Network Engineering & Simulation Expert — Hephaestus
Listing checked November 6, 2026 · pay as published by Mercor
Key details
- Pay
- $70–90/hr
- Location
- Remote
- Job type
- hourly
- Openings
- 40
- Posted
- November 5, 2026
Overview
Mercor seeks experienced network engineers to create and validate tasks that teach AI systems about enterprise, data-center, and service-provider networks. The work centers on reproducible simulated or emulated topologies, troubleshooting, and measurable verification. Contributors produce the network artifacts and reference solutions behind each task, then test whether a proposed configuration delivers the required behavior. The task set draws on tools such as containerlab, GNS3, EVE-NG, and FRRouting, plus protocol scenarios such as BGP and OSPF.
What You'll Do7
- Create realistic scenarios that cover routing, switching, network services, segmentation, access policy, redundancy, or performance.
- Build repeatable topologies and device configurations with tools such as containerlab, GNS3, EVE-NG, Mininet, ns-3, or FRRouting.
- Configure and debug BGP, OSPF, VLANs, IPv4/IPv6, DNS, DHCP, NAT, VPNs, and firewalls within your area of expertise.
- Write automated checks for reachability, route selection, policy enforcement, isolation, convergence, failover, latency, throughput, and packet loss. Combine live behavior tests with configuration inspection.
- Produce reference configurations, traffic and failure scenarios, and verification scripts. Validate success cases and deliberate failure cases.
- Package topology files, configuration dependencies, scripts, packet captures, and results so another engineer can reproduce the outcome.
- Review AI-generated configurations and find root causes of failures. Use coding agents for automation while checking network behavior yourself.
Requirements6
- 5+ years of professional network engineering experience with direct ownership of enterprise, data-center, cloud, or service-provider networks.
- Strong hands-on routing, switching, troubleshooting, and network policy skills.
- Experience building network labs, simulations, or emulations, plus traffic analysis with tools such as Wireshark, tcpdump, or iperf. Familiarity with every listed platform is not required.
- Ability to write and debug Python, shell, Ansible, or similar automation for repeatable setup and verification.
- Sound judgment on protocol behavior, failure modes, measurement limits, and gaps between simulated and production networks.
- Clear technical communication.
Preferred Qualifications2
- Relevant certifications such as CCNP, CCIE, or JNCIP.
- Experience with network test automation.
Who Should Apply
Network engineers with 5+ years of hands-on routing and switching work who enjoy building lab topologies and testing behavior will fit this task set. The role suits engineers comfortable with Python or Ansible automation, packet analysis, and reviewing configurations for failure causes.
Salary Insight
The posting lists separate hourly bands: $70 to $80 for writers and $90 for reviewers. That split gives experienced engineers a clear path to the higher reviewer rate once they show sound judgment on configurations and failure diagnosis.
Pay and demand for Network & Telecommunications roles
Market estimates from live NearSkill listings — separate from this job's published terms.
This role · as published
$70–90/hr
Taken from the listing itself.
Typical pay · estimated
$80/hour
Median of 279 similar roles that publish pay · 28 publish only a top rate; those count at the rate they gave
Most Network & Telecommunications roles pay $60–$96 per hour. This role's pay falls inside that range.
Rates shown per hour. Yearly and monthly pay converted; one-time fees and non-USD pay are not included.
- Live similar roles
- 375
- Listed in last 30 days
- 237
- Remote
- 83%
Hiring most right now: micro1 (115) · Mercor (53) · AfterQuery (31)
Most requested skills · share of roles
- python19%
- technical writing13%
- AWS10%
- react10%
Figures from Network & Telecommunications roles live on NearSkill when this page loaded. A role can close before you apply, so check the listing itself.
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