Job Title: Senior Backend Engineer (AI Training & Cloud Systems)
Role Type: Remote / Part-Time Contract (20 Hours/Week)
Location: Remote (US-Based or US-Shift Compatible)
Compensation: Output-Based / Per-Task (Project Milestones)
Position Overview
Senior Backend Engineer Remote – Are you a Senior Backend Engineer eager to bridge high-scale software engineering with cutting-edge Artificial Intelligence? EliteCareers is partnering with micro1 to engage experienced backend developers to build next-generation Reinforcement Learning (RL) environments for AI model evaluation and training.
In this high-impact, 20-hour-per-week remote contract, you will design complex, production-grade cloud infrastructure scenarios. Your engineering output will directly train, evaluate, and push the boundary of how advanced AI systems reason through distributed systems, system architecture, security, and disaster recovery. No prior AI or machine learning experience is required—your deep technical domain expertise in backend and cloud infrastructure is what drives the project forward.
Key Responsibilities & Scope of Work
RL Environment Design: Architect, build, and deploy high-fidelity cloud infrastructure testing environments that evaluate AI model capabilities in system design, failure troubleshooting, and automated scaling.
Complex System Simulation: Construct deterministic real-world scenarios covering distributed systems, networking, IAM policies, message queues, durable storage, observability, and rolling deployments.
Validation & Testing Frameworks: Author deterministic unit/integration validation tests and establish golden reference solutions to guarantee precise evaluation metrics for RL models.
Fault Injection & Defect Generation: Develop intentionally defective architecture variants and chaos engineering scenarios to rigorously stress-test AI recovery strategies and self-healing logic.
Technical Documentation: Maintain comprehensive documentation detailing architecture blueprints, edge-case handle logs, and operational execution flows for long-term project reproducibility.
Collaborative Engineering: Partner closely with technical leads and project stakeholders to continuously iterate on acceptance criteria and technical specifications.
Minimum & Preferred Qualifications
Backend Proficiency: Strong experience with core backend programming languages (Python, Go, C++, Rust, Java, or Node.js/TypeScript).
Cloud & DevOps Domain Depth: Hands-on mastery of cloud infrastructure (AWS, GCP, or Azure), CI/CD pipelines, IaC (Terraform/CloudFormation), and automated deployments.
System Architecture: Proven track record architecting, scaling, and securing distributed production systems.
Infrastructure Fundamentals: Deep proficiency in networking topology, Identity & Access Management (IAM), message queues, database persistence, and disaster recovery execution.
Self-Directed Execution: Ability to work autonomously in an output-focused environment while meeting weekly task minimums.
Interview & Application Process
Application Submission: Complete the short online application and preliminary screening questions.
AI Technical Assessment: Complete a 30-minute automated video/technical interview reviewed by our recruiting team.
Hiring Manager Review: Final review of technical submissions and environment designs.