Lead Systems Engineer (Rust) - AI Platform
Posted Today by Alignerr
Negotiable
Undetermined
Remote
United Kingdom
Summary: The Lead Systems Engineer (Rust) role focuses on leveraging deep expertise in Rust to develop and optimize systems that support advanced AI research and production workflows. This fully remote contract position requires collaboration with top-tier AI labs and involves solving complex engineering challenges. The engineer will design high-performance systems, enhance existing codebases, and lead architectural decisions. A commitment of 20–40 hours per week is expected, with a strong emphasis on reliability and professionalism.
Key Responsibilities:
- Design, build, and optimize high-performance systems in Rust for AI data pipelines and evaluation workflows.
- Develop full-stack tooling and backend services for large-scale data annotation, validation, and quality control.
- Own and improve reliability, performance, and safety across existing Rust codebases.
- Identify bottlenecks, edge cases, and failure modes in complex systems and implement scalable fixes.
- Collaborate with data, research, and engineering teams to accelerate model training and evaluation.
- Lead system design reviews and drive architectural decisions.
Key Skills:
- 5+ years of professional experience in production-grade Rust, focusing on system architecture and API design.
- Deep expertise in FFI (Foreign Function Interface) and unsafe Rust.
- Advanced command of asynchronous runtimes and multi-threaded environments.
- Strong written and verbal communication skills in English.
- Ability to commit 20–40 hours per week reliably.
- Prior experience with data annotation, data quality pipelines, or evaluation systems (nice to have).
- Familiarity with AI/ML workflows and model training (nice to have).
- Experience with distributed systems or developer tooling (nice to have).
Salary (Rate): £37.50/hr
City: undetermined
Country: United Kingdom
Working Arrangements: remote
IR35 Status: undetermined
Seniority Level: Senior
Industry: IT
Lead Systems Engineer (Rust) — AI Platform
About The Role
What if your deep expertise in Rust could directly shape the infrastructure powering the next generation of AI? We're looking for a senior Rust engineer to build, optimize, and lead the systems that make cutting-edge AI research and production workflows possible — working alongside world-class teams at leading AI labs. This is a fully remote contract role with flexible commitment. You'll be embedded in real production environments, solving hard problems at the intersection of systems engineering and AI infrastructure.
Organization: Alignerr
Type: Hourly Contract
Location: Remote
Commitment: 20–40 hours/week
What You'll Do
- Design, build, and optimize high-performance systems in Rust that power AI data pipelines and evaluation workflows at scale
- Develop full-stack tooling and backend services for large-scale data annotation, validation, and quality control
- Own and improve reliability, performance, and safety across existing Rust codebases
- Identify bottlenecks, edge cases, and failure modes in complex systems — then implement scalable, elegant fixes
- Collaborate closely with data, research, and engineering teams to accelerate model training and evaluation
- Lead synchronous system design reviews and drive architectural decisions with clarity and confidence
Who You Are
- Native or fluent English speaker with strong written and verbal communication skills
- 5+ years of professional experience writing production-grade Rust, with a focus on system architecture and API design
- Deep expertise in FFI (Foreign Function Interface) and unsafe Rust, with a strong understanding of how to manage boundaries between Rust and other languages safely
- Advanced command of asynchronous runtimes and multi-threaded environments — you understand concurrency deeply and write code that proves it
- Confident leading system design reviews and articulating complex technical tradeoffs to cross-functional teams
- Able to commit 20–40 hours per week with reliability and professionalism
Nice to Have
- Prior experience with data annotation, data quality pipelines, or evaluation systems
- Familiarity with AI/ML workflows, model training, or benchmarking infrastructure
- Experience building or maintaining distributed systems or developer tooling
- Exposure to working with research teams or in fast-moving AI environments
Why Join Us
- Work on real, high-impact production systems alongside some of the best AI research teams in the world
- Fully remote and flexible — structure your work around your life, not the other way around
- Freelance autonomy with the depth and significance of meaningful engineering work
- Get direct exposure to next-generation AI infrastructure at the frontier of the field
- Potential for ongoing engagement and expanded scope as new projects launch