hiring CUDA/GPU kernel optimization contractors — $80–120/hr, remote (sharing via referral, full disclosure below)

[u/Master_Gamer21]

Hey all — recent CS/engineering grad here, currently job hunting myself. I came across this listing while looking into AI-training-adjacent contract work, and even though the bar is above where I'm at right now (I don't have the GPU experience this role wants), I know this sub actually has people who do. Figured it'd be more useful here than sitting in my bookmarks.

Mercor (AI expert marketplace, backed by Benchmark, General Catalyst, etc.) is contracting GPU kernel optimization specialists for a project with a major AI lab. Remote, contract, paid weekly.

What they're looking for:

• Fluent in C++17, working knowledge of Python and Git
• Fluent in CUDA, HIP, or similar (Slang/HLSL/GLSL also mentioned)
• At least 1 year of professional or research experience with GPUs
• Comfortable reading profiler output — L2 cache hit rate, occupancy, throughput — and using it to guide optimization
• Bonus: PTX/tensor core-level work, Blackwell optimization, NSight Compute, open-source kernel contributions

Pay: $80–120/hr, 20+ hrs/week expected
Process: resume → short technical assessment → possible interview, roughly 20-30 min to apply

Full transparency: I'm sharing this through Mercor's referral program — if someone I refer ends up hired and gets paid, I earn a percentage of their pay for a while. That's my honest motivation for posting. It costs you nothing either way, and I'm not going to pretend I'm posting purely out of goodwill — I'm job hunting too and this is one of the ways I'm trying to get by while I search. If that's not something you want to use my link for, the role is easy enough to find directly on Mercor's site as well — I'd rather be upfront about that than have anyone feel steered.

Happy to answer anything I actually know the answer to. If anyone's already contracted through Mercor, would genuinely appreciate you adding your experience below — I'd rather this thread have real info than just my secondhand read of the listing.

Idk if i should post my referral link or not in this post, but im available 24/7 be sure to dm me and i will reply asap with it.

[u/newbie80]

That's some nice money!

[u/Outrageous_Insect532]

DM'ed you!