Engineering Manager, Enterprise Applied AI
Mercor · San Francisco, CA
$300,000–$520,000
Jul 17, 2026
San Francisco, CA
Jul 21, 2026
What this job asks for AI summary
A forward-deployed engineering leadership role focused on delivering Mercor's enterprise AI platform to large-scale customers. The position involves leading a technical team through end-to-end deployment of production AI systems — including agent orchestration, evaluation pipelines, and feedback loops — while working closely with customer stakeholders and internal sales and product teams. Best suited to someone with a background in both hands-on software engineering and managing customer-facing technical delivery.
Senior level · 5+ years · San Francisco-Oakland-Berkeley, CA · Full-time
“or” means any one of them counts — you don't need all of them.
We read this from the posting text with AI. Skim the description below before ruling yourself out.
How this req sits in the market our data
Roughly 2,500 people in the San Francisco-Oakland-Berkeley, CA area plausibly meet what this posting asks for (computer and information systems managers). range 1,300–3,250
Applicant volume Heavy — This req sits in a large pool with little in its requirements to thin it, and auto-apply tools fire at everything in the occupation. Applying early and leading with the rare skills below is what gets read.
Most people in this occupation already list these. Still required — just not what gets you shortlisted.
What the occupation pays Median $238,011 (middle half $208,323–$320,108).
Estimated from BLS employment for this occupation and area, per-skill prevalence across our listing corpus, and published wage benchmarks — as of Jul 28, 2026. It is a model, not a headcount.
Why we read it this way (7)
The role is titled 'Applied AI Lead' with no explicit seniority level in the title, hence advertised seniority is Unspecified. The actual requirements (5+ years building production systems, 2+ years managing teams, enterprise customer-facing delivery leadership) support a Senior band.
This is primarily a people-management and technical delivery leadership role (hiring, mentoring, coaching engineers, owning team execution), which maps best to 11-3021. However, the JD emphasizes hands-on technical credibility and individual contribution as a secondary expectation, making 15-1252 a genuine runner-up.
The role is listed across San Francisco, NYC, and London offices with in-person five days a week required. San Francisco is listed first and is Mercor's primary HQ; the CBSA reflects that. The role is not remote.
No compensation figures are stated in the posting; non-cash benefits (equity, relocation bonus, housing bonus, stipends) are described but no salary range is given.
Python is listed as the primary language example in the requirements section alongside Go, Java, and Rust as alternatives — the JD gates on strong fundamentals in one of these languages, not Python specifically.
All 'Nice to Haves' items (AI agents, LLMs, evaluation systems, enterprise integrations, workflow automation, production ML systems) are explicitly under a 'Nice to Haves' heading and are preferred, not required.
Ignored 1 non-technology phrase(s) as skills (responsibilities/concepts, not named tools): workflow automation.
Read the full posting
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