Senior Software Engineer ML - Contractor position

Janea Systems (USA) is a dynamic team of the best & brightest software engineering specialists and solutions innovators, from around the world. From kernel to cloud, we provide high-impact software development services to Fortune 500 companies.
 
This is a future opportunity role, not a live start. We evaluate strong freelance ML engineers ahead of client demand so that when a project matches your profile, we come to you with concrete scope, rate and start date — not with a three-week search. Being accepted into the pool is not a guarantee of work, and we will be direct with you about timing: it may be weeks or it may be months. In exchange, we keep our process short, we do not ask for unpaid work, and once you are in, you hear about relevant projects before we go to market.

 

Basis	Independent contractor. You invoice through your own company or registered sole-trader entity
Rate	Your quoted hourly or daily rate, in EUR or USD. Agreed in writing before any engagement starts
Commitment	Typically 40 hours per week unless specified differently, depending on the project
Duration	Typically 1–6 months per engagement. Extensions are common.
Location	Fully remote. Most engagements require a minimum of four hours of daily overlap with US business hours.
Working setup	You work as part of a Janea team on client projects, and are Client facing

 

What engagements look like:

• Taking an ML or LLM proof-of-concept to production, with the reliability and cost characteristics a large enterprise needs.
• Designing and hardening data and training pipelines for enterprise ML systems.
• ML platform and MLOps work: deployment, versioning, monitoring, evaluation, CI/CD for models.
• Building LLM and RAG systems, including retrieval quality, evaluation and cost control.
• Filling a specific, deep gap in a client engineering team for a defined period.
• Short technical audits and advisory work on an existing ML stack.

What we need from you:

• Bachelor's or Master's degree in Computer Science or a related field
• 4+ years of experience as a Software Engineer, ML Engineer or AI Engineer
• Flexibility in experience with different programming languages and willingness to adjust to project needs
• Strong knowledge of Python
• Knowledge of machine learning algorithms, data pre-processing methods, and ML frameworks (such as PyTorch, TensorFlow, Keras)
• Experience with containers and Kubernetes in cloud environments (AWS, MS Azure, or GCP)
• Familiarity with data-oriented workflow orchestration frameworks (KubeFlow, Airflow, Argo)
• Understanding of software testing, benchmarking, and continuous integration principles
• Ability to translate business needs into technical requirements
• Excellent communication and problem-solving skills, with the ability to break down complex challenges and develop innovative solutions
• Being self-motivated and adaptable, with the ability to work effectively in fast-paced, dynamic environment
• A registered company or sole-trader entity to contract and invoice through

Useful, not required:

• Familiarity with agent frameworks (such as Langchain, Langgraph, LlamaIndex)
• Familiarity with developing RAG systems
• Experience with Natural Language Processing (NLP)
• Familiarity with monitoring tools (such as DataDog or Langfuse)
• Any associate cloud certification (AWS preferred)
• Previous contract or consulting experience, working inside an existing client codebase

Why freelance with Janea

• Substantive work. Fortune 500 engineering problems, on core systems, with our own senior engineers alongside you.
• Short chain of command. You talk to the people making technical decisions. Minimal process overhead.
• Clear commercial terms. Rate, scope and invoicing terms agreed in writing before you start.
• Repeat work. Contractors who deliver get first look at the next relevant project.

Process:

1. Hackerrank coding challenge (50 min max)
2. A 40-minute call with our recruitment team — your background, the kind of work you want, availability and rate.
3. A 120 minute technical conversation with a Janea engineer.
4. If we both want to proceed: NDA and framework agreement signed, and you enter our vetted pool. We then contact you when a matching project comes in.

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