Principal Systems Engineer (C++) - AI Infrastructure

About The Role

What if your C++ skills could directly influence the infrastructure powering the world's most advanced AI systems? We're looking for a Principal Systems Engineer to design and build the high-performance pipelines, tooling, and evaluation systems that leading AI labs depend on to train and ship next-generation models.

This is a fully remote contract role working on real production systems at the frontier of AI development. If you thrive on complex technical problems, care deeply about performance and reliability, and want your work to matter --- this is the role for you.

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

What You'll Do

• Design, build, and optimize high-performance C++ systems supporting large-scale AI data pipelines and evaluation workflows
• Develop full-stack tooling and backend services for data annotation, validation, and quality control at scale
• Improve reliability, performance, and memory safety across production C++ codebases
• Collaborate closely with data, research, and engineering teams to support model training and evaluation infrastructure
• Identify bottlenecks and edge cases in system and data behavior --- then implement scalable, lasting fixes
• Participate in synchronous design reviews to iterate on architecture and implementation decisions with sharp, experienced teammates

Who You Are

• Native or fluent English speaker with clear written and verbal communication skills
• Full-stack developer with a strong systems programming background
• 5+ years of professional experience writing production C++ for large-scale systems
• Deep knowledge of build system architecture and package management strategies
• Experienced designing reliable systems with rigorous error handling and memory sanitizers
• Comfortable committing 20--40 hours per week to a focused, high-output contract engagement

Nice to Have

• Prior experience with data annotation, data quality pipelines, or AI evaluation systems
• Familiarity with AI/ML workflows, model training, or benchmarking infrastructure
• Experience with distributed systems or developer tooling

Why Join Us

• Work directly with leading AI labs on production systems that power frontier model development
• Fully remote and flexible --- work from wherever you do your best thinking
• Freelance autonomy with the structure and direction of high-impact, task-based engineering work
• Collaborate with top-tier engineers and researchers on problems that genuinely matter
• Potential for ongoing work and contract extension as new projects launch