Rust Software Engineer - Distributed Systems

Alignerr
RemoteContractPosted Sep 18, 2026

About the role

Rust Software Engineer — Distributed Systems (AI Infrastructure)

About The Role

What if your Rust expertise could directly shape the infrastructure powering the next generation of AI? We're looking for a senior Rust engineer to build and optimize the distributed systems, data pipelines, and tooling that leading AI labs depend on — working on real production systems with real consequences.

This is a fully remote, flexible contract role. If you're the kind of engineer who gets satisfaction from writing safe, performant, correct code at scale — and you want that work to matter — this is the role for you.

Organization: Alignerr

Type: Hourly Contract

Location: Remote

Commitment: 20–40 hours/week

What You'll Do

Design, build, and optimize high-performance Rust systems supporting AI data pipelines and evaluation workflows

Develop full-stack tooling and backend services for large-scale data annotation, validation, and quality control

Improve reliability, performance, and safety across existing Rust codebases

Collaborate with data, research, and engineering teams to support model training and evaluation workflows

Identify bottlenecks and edge cases in distributed system behavior and implement scalable solutions

Participate in synchronous design reviews to iterate on architecture and implementation decisions

Who You Are

Native or fluent English speaker with clear written and verbal communication skills

3–5+ years of professional experience writing production-grade Rust

Strong background in building distributed services using RPC frameworks, distributed state management, or consensus protocols

Experienced debugging complex concurrency issues — deadlocks, race conditions — using async instrumentation and tracing tools

Able to commit 20–40 hours per week on a consistent basis

Self-directed and reliable when working in a remote, async-first environment

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 distributed systems or developer tooling at scale

Why Join Us

Work on cutting-edge AI infrastructure projects alongside leading research labs

Fully remote and flexible — work when and where you do your best work

Freelance autonomy with the substance of high-impact, production-grade engineering

Contribute directly to systems that shape how next-generation AI models are built and evaluated

Potential for ongoing work and contract extension as new projects launch

Responsibilities

  • Design, build, and optimize high-performance Rust systems supporting AI data pipelines and evaluation workflows
  • Develop full-stack tooling and backend services for large-scale data annotation, validation, and quality control
  • Improve reliability, performance, and safety across existing Rust codebases
  • Collaborate with data, research, and engineering teams to support model training and evaluation workflows
  • Identify bottlenecks and edge cases in distributed system behavior and implement scalable solutions
  • Participate in synchronous design reviews to iterate on architecture and implementation decisions

Qualifications

  • Native or fluent English speaker with clear written and verbal communication skills
  • 3–5+ years of professional experience writing production-grade Rust
  • Strong background in building distributed services using RPC frameworks, distributed state management, or consensus protocols
  • Experienced debugging complex concurrency issues using async instrumentation and tracing tools
  • Able to commit 20–40 hours per week on a consistent basis
  • Self-directed and reliable when working in a remote, async-first environment

Benefits

  • Work on cutting-edge AI infrastructure projects alongside leading research labs
  • Fully remote and flexible — work when and where you do your best work
  • Freelance autonomy with the substance of high-impact, production-grade engineering
  • Contribute directly to systems that shape how next-generation AI models are built and evaluated
  • Potential for ongoing work and contract extension as new projects launch

Skills mentioned

RustDistributed SystemsgRPCBackend DevelopmentPerformance OptimizationDebuggingData PipelinesConcurrencySystems EngineeringSoftware Testing

About Alignerr

We're looking for experts to help train better AI. At Alignerr, we offer paid, flexible projects for writers, coders, and subject matter experts to refine and align advanced artificial intelligence. Work when you want, where you want. Apply today at Alignerr.com or through our open Job Postings.

Technology11-50 employees