Data Engineering Expert at Mercor

Data Engineering Expert | $90–$125/hr | Remote (US & Canada)

Mercor is partnering with leading AI labs to advance frontier agent evaluations in data engineering. In this role, you'll design and build long-horizon pipeline tasks that mirror real-world data engineering work — each paired with a deterministic rubric that grades AI agent performance against verifiable ground truth. This is a focused, high-impact contract role for experienced data engineers who want to shape the future of AI evaluation.

What You'll Do

• Pipelines: Build ETL/ELT workflows and dbt models that produce specified output tables, including incremental logic with defined watermark behavior.
• Orchestration & Quality: Develop Airflow/Dagster DAGs that pass structured test suites, and create data quality tests with known pass/fail outcomes.
• Warehouse Design: Design schemas that match defined contracts and meet performance targets tied to measurable query-time budgets.

Each scenario must have checkable, deterministic answers — no open-ended essays or subjective judgment calls. Expect deep-focus sessions building complex, multi-step tasks.

Who We're Looking For

• BS or MS in Computer Science or a related field, with 3+ years of experience in data engineering or analytics engineering.
• Expertise in one or more of: dbt model development, pipeline orchestration (Airflow, Dagster, Prefect), warehouse design (Snowflake, BigQuery, Redshift, Databricks), or data quality and testing.
• Comfortable producing and interpreting data engineering artifacts: dbt models, DAGs, schema docs, data contracts, and test suites.
• Strong written communication skills with the ability to articulate reasoning step by step and encode it into structured, deterministic rubrics.
• Must be located in the United States or Canada.

Compensation

$90–$125/hr depending on domain depth and prior experience. Strong contributors are recognized and promoted based on task quality and throughput.