AI systems engineer
You build parts of production systems for small and mid-sized businesses: an assistant that answers the phone, a reader that takes in documents, the steps that follow. Each one has to pass a test on the client’s own work before it goes live, so the job is as much proving as building.
The work
- Build agent and voice flows in TypeScript or Python on current model and speech services.
- Connect telephony, messaging and calendars so a call or a file ends in a finished task.
- Write the test a system must pass on the client’s own past work, and get it to pass.
- Leave a runbook another engineer can follow.
What you bring
- Shipped software that people use, and can show it.
- Working knowledge of model APIs, tool calling and structured output.
- Care about the cases a system gets wrong, and the patience to chase them.
- Plain writing: a limit, a handover and a failure all get written down.
How the contract works
- A written scope
- Every project starts from a written scope: what is to be delivered and by when.
- Your rate, by the hour
- You are paid by the hour at a rate agreed before you start, and you invoice for the hours worked.
- Your own business
- You are an independent contractor. You use your own tools, decide how the work gets done, and look after your own taxes.
- Project by project
- A contract covers one project. It is not a promise of further work, and you are free to work for others.
- Client data stays put
- Work happens in the client’s own accounts, with the least access the task needs, under a confidentiality agreement.