Cloud / DevOps Engineer (Infra & IaC)
Listing checked August 29, 2026 · pay as published by Mercor
Overview
A leading AI lab building foundational Large Language Models needs a Cloud/DevOps Engineer to improve the quality of its training and inference infrastructure. The role centers on hands-on work with Kubernetes, AWS services, and Infrastructure-as-Code. You will design tasks, evaluate solutions, and write technical feedback that helps models reason about cluster failures, AWS integration, and CI/CD pipelines. The position is full-time (40 hours/week), remote within the United States, and structured as a W-2 contract through Cincinnatus LLC.
What You'll Do5
- 1Mentor research and engineering teams to close knowledge gaps in cloud infrastructure, Kubernetes operations, and Infrastructure-as-Code, raising the quality of AI model training data.
- 2Create challenging, domain-specific tasks and craft precise, well-structured solutions for cluster diagnosis, AWS service integration, and infrastructure automation scenarios.
- 3Assess infrastructure engineering submissions and deliver clear, written technical feedback that identifies strengths and gaps.
- 4Build rubrics and detailed evaluation frameworks that measure cluster failure diagnosis, IaC design quality, and CI/CD reasoning across tasks.
- 5Work with other subject matter experts to keep training data consistent and accurate.
Requirements8
- 1At least 4 years of professional experience in cloud infrastructure, DevOps, site reliability, or platform engineering at a well-known technology company.
- 2Production-grade Kubernetes operations, including diagnosing and fixing cluster failures rather than only managing a control plane.
- 3Production experience with Infrastructure-as-Code, such as Terraform or AWS CDK.
- 4Real-world AWS integration work using Lambda, API Gateway, and DynamoDB.
- 5A record of building and owning CI/CD pipelines in a production environment.
- 6Clear evidence of career growth and increasing responsibility.
- 7Availability to work at least 40 hours per week during standard weekday hours.
- 8Strong written communication, with the ability to explain technical decisions in plain language.
Who Should Apply
The candidate who fits best combines several years of hands-on Kubernetes operations with production Terraform or AWS CDK work and can walk through concrete cluster failure scenarios they resolved. They also like giving written feedback and creating evaluation rubrics, because a large part of the role is assessing other engineers' work. This role is less suitable for people who have only used managed Kubernetes services or who avoid writing detailed technical documentation. Common reasons candidates get rejected are overstating Kubernetes troubleshooting experience without concrete examples, or submitting an application that doesn't show clear written communication.
Salary Insight
The pay rate is $75 to $110 per hour, which matches what senior DevOps and cloud infrastructure contractors typically command in the US market. This is a W-2 contract, so you receive benefits and payroll handling through Cincinnatus LLC.
Pay and demand for Cloud & DevOps roles
AggregatedTypical pay
$70/hour
This role
$75–$110/hr
Most Cloud & DevOps roles pay $40–$98 per hour. This role's pay falls inside that range.
Based on 1,076 similar roles that publish pay · 302 publish only a top rate; those count at the rate they gave
Rates shown per hour. Yearly and monthly pay converted; one-time fees and non-USD pay are not included.
- Live similar roles
- 1,244
- Listed in last 30 days
- 476
- Remote
- 97%
Hiring most right now: micro1 (361) · SME Careers (254) · Mercor (152)
Most requested skills · share of roles
- ai training13%
- llm evaluation11%
- ai evaluation11%
- data annotation9%
Figures from Cloud & DevOps roles live on NearSkill when this page loaded. A role can close before you apply, so check the listing itself.
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Compensation
$75–110/hr
Required Skills
Application Tip
In your application, describe one production incident where you diagnosed and fixed a Kubernetes cluster failure, and include the specific AWS services and Terraform or CDK changes you made. Add a short written explanation of that incident to prove your communication skills, since the role asks for clear technical feedback.
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