Networked Systems Researcher (Research Coding Tasks)
Listing checked October 30, 2026 · pay as published by AfterQuery
Key details
- Pay
- $80/hr
- Location
- Remote
- Job type
- contract
- Posted
- October 29, 2026
Overview
AfterQuery hires PhD-level researchers for paid contract work that converts networked systems papers with public code into coding tasks for frontier AI agents. You start from a recent paper and its released code, strip out the implementation behind the central result, and build a task an agent must solve against the paper's own benchmarks. The deliverable covers held-out workloads, metric thresholds, a hidden reference solution and a second solution that clears the bar. Each approved task pays $200, and the work stays remote and asynchronous. Researchers in congestion control, datacenter networking, programmable networks and cluster scheduling can turn recent papers into agent tasks.
What You'll Do7
- Turn a published networked systems paper with released code into a task an AI agent can solve.
- Strip the implementation behind the paper's main contribution and package the remaining project as the agent's starting point.
- Write the task statement with goals, constraints and expected behavior.
- Define held-out evaluation workloads that test the paper's claims on its own benchmarks.
- Set per-metric pass thresholds and provide a hidden reference solution.
- Create a second solution that proves an agent can beat the benchmark bar.
- Review AI agent attempts on your task and judge whether each attempt meets the criteria.
Requirements6
- Published research at NSDI, SIGCOMM, IMC, CoNEXT or a comparable venue.
- Released code for at least one paper, with a GitHub repository or artifact link.
- PhD in computer science or a related field, completed or in progress.
- First-author papers with measured gains over a baseline earn preference.
- Comfort with Docker and reproducible benchmark setups.
- Depth in congestion control, datacenter networking, programmable networks or cluster scheduling.
Who Should Apply
PhD-level researchers and research engineers who publish in networked systems and release code with their papers will fit this work. A first-author paper with measured gains and Docker-based benchmark experience strengthens a candidacy.
Salary Insight
Pay is $80.00 per hour, and the listing also quotes $200 for each approved task with a few hours of work per task. The task-based structure rewards researchers who can define held-out benchmarks and reference solutions without extra setup.
Required skills
How applying works
1. Pre-screen on NearSkill
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2. Finish on the employer’s site
We hand you to AfterQuery’s official application page to complete the form.
3. Wait for a response
The employer’s hiring team reviews applications and gets back to you.
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