Have

• 4+ years of experience in embedded systems, firmware, OS kernel, or chip design.
• Strong production C and/or C++ for resource-constrained or performance-critical systems.
• Experience in Linux kernel or driver development, RTOS and firmware, or RTL design and verification (Verilog, SystemVerilog, VHDL, UVM).
• Demonstrable career progression.
• Ability to engage reliably for at least 20 hours/week during weekdays.
• Strong written communication skills.

Application Process (Takes 20–30 mins to complete)

• Upload resume
• AI interview based on your resume
• Submit form

Resources & Support

• For details about the interview process and platform information, please check: https://talent.docs.mercor.com/welcome
• For any help or support, reach out to: support@mercor.com

PS: Our team reviews applications daily. Please complete your AI interview and application steps to be considered for this opportunity.