MercorSoftware Engineer Intern
Mercor is hiring a Software Engineer Intern in San Francisco, United States. It pays $70/hr and Level rates it ; you can apply on Mercor.
Level's read on this job
- On Level's scale, this software engineer role is Works on AI ●●●○: the daily work is on AI products, without building the model.
- Tools and skills the posting cites include Python, Go and TypeScript.
- Level classifies it as an internship.
- Level lists 88 other open roles at Mercor.
AI in this role
Join a product-driven engineering team building systems behind expert talent sourcing and human data for frontier AI models.
Mercor's mission is to organize human intelligence to power the AI economy. We're a leading AI data company, building the layer between human expertise and frontier models. Millions of domain experts on the platform are paid over $4 million per day to train frontier AI models. Mercor's APEX benchmark family measures AI's real-world impact on professional work. Mercor Enterprise brings this same infrastructure to Fortune 500 companies: helping companies capture how their best people actually work, translating that expertise directly back into agents.
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 San Francisco, NYC, or London offices.
About the Role
As a Member of Technical Staff, Intern at Mercor, you’ll join a small, product-driven engineering team building the systems behind how the world’s leading AI labs source expert talent and human data. You’ll write production code from your first week and ship work that reaches customers.
You’ll start on the work your team has wanted to do but hasn’t had the hands for, and as needs come up you’ll take deep ownership of them, with a named mentor alongside you. You’ll work closely with product and design, move fast, and hold a high bar for quality, scalability and simplicity.
Where You’ll Work
Interns start on a rolling basis, so summer, spring and fall terms all work. About six weeks before your start we’ll match you to the team where you’ll have the most impact, across one of the engineering sub-departments:
Talent platform. The marketplace that sources, vets, matches and pays expert talent.
Applied AI. Delivery systems, quality control and evals for the human data we ship to frontier labs.
Agents. Internal agents that automate operational work across the company.
Platform engineering. Shared infrastructure, contracts, payments and reliability.
Studio. The platform for creating and analyzing datasets.
What We’re Looking For
Pursuing a degree in Computer Science or a related field, graduating 2027 to 2029
Strong programming skills in Python, Go or TypeScript
Solid grounding in data structures, algorithms and systems
Experience with APIs, SQL or NoSQL databases and cloud platforms
Curiosity about AI and an interest in startups
Excited to work in person in San Francisco
Why Mercor
Impact: your work powers how frontier AI labs train and deploy their models
Learning: early exposure to frontier AI research and engineering
Growth: a high-velocity team where interns ship to production
Compensation and Benefits
$10K housing bonus if you live within 0.5 miles of our office during your internship
$1.5K monthly stipend for meals/rideshare
Health, dental and vision insurance
401(k) eligibility
How we rate this
Software Engineer Intern at Mercor rates 65 out of 100 for how much of the daily work is AI. That makes it Works on AI (AI Level 3 of 4). The level is about AI in the job, not seniority.
Works on AI. The daily work is on AI products, without building the model.
- ●●●● Builds AI80 to 100
- ●●●○ Works on AI60 to 79
- ●●○○ Uses AI40 to 59
- ●○○○ Little AI0 to 39
Levels come from how often the tools, models and workflows of the role are named in the posting itself. Read the description and count the AI tools, models and workflows it names.
Prepare for this job
Built from this posting and from similar jobs on Level.
Skills and AI tools this role asks for
Pay
- Typical software engineer job
- $167k
Use the typical software engineer figure as a reference when pay comes up. See software engineer jobs
Questions you could be asked
- Tell me about a research question you investigated. What did you find?
- Walk me through how you've used Python in your day-to-day work.
- What are the limits of Go that you've run into, and how did you work around them?
- What's a project where you used TypeScript hands-on?
- Walk me through how you've used SQL in your day-to-day work.
Adapt your resume
- List these exact terms on your resume: AI Research, Python, Go, TypeScript, and SQL. An applicant tracking system matches the wording, not the idea.
- Attach one line of real, concrete experience to at least one of them. A tool named with nothing behind it rarely survives a human read.
- Show where AI is part of your daily process, not a one-off project. This role expects it to be a running habit.
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About Mercor as a platform
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