ML Research Engineer, Inference and GPU Kernels (Remote, Contract, $135/hr) — AfterQuery via AI Gig Scout

AfterQuery is building a research cohort of senior domain experts in ML inference and GPU kernel engineering, spanning inference serving systems, kernel optimization and large-model deployment infrastructure, to help evaluate how frontier AI models reason about hard, real-world expert-level problems. It is a remote contract role listed at $135/hr. This is research-and-evaluation work, not production engineering: you define what correct and excellent look like on problems you already know deeply. What you will do: design realistic technical scenarios and problem sets within your track; author expert-level reference solutions and grading rubrics; and evaluate AI-generated outputs for correctness, depth and domain judgment. The listing asks for 6–10 years of experience and a PhD/Doctorate, or a Master's with a strong research record, and notes that background checks are part of the process. Requirements: currently or recently hands-on in the field, not purely academic-adjacent; strong written communication, since you will author technical explanations and structured feedback; and comfort with independent, asynchronous, remote work. Preferred: a research publication record, open-source contributions or recognized work in the domain; experience reviewing or grading others' technical work; and bonus signal for SGLang, vLLM, Mamba/Mamba2, TensorRT-LLM or GPU kernel work. Details and apply link: https://aigigscout.com/jobs/afterquery/ml-research-engineer-inference-and-gpu-kernels-ml-research-engineer-gpu-kernels?utm_source=kubernetesjobs&utm_medium=jobboard&utm_campaign=aigigscout_growth Disclosure: posted by AI Gig Scout, an independent listing site (not AfterQuery). The apply link may be a referral link.