Optimization Specialist - Remote job Software Development at Mercor

Role Description

This role involves tackling real-world scheduling, routing, allocation, and constraint satisfaction problems using mathematical programming and heuristics. You’ll design robust optimization models and reproducible pipelines that directly power advanced AI-driven systems.

Qualifications

• Background in operations research, applied mathematics, computer science, or engineering
• Proficient in Python and optimization libraries such as CVXPY, OR-Tools, CPLEX, SciPy, NumPy, and pandas
• Understanding of mathematical programming methods (MILP, CP, heuristics) and their tradeoffs
• Experience designing models for scheduling, routing, or allocation at scale
• Comfortable building reproducible pipelines and benchmarking optimization approaches
• Care about delivering models that balance optimality, scalability, and real-world performance
• Curious about how optimization connects with AI systems and large-scale decision engines

Requirements

• Design and implement optimization models and heuristics that solve large-scale real-world scheduling, routing, and allocation problems
• Deliver reproducible, production-grade pipelines for AI-driven systems

What You’ll Do

• Build scalable optimization pipelines for scheduling, routing, and resource allocation
• Translate AI lab and product requirements into robust optimization formulations (MILP/CP, heuristics)
• Benchmark, validate, and stress-test optimization models with real-world datasets
• Develop heuristics and approximation methods for time-sensitive and large-scale workloads
• Collaborate with AI researchers and engineers to integrate optimization into production systems
• Document models, experiments, and workflows for reproducibility and reliability

Why This Role Is Exciting

• Pioneer optimization pipelines that power AI systems in production
• Apply cutting-edge mathematical programming techniques to high-impact, real-world problems
• Collaborate on a high-impact effort at the intersection of optimization, AI, and large-scale engineering
• Help shape how advanced optimization drives the next wave of AI research and applications

Pay & Work Structure

• Classified as an hourly contractor to Mercor
• Paid weekly via Stripe Connect, based on hours logged
• Part-time (20–30 hrs/week) with flexible hours—work from anywhere, on your schedule
• Weekly Bonus of $500–$1000 USD per 5 tasks created
• Remote and flexible working style