Network Engineer Expert

AfterQuery builds the expert evaluation data that frontier AI labs use to measure and improve their models. We're hiring network engineers as contractors to author and grade the routing, switching, and troubleshooting scenarios those evaluations run on.

What you'll actually do

• Author realistic network scenarios, from design questions through outage troubleshooting
• Write reference answers with the design and troubleshooting reasoning behind each decision
• Grade model output for protocol accuracy and operational soundness
• Flag configurations that read plausible but would break production networks

Who this is for

• Engineers with at least 2 years of network engineering or administration experience
• Practitioners with hands on routing, switching, and firewall experience in production
• Engineers with depth in protocols such as BGP, OSPF, VLANs, and VPNs
• Clear writers who can document the reasoning behind a design or troubleshooting decision

Contract and pay

• $80 to $120/hr, paid weekly via Stripe. Your rate is set from your experience, not negotiated down after you start.
• Fully remote, fully async. No fixed hours.
• Minimum 10 hours per week, no maximum. Scale up or down week to week.
• No screen recording, no keystroke monitoring, no idle timers.
• Independent contractor. Ongoing project work rather than single task batches.

How our hiring process works

1. Apply at /apply/network-engineer-expert. About five minutes. Resume plus a few structured questions.
2. Resume review. Every application gets read against a published rubric and gets a decision.
3. Written assessment. You may be asked to take a written assessment for further placement.
4. Onboarding. Sign the contractor agreement, connect Stripe, and get platform access.
5. Project match. You're matched to live work in your specialty, usually within a week of onboarding.

About AfterQuery

AfterQuery is an expert data lab. We build the evaluation and training data that frontier AI labs use to measure what their models can and can't do in real professional work. Our contributors are practicing professionals, not annotators, and the work is credited, reviewed, and paid at professional rates.

Responsibilities

• Author realistic network scenarios from design questions through outage troubleshooting
• Write reference answers with the design and troubleshooting reasoning behind each decision
• Grade model output for protocol accuracy and operational soundness
• Flag configurations that read plausible but would break production networks

Requirements

• 2+ years of professional network engineering or network administration experience
• Hands on experience with routing, switching, and firewalls in production environments
• Depth in protocols such as BGP, OSPF, VLANs, and VPNs
• Clear written English for documenting network design and troubleshooting reasoning
• Able to commit at least 10 hours per week

Preferred Qualifications

• Certifications such as CCNA, CCNP, or JNCIA
• Network automation experience with Python or Ansible
• Cloud networking experience across AWS, Azure, or GCP

Why Apply

• $80 to $120/hr, paid weekly via Stripe
• 100% remote and fully async
• Shape how frontier models reason about networking
• Ongoing project work with hours you set each week