Senior Python Engineer - AI Coding Agent Evaluation (Freelance)

Overview

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.

What this opportunity involves

We’re building a dataset to evaluate AI coding agents – how well a model handles real-world developer tasks.

Build realistic developer environments – a virtual company with codebase, infrastructure, and context (tickets, docs, conversations) that forms a believable development history.
Design tasks from intermediate states of these environments – craft the prompt, define what "solved" means, and ensure the task is solvable by an AI agent.
Write tests that verify agent solutions – accept all valid approaches and reject incorrect ones, neither too strict nor too lenient.
Iterate on tasks and tests based on QA feedback – review agent solutions, analyze failures, and refine until the evaluation is fair and robust.

What this is NOT

Not data labeling.
Not prompt engineering.
Not writing code from scratch – the agent writes most of the code; you guide and evaluate.

What we look for

8+ years in software development.
Core stack: Python (FastAPI), JavaScript/TypeScript (React).
Docker, Postgres, Kafka, Redis.
Experience writing tests (functional, integration).
English proficiency – B2+.

Why this is hard

Frontier models are already good at coding. Creating a task that genuinely challenges the best models is non‑trivial. You need to deeply understand where models fail and what scenarios reveal the difference between a good and a bad solution. Tasks have many valid solutions – writing tests that accept all correct solutions and reject incorrect ones is harder than it sounds.

How it works

Apply → Pass qualification(s) → Join a project → Complete tasks → Get paid.

Effort estimate

Tasks for this project are estimated to take 30 hours to complete, depending on complexity. This is an estimate and not a schedule requirement; you choose when and how to work. Tasks must be submitted by the deadline and meet the listed acceptance criteria to be accepted.

Compensation

Up to $200/hr equivalent, depending on level and pace. Tasks are estimated at ~30 hours each; you set your own schedule.

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