Tech Lead Manager

About Mercor

Mercor is at the intersection of labor markets and AI research. We partner with leading AI labs and enterprises to provide the human intelligence essential to AI development.

Our vast talent network trains frontier AI models in the same way teachers teach students: by sharing knowledge, experience, and context that can't be captured in code alone. Today, more than 30,000 experts in our network collectively earn over $1.5 million a day.

Mercor is creating a new category of work where expertise powers AI advancement. Achieving this requires an ambitious, fast-paced and deeply committed team. You’ll work alongside researchers, operators, and AI companies at the forefront of shaping the systems that are redefining society.

Mercor is a profitable Series C company valued at $10 billion. We work in-person five days a week in our new San Francisco headquarters.

About the Role

As a Tech Lead Manager at Mercor, you’ll play a dual role: 50% of your time will be spent writing high-quality code and building systems, and the 50% half leading, mentoring, and scaling a high-performing engineering team. You’ll ensure that our core infrastructure and product development keep pace with our rapid growth while fostering a culture of technical excellence and collaboration.

This role is perfect for someone who thrives in high-growth environments, can bring order without adding bureaucracy, and knows how to balance technical depth with clear business alignment. You’ll directly shape the future of Mercor’s engineering organization as we scale.

What You'll Work On

• Writing production-level code and contributing directly to our systems and products (50% of your time).

• Managing and mentoring a team of engineers, driving career growth, and fostering a strong engineering culture

• Leading technical design, architecture decisions, and code reviews to ensure scalability and reliability.

• Prototype and scale new evaluation frameworks, benchmarks, and RL environments.

• Setting engineering guardrails that enable rapid growth without sacrificing stability or code quality.

• Hiring and onboarding top-tier technical talent quickly, including across geographies.

• Coordinating cross-functional projects with product, operations, and data teams to deliver high-impact outcomes.

• Work closely with research labs to provide high quality data for post training

• Identifying and addressing bottlenecks in engineering processes as we scale rapidly.
  

What We're Looking For

• Strong background in backend engineering (Python/Django or similar) with proven ability to ship in production.

• Experience managing and scaling engineering teams while still contributing as an IC.

• Familiarity with LLM internals, most recent benchmarks, post training is a bonus.

• Direct experience coaching both individual contributors and engineering managers.

• Ability to hire top talent quickly and effectively in distributed team setups.

• Strong communication skills; able to explain technical trade-offs in plain business terms.

• Hyper-growth mindset; thrives in chaos and brings structure without heavy process.

• Above all: a builder-leader hybrid who thrives on both coding and coaching.
  

Why Mercor

• Impact: Your work powers how the world’s leading AI labs train and test their models.

• Learning: Get early insights into frontier model capabilities months before the market.

• Growth: Work on both infrastructure and research-adjacent projects with fast paths to ownership.

Benefits

• Generous equity grant vested over 4 years

• A $20K relocation bonus (if moving to the Bay Area)

• A $10K housing bonus (if you live within 0.5 miles of our office)

• A $1K monthly stipend for meals

• Free Equinox membership

• Health insurance