Principal Python Engineer - ML Infrastructure

Seattle

**Principal Python Engineer --- ML Infrastructure (AI Training)** **About The Role** What if your deep Python expertise could directly shape the infrastructure powering the world's most advanced AI systems? We're looking for a Principal Python Engineer to design and build the data pipelines, annotation tooling, and evaluation systems that leading AI labs depend on to train and improve next-generation models. This is a fully remote, flexible contract role for engineers who thrive at the intersection of systems-level thinking and real production impact. If you have serious Python chops and want to work on infrastructure that actually matters, this is it. * Organization: Alignerr * Type: Hourly Contract * Location: Remote * Commitment: 20--40 hours/week **What You'll Do** * Design, build, and optimize high-performance Python systems supporting large-scale AI data pipelines and evaluation workflows * Develop full-stack tooling and backend services for data annotation, validation, and quality control at scale * Improve reliability, performance, and safety across existing Python codebases * Identify bottlenecks and edge cases in data and system behavior --- then implement scalable, production-grade fixes * Collaborate closely with data, research, and engineering teams to support model training and evaluation pipelines * Participate in synchronous design reviews to drive architectural decisions and iterate on implementation **Who You Are** * Native or fluent English speaker with strong written and verbal communication skills * 5+ years of professional experience writing production Python for large-scale infrastructure or platform engineering * Deep expertise in distributed computing systems and advanced asynchronous concurrency patterns * Solid understanding of Python internals --- GIL limitations, memory profiling, and performance optimization for compute-heavy workloads * Full-stack development experience with a strong systems programming background * Able to drive technical strategy and communicate architectural decisions clearly across teams * Available to commit 20--40 hours per week **Nice to Have** * Prior experience with data annotation, data quality pipelines, or AI evaluation systems * Familiarity with ML/AI workflows, model training, or benchmarking infrastructure * Experience building distributed systems or developer tooling * Background working directly with AI or research engineering teams **Why Join Us** * Work on real production systems alongside leading AI research labs * Fully remote and flexible --- work on your own schedule from anywhere * Freelance autonomy with the substance of high-impact, technically demanding work * Build infrastructure that directly influences how next-generation AI models are trained and evaluated * Potential for ongoing work and contract extension as new projects launch