Software Engineering Evaluation Specialist

Please submit your CV in English and indicate your level of English proficiency.Mindrift connects specialists with project-based AI opportunities for leading tech companies, focused on testing, evaluating, and improving AI systems. Participation is project-based, not permanent employment.

About the Role

You’ll design coding tasks that challenge frontier AI coding agents. Each task is a self-contained Docker environment with a broken piece of software; an AI agent attempts the fix; automated tests verify the outcome. Your deliverable is the full task package: broken code, tests, instructions, and a reference solution proving the task is solvable.Responsibilities: Invent a realistic developer scenario - a real bug, a broken ETL, a missing feature - not a toy problem.

Build a reproducible Docker environment with pinned dependencies. Write a pytest that verifies outcomes, not specific commands - deterministic, non-flaky, and does not leak the fix. Write an instruction.md that reads like a Jira ticket a developer would receive.

Write a reference solve.sh proving the task is solvable. Calibrate difficulty so current state-of-the-art agents solve the task 20 - 60% of the time. Iterate based on feedback from expert QA reviewers.

Later: review other authors’ tasks as a QA reviewer. Not in scope Data labeling, prompt engineering. Production code to ship - you design problems and verification for AI agents.

Leetcode puzzles - scenarios must look like real developer work. Not every candidate task ships - quality over quantity.

Requirements

3+ years of production software development in one backend stack - Python, Go, Node.js, Java, or Rust. Depth in one stack beats breadth. Python + pytest fluency - required regardless of primary stack.

The task harness is pytest-based even when the broken app is in another language. Fixtures, parametrize, monkeypatch, timeouts, conftest.py. Docker authoring - reproducible Dockerfiles, pinned dependencies, multi-stage builds when needed, non-root user.

Linux & Bash - comfort debugging inside containers (strace, lsof, journalctl); shell beyond set -euo pipefail. AI coding agent experience - Claude Code, Cursor, Roo Code, or similar, on non-trivial work. You can cite a specific time the AI was confidently wrong and how you caught it.

English - B2+ written. Not a fit Data Science, ML, or Computer Vision engineers without backend-engineering output. Manual QA testers without automation or test authoring.

Frontend-only, low-code / no-code, IT Support, or Business Analysts. Engineers who have never written pytest from scratch. Junior, intern, or assistant as the most recent role.

Preferred

Qualifications

Domain depth in Security, System Administration (nginx / systemd / cron), Scientific Computing (NumPy / PyTorch / SciPy), DevOps, or Git internals. Modern Python tooling (uv, poetry, pyproject.toml). Coverage tooling (pytest-cov, coverage.py, gcov, llvm-cov, kcov).

Fuzzing or property-based testing (Hypothesis). Prior contribution to agent-evaluation benchmarks or related frameworks. ProcessApply → Pass qualification (90-minute sample-task screen + short behavioral interview) → Join a project → Complete tasks → Get paid.Time commitment Onboarding: ~10 hours per first task.

Steady state: ~5 hours per task, 2 - 4 parallel tasks per author. Realistic weekly load: 8 - 20 hours. Higher volume available for top performers.

You choose when and how to contribute; tasks must be submitted by the deadline and meet acceptance criteria. Compensation: Paid contributions, rates up to $35/hour*. Task-based compensation equivalent to hourly rate, depending on performance and volume.

Some projects include incentive payments. *Rates vary based on expertise, skills assessment, location, project needs, and other factors. Higher rates may be provided to highly specialized experts. Lower rates may apply during onboarding or non-core project phases.

Payment details are shared per project.ApplySubmit your CV via the Mindrift platform. Indicate your English level, note this role (Software Engineering Evaluation Specialist - Terminal Bench), and include a GitHub profile link if available.Originally posted on Himalayas