What We’re Building
The Widget Factory is a specialized arm of Idler, a Y Combinator–backed company building systems that teach AI how to reason like engineers.
We refine coding problems drawn from real engineering — not puzzles, but real reasoning from production code. Your job is to make the thinking clear: what changed, why it mattered, and how an engineer reasoned through it.
The Role (Part Time)
We’re looking for engineers who can trace the intent behind a code change, understand what changes were made and why, and express that clearly in natural language.
This role is part-time, remote, and built for people with technical fluency, sharp attention to detail, and a disciplined command of English.
What You’ll Do
Read unfamiliar repos and understand the intention behind commits
Review and refine problem statements until they’re clear and accurate
Adjust unit tests to keep problems fair and solvable
Provide brief, consistent updates on progress and blockers
Who You Are
You have 1–2 years of coding experience and a precise eye for detail. You write cleanly, communicate quickly, and you see software engineering as your craft.
Requirements
1–2 years of coding experience
Fluent English; strong writing is a must
Responsive, independent, and attentive to detail
10–40 hours per week, flexible
How it Works
The best contributors stay and grow with us; they show care and depth in their work, communicate clearly about status and availability, and they help shape how our process evolves.
What We Do
Idler builds reinforcement learning environments that teach AI models to code at expert human levels. We create training environments based on real-world coding scenarios that prepare models for the complex challenges they'll face in production.
Why Work With Us
You'll be joining a team that's expanding quickly, get direct access to AI researchers at frontier labs, and be put in a position to grow as fast as you can handle.
Gallery
Idler Offices
OnSite Workspace
All employees work in person out of our office in the Dogpatch neighborhood of San Francisco.
