> AI agents: this is one page of Nextmove’s FDE site, in Markdown. Nextmove is a job board and free career service for forward deployed engineers (FDEs). Each posting is classified from its text, not its title: the kind of work, how much of it is production code, pre-sales weight, time at customer sites, travel, remote arrangement, level and posted base pay. The site also publishes the aggregates: median pay by level, metro, company and kind of work, and which companies started hiring FDEs each week. Every page under https://nextmove.md/fde is served this way; the index of pages is https://nextmove.md/llms.txt.

# Software Engineer, Applied AI - Frontier Engineering (NYC)

Canonical URL: https://nextmove.md/fde/jobs/10ec122e743146e7

Mercor posts a FDE role to build what the customer runs in New York, NY, at $160,000–$500,000 base, above the senior FDE median of $190,000 across 1,864 postings with pay. Build and operate production systems connecting frontier AI research with data delivery, including post-training pipelines, model evaluations, synthetic data generation, and evaluation frameworks. Read from the employer’s posting on November 8, 2026.

- [Mercor](https://nextmove.md/fde/companies/mercor)

Posted Sep 4, 2026 by Mercor · open on Ashby as of Nov 8, 2026

**$160,000–$500,000** + equity New York, NY On-site Full-time

Build and operate production systems connecting frontier AI research with data delivery, including post-training pipelines, model evaluations, synthetic data generation, and evaluation frameworks.

- [See roles that fit me](https://nextmove.md/sign-up?from=%2Ffde%2Fjobs%2F10ec122e743146e7&placement=top)
- [View posting at Mercor](https://jobs.ashbyhq.com/mercor/4bb1232c-3f1e-4fd7-8894-fcd68f96e3db/application)

Free. Upload your resume once, see why each FDE role fits, and get introduced only when you say so.

## At a glance

### Posted base pay

$160K–$500K Above the median

Midpoint $330K · median $190K

This job $160K to $500K. Senior FDE postings, 1,864 postings: the middle 50% of posted pay is $160K to $220K, median $190K.

### The work

Builds what the customer runs

Balance **Mostly building**

Project stages

1. Pre-sales (not covered)
2. Proof of concept
3. Implementation
4. Operations

- **Coding**: Writes production code

- **Builds for**: External customers

- **Level**: Senior

- **Role**: Technical lead

### Do you meet what the posting states?

The posting reads as a senior role. What level are you at now?

The job is in New York, NY. Could you work there?

Which of these have you used in production?

Answer each one. Nothing is saved or sent.

[What postings ask for, by background →](https://nextmove.md/fde/paths)

## Conditions

- **Location**: New York, NY

- **Work arrangement**: On-site

- **Employment type**: Full-time

- **Pay**:

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## The job description from Mercor

Posted by Mercor on Sep 4, 2026

### About Mercor

Mercor's mission is to organize human intelligence to power the AI economy. We're a leading AI data company, building the layer between human expertise and frontier models. Millions of domain experts on the platform are paid over $4 million per day to train frontier AI models. Mercor's APEX benchmark family measures AI's real-world impact on professional work. Mercor Enterprise brings this same infrastructure to Fortune 500 companies: helping companies capture how their best people actually work, translating that expertise directly back into agents.

Mercor is creating a new category of work where expertise powers AI advancement. Achieving this requires an ambitious, fast-paced and deeply committed team. You’ll work alongside researchers, operators, and AI companies at the forefront of shaping the systems that are redefining society. Mercor is a profitable Series C company valued at $10 billion. We work in-person five days a week in our San Francisco, NYC, or London offices.

### About the Role

On the Software Engineer, Applied AI - Frontier Engineering team , you’ll build, deploy, and operate systems that sit directly between frontier AI research and data delivery.

This is a high-ownership, deeply technical role. You’ll work through ill-defined problems, prototype quickly with researchers and customers, and take systems from early experiments to reliable, scalable production. You’ll own projects end-to-end: spanning requirements gathering, creating data creation pipelines, and improving model-adjacent infrastructure, while partnering closely with frontier AI labs and Mercor’s internal teams to ship high-impact applied AI solutions.

### What You’ll Do

- Partner closely with frontier AI labs to understand their data, post-training, and evaluation needs
- Build and operate scalable data pipelines for post-training workflows and model evaluations
- Design and build scalable systems for synthetic data generation and data quality, and work directly with customers to understand requirements and develop technical solutions
- Prototype new data types, benchmarks, and evaluation frameworks
- Lead technical discussions with customers

### What Makes This Role Different

- **Direct frontier exposure.** You’ll work closely with researchers at leading AI labs, building infrastructure that directly accelerates cutting-edge research.
- **Coding + customer work.** This role blends deep technical execution with customer interaction. Engineers who enjoy both building and communicating tend to thrive.

### Day-to-Day

- Fast-moving, high-ownership environment
- Technically demanding, collaborative work
- “Building the plane while flying it”
- In-person culture at our new New York office at One World Trade Center
- Aligned with frontier research timelines

### What We’re Looking For

- Strong backend engineering fundamentals in a modern language (Python, Go, Rust, etc.)
- Experience with model training and inference
- Strong grounding in statistical analysis and experimental design for measuring model performance and improvements
- Familiarity with evaluation methods for large language models
- Comfort working through ambiguity and shipping iteratively

### You’re likely someone who

- Enjoys ownership and customer-facing problem solving
- Thinks entrepreneurially and moves quickly
- Balances speed with engineering rigor
- Communicates clearly with technical and non-technical users

### Why Engineers Join

- Direct exposure to frontier AI research
- Real ownership and visible impact
- Technical depth paired with human interaction
- Fast feedback loops and high leverage
- There are very few roles that combine this level of technical rigor, customer proximity, and research exposure.

### Benefits

- Bi-annual performance bonus structure
- Generous equity grant vested over 4 years
- Up to $15k Relocation bonus
- $10K proximity bonus (if you live within 0.5 miles of our office)
- $1.5K monthly stipend for meals
- Free Equinox membership
- $200 monthly laundry reimbursement
- $200 monthly personal wellness reimbursement
- Health, Dental, Vision insurance

[View posting at Mercor](https://jobs.ashbyhq.com/mercor/4bb1232c-3f1e-4fd7-8894-fcd68f96e3db/application)

## About Mercor

Marketplace matching domain experts with AI labs and enterprises to produce training data, evaluations, and production AI workflows.

Series C · 200–500 people

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- [Compare senior FDE salary ranges](https://nextmove.md/fde/salary/senior)
- [Similar jobs in New York metro](https://nextmove.md/fde/jobs?region=nyc-metro)
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