Backend Engineer, Cloud Infrastructure AI Evaluation

About OpenTrain

OpenTrain is the #1 platform for finding and building careers in AI training and data labeling. It helps people discover specialized projects, build a credible AI training portfolio, and grow their experience in one of the fastest-growing areas of technology.

OpenTrain AI is hiring contractors for this backend engineering opportunity. The role is available worldwide and is designed for professionals who want to apply serious cloud and software engineering expertise to the development of AI systems.

• Worldwide opportunity
• Contractor and part-time engagement
• 20+ hours per week
• English-language work
• $50–$100 USD per hour

About AI Training and Model Evaluation

AI training is the human side of building artificial intelligence. Engineers and other specialists create realistic tasks, environments, tests, and feedback that help AI systems learn how to perform useful work reliably.

In this role, your cloud infrastructure expertise will help evaluate whether AI models can reason about production-grade systems. You will work on realistic operational scenarios involving deployment, security, troubleshooting, scaling, and recovery.

• Help shape how advanced AI systems understand infrastructure operations
• Use real-world engineering scenarios rather than simple annotation tasks
• Contribute to reproducible environments and rigorous technical evaluation

The Role

As a Backend Engineer, Cloud Infrastructure AI Evaluation contractor, you will build reinforcement learning environments for AI model training and evaluation. These environments will test AI proficiency in systems design, deployment, troubleshooting, security, scaling, and disaster recovery.

The work combines backend programming, cloud architecture, DevOps automation, distributed systems, and model evaluation. Although this opportunity is listed at the entry level, applicants must bring substantial practical experience with backend engineering and production cloud infrastructure.

• Build realistic, reproducible environments for AI evaluation
• Create scenarios that reflect production-grade cloud operations
• Apply backend engineering and infrastructure automation practices
• Prior AI experience is not required when the required technical expertise is present

What You’ll Do

You will design and implement cloud infrastructure environments that assess AI performance across complex operational workflows. Each environment should be scalable, secure, maintainable, clearly documented, and reproducible.

You will also create the tests and failure conditions needed to distinguish reliable technical reasoning from incomplete or unsafe model behavior.

• Design scenarios involving distributed systems, networking, IAM, message queues, persistent storage, and observability
• Model rolling deployments and disaster-recovery workflows
• Develop deterministic validation tests and golden reference solutions
• Produce intentionally defective infrastructure variants and failure scenarios
• Test model responses, troubleshooting processes, and recovery strategies
• Document architecture, edge cases, and operational flows
• Refine environment specifications and acceptance criteria with technical collaborators
• Use DevOps and infrastructure automation to deliver scalable evaluation systems

Required Skills and Experience

This role requires strong backend and cloud infrastructure judgment. You should be comfortable designing systems that operate under realistic production constraints and creating precise tests that evaluate technical behavior deterministically.

• Backend programming proficiency in at least one of C++, Python, Rust, Go, Java, or JavaScript
• Production experience designing, scaling, and securing distributed cloud systems
• Practical experience with DevOps, CI/CD pipelines, and infrastructure automation
• Strong understanding of networking, identity and access management, queues, and durable storage
• Experience with observability, deployments, and disaster recovery
• Ability to create deterministic validation tests and golden reference solutions
• Ability to design intentionally defective infrastructure variants and failure scenarios
• Sound judgment when defining acceptance criteria and recovery behavior
• Ability to document architecture, edge cases, and operational flows

Who Should Apply

This opportunity is a strong fit for backend engineers, cloud engineers, DevOps practitioners, and infrastructure specialists who want to apply their experience to cutting-edge AI evaluation. You do not need previous AI training experience if you can demonstrate the required backend, distributed systems, and cloud infrastructure capabilities.

• Backend engineers with experience in a listed programming language
• Cloud infrastructure engineers who have worked with production systems
• DevOps specialists experienced in automation and CI/CD
• Engineers comfortable analyzing failures and defining reliable recovery paths
• Technical professionals who can work 20 or more hours per week

Why Work in AI Training

AI training and evaluation work gives technical professionals a direct role in shaping how modern AI systems behave. Every major AI system depends on carefully designed examples, tests, and human feedback, making specialist engineering knowledge especially valuable.

OpenTrain helps you build a durable portfolio of AI training work, discover projects aligned with your skills, and grow your career in this rapidly expanding field.

• Work remotely from anywhere in the world
• Choose flexible part-time work around your schedule
• Apply cloud infrastructure expertise to advanced AI systems
• Build a portfolio that demonstrates specialized AI evaluation experience