Lead Systems Engineer (Rust) - AI Platform

Lead Systems Engineer (Rust) - AI Platform

$50-75/hr Remote Freelance CODING

What if your deep expertise in Rust could directly shape the infrastructure powering the next generation of AI? We're looking for a senior Rust engineer to build, optimize, and lead the systems that make cutting-edge AI research and production workflows possible — working alongside world-class teams at leading AI labs.

This is a fully remote contract role with flexible commitment. You'll be embedded in real production environments, solving hard problems at the intersection of systems engineering and AI infrastructure.

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

Design, build, and optimize high-performance systems in Rust that power AI data pipelines and evaluation workflows at scale

Develop full-stack tooling and backend services for large-scale data annotation, validation, and quality control

Own and improve reliability, performance, and safety across existing Rust codebases

Identify bottlenecks, edge cases, and failure modes in complex systems — then implement scalable, elegant fixes

Collaborate closely with data, research, and engineering teams to accelerate model training and evaluation

Lead synchronous system design reviews and drive architectural decisions with clarity and confidence

• Native or fluent English speaker with strong written and verbal communication skills
• 5+ years of professional experience writing production-grade Rust, with a focus on system architecture and API design
• Deep expertise in FFI (Foreign Function Interface) and unsafe Rust, with a strong understanding of how to manage boundaries between Rust and other languages safely
• Advanced command of asynchronous runtimes and multi-threaded environments — you understand concurrency deeply and write code that proves it
• Confident leading system design reviews and articulating complex technical tradeoffs to cross-functional teams
• Able to commit 20–40 hours per week with reliability and professionalism

Prior experience with data annotation, data quality pipelines, or evaluation systems

Familiarity with AI/ML workflows, model training, or benchmarking infrastructure

Experience building or maintaining distributed systems or developer tooling

Exposure to working with research teams or in fast-moving AI environments

Work on real, high-impact production systems alongside some of the best AI research teams in the world

Fully remote and flexible — structure your work around your life, not the other way around

Freelance autonomy with the depth and significance of meaningful engineering work

Get direct exposure to next-generation AI infrastructure at the frontier of the field

Potential for ongoing engagement and expanded scope as new projects launch