Staff Software Engineer (AI Evals)

Staff Software Engineer (AI Evals)
Contract | $100-$200/hour | 20-40 hrs/week | Start ASAP
Were looking for highly experienced software engineer to help evaluate the quality of interactions with modern coding agents such as OpenAI Codex and Claude Code.
This is not a traditional engineering role.
You wont be writing production code.
Youll be evaluating something harder: whether the model thinks like a great engineer.

What This Role Actually Is

You will assess how AI coding agents behave in real-world scenarios — focusing on:

* Whether the response makes sense
* Whether the preamble and reasoning are useful
* Whether the output reflects strong engineering judgment
* Whether the interaction feels right to an experienced developer

This role is about engineering taste — not syntax correctness.

What Youll Be Doing

* Evaluate AI-generated coding interactions end-to-end
* Judge whether outputs are:

* Useful
* Correct (at a high level)
* Aligned with how a strong engineer would think

* Assess the quality of explanations and reasoning , not just code
* Distinguish between different levels of response quality (e.g. what makes something a 2 vs 4 )
* Provide clear, opinionated feedback on:

* What worked
* What didnt
* What felt "off" or misleading

* Help define what great looks like when interacting with tools like Cursor

What We Mean by "Taste"

Were specifically looking for engineers who can answer questions like:

* Does this feel like something a strong engineer would actually say?
* Is this explanation helpful, or just technically correct?
* Is the model guiding the user well, or just dumping output?
* Would this interaction build or erode trust?

You should be comfortable making subjective but rigorous judgments .

Who You Are

* Staff / Principal-level engineer (or equivalent experience)
* Strong background in one of the below:

* Go
* Python
* Rust
* TypeScript / JavaScript

* Hands-on experience using:

* OpenAI Codex
* Claude Code
* Cursor

* Deep familiarity with modern AI-assisted dev workflows
* Able to evaluate code without needing to fully execute or deeply review every line
* Comfortable giving direct, opinionated feedback
* High bar for what "good engineering" looks like

Nice to Have

* Experience with tools like Cursor or similar AI-first IDEs
* Prior exposure to prompt design or evaluation workflows
* Experience mentoring senior engineers or defining engineering standards

Engagement Details

* Rate: $100-$200/hour
* Hours: ~20 hours+
* Duration: Through October w/possible extentions
* Start: ASAP
* Process:

* Take-home evaluation exercise
* Background Check
* Offer