Optimization Specialist
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Role Description
This role involves tackling real-world scheduling, routing, allocation, and constraint satisfaction problems using mathematical programming and heuristics. You’ll design robust optimization models and reproducible pipelines that directly power advanced AI-driven systems.
Qualifications
- Background in operations research, applied mathematics, computer science, or engineering
- Proficient in Python and optimization libraries such as CVXPY, OR-Tools, CPLEX, SciPy, NumPy, and pandas
- Understanding of mathematical programming methods (MILP, CP, heuristics) and their tradeoffs
- Experience designing models for scheduling, routing, or allocation at scale
- Comfortable building reproducible pipelines and benchmarking optimization approaches
- Care about delivering models that balance optimality, scalability, and real-world performance
- Curious about how optimization connects with AI systems and large-scale decision engines
Requirements
- Design and implement optimization models and heuristics that solve large-scale real-world scheduling, routing, and allocation problems
- Deliver reproducible, production-grade pipelines for AI-driven systems
What You’ll Do
- Build scalable optimization pipelines for scheduling, routing, and resource allocation
- Translate AI lab and product requirements into robust optimization formulations (MILP/CP, heuristics)
- Benchmark, validate, and stress-test optimization models with real-world datasets
- Develop heuristics and approximation methods for time-sensitive and large-scale workloads
- Collaborate with AI researchers and engineers to integrate optimization into production systems
- Document models, experiments, and workflows for reproducibility and reliability
Why This Role Is Exciting
- Pioneer optimization pipelines that power AI systems in production
- Apply cutting-edge mathematical programming techniques to high-impact, real-world problems
- Collaborate on a high-impact effort at the intersection of optimization, AI, and large-scale engineering
- Help shape how advanced optimization drives the next wave of AI research and applications
Pay & Work Structure
- Classified as an hourly contractor to Mercor
- Paid weekly via Stripe Connect, based on hours logged
- Part-time (20–30 hrs/week) with flexible hours—work from anywhere, on your schedule
- Weekly Bonus of $500–$1000 USD per 5 tasks created
- Remote and flexible working style