Four problems that consume most of our engineering time
Not a mission statement. These are the things that are actually hard here, and what you would be joining to work on.
Supply is perishable
Friday has to work
Grading the graders
Telling people from models
12 roles hiring now
Salary bands are published because withholding them wastes everyone's time. Every band is the real range we would make an offer in, not a headline number.
Four principles, and what each one costs
Values are only informative if they trade something away. Each of these names the thing it gives up.
The expert is the customer, even when the lab pays the bill
Labs pay the invoices; contributors do the work and can leave at any time. When those interests conflict — a rate that is too low for the difficulty, a rejection rate a partner wants raised, a deadline that only works if people work through a weekend — we resolve it toward the contributor and tell the partner why.
Write it down before you build it
Anything expected to take more than two weeks starts as a one-page memo: the problem, the options, the choice and what would prove it wrong. It circulates for two days of comments before work begins, and the decision is recorded in the same document rather than in a meeting nobody minuted.
Measure quality, not throughput
No operations role at Cortext is compensated on volume of tasks delivered, and no engineering team is measured on tickets closed. The metrics that carry weight are acceptance rate, inter-rater agreement, dispute reversal rate and contributor retention at 90 days.
Small teams, long ownership
Teams cap at around eight people and own a problem for years rather than a project for a quarter. Whoever builds a system carries its pager, answers its support escalations and writes its postmortems. Six people own payouts end to end, including the Friday batch.
Say the number
Salary bands are published on every opening and inside the company. Programme margins, attrition, dispute reversal rates and missed deliveries are shared at the monthly all-hands with the actual figures. Performance feedback names the specific behaviour and the specific consequence rather than gesturing at a theme.
What you get, with the numbers attached
Written out in full because 'competitive benefits' tells a candidate nothing they can compare.
Medical, dental and vision. In the US that is a choice of three plans including a $0-deductible PPO; outside the US it is private cover at an equivalent level through a local provider, plus a top-up where the national system already covers the basics. Coverage starts on day one, not after 30 days.
Four-year vesting, one-year cliff, monthly thereafter. If you leave, you keep ten years from grant to exercise rather than the standard 90 days — so you are never forced to choose between changing job and abandoning vested equity. Early exercise is permitted, and we tell you the strike price, the preferred price and the outstanding share count before you sign.
Dollar-for-dollar on the first 4% of salary, with no vesting schedule on the match. UK staff get 6% employer pension contribution; India is EPF plus a 4% supplementary contribution; Kenya is NSSF plus a matched private scheme.
25 days of paid leave plus local public holidays, plus a company-wide shutdown between 24 December and 1 January that does not come out of your allowance. Sick leave is separate and uncapped within reason. Managers are measured on whether their team takes at least 15 days; unlimited-PTO policies reliably produce less time off, so we do not run one.
The same 16 weeks for every new parent regardless of gender or route to parenthood, including adoption and surrogacy, with no tenure requirement. Return is phased: four weeks at 80% hours on 100% pay. We also cover $10,000 per year toward fertility treatment, adoption or surrogacy costs.
Courses, books, conferences and certifications, approved by your manager rather than by Finance. Unspent budget rolls forward one year to a $4,000 ceiling, so a conference in your second year does not require skipping learning in your first.
Yours to spend on desk, chair, monitor and peripherals; the hardware itself (laptop, external display) is provided separately and is not counted against it. Fully remote staff also get $80 a month toward connectivity, and a co-working desk where working from home is not practical.
One in San Francisco, one rotating across the hub cities, with travel, accommodation and time zone recovery paid. Distributed teams meet for a further team week each quarter. Remote staff are not expected to fund their own visibility.
Through the employer plan, with no referral needed and nothing reported back to Cortext beyond aggregate usage. Trust & Safety staff additionally get monthly clinical supervision, a capped daily exposure limit on distressing material, and a rotation off high-exposure queues every six weeks.
For hires relocating to a hub city. We sponsor work visas where the role and market allow — H-1B transfers and cap-subject filings, O-1, UK Skilled Worker, and Indian and Kenyan equivalents — and we pay the legal fees and government charges for you and your dependants rather than reimbursing them later.
What each stage tests, and how long it takes
Role-specific loops are listed on each opening. This is the shape every one of them follows.
Whether your experience matches the specific problems in the role description. Every application is read by a person on the hiring team — there is no automated resume filter, and no ranking model deciding who is seen.
We reply to every applicant, including the ones we decline. If you have not heard back in 5 business days, the email address on the role is the right place to chase us.
Scope of your past work, what you are looking for, and the practical constraints — location, right to work, notice period and compensation expectations. We state the band on the call if you have not already read it here.
One piece of work you owned, in depth: the constraints you faced, the options you rejected, and what you would do differently. This is the round where we decide whether the level is right, and we will tell you if we think it is not.
The actual work of the role, on a problem drawn from something we have really faced. Any exercise expected to take more than two hours is paid at $150 an hour, invoiced or paid through the same rails our contributors use.
You may use AI tools on the work sample. We ask you to say where you did, because the follow-up round assumes you can defend every line of what you submitted.
Role-specific depth — the exact rounds are listed on each opening, so you know what is coming before you agree to it. Interviewers get your work sample in advance and are expected to have read it.
How you behave when you disagree, when ownership is unclear, and when you turn out to be wrong. It carries a real veto, and it is the round most likely to change a decision.
Two references of your choosing, taken after the loop and never before you have told your current employer. The offer is the band published on the role, positioned by level and interview evidence.
We do not ask for salary history, we do not counter competing offers, and we do not reward negotiation with a higher number — the same evidence produces the same offer for two candidates at the same level.
Adjustments we will make, without asking why
You do not need a diagnosis, a letter, or a reason. Ask the recruiter at any point, including after the loop has started.
- Extra time on any work sample, or an untimed version of it
- Interview questions and the exercise brief sent 24 hours in advance
- A written or asynchronous alternative to a live exercise
- Audio-only interviews instead of video, with no explanation required
- Live captions, or an interpreter — including sign language — arranged and paid for by us
- Screen-reader-compatible materials, and exercises that do not depend on a specific IDE or design tool
- Scheduled breaks, or a loop split across three or four shorter days
- Scheduling around religious observance, caring responsibilities, medical appointments or a current job
- A step-free interview location and accessible facilities for any on-site round
Cortext Labs, Inc. hires on ability to do the job. We do not screen on race, colour, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, national origin, age, disability, veteran status, marital status, pregnancy, caring responsibilities, or genetic information — and where local law lets an employer ask about any of those, we do not ask.
We do not ask for salary history in any jurisdiction, including the ones where it is still legal. Offers are made against the published band and the level we assessed you at.
Cortext Labs is the direct employer in the United States, the United Kingdom, Kenya and India — San Francisco, New York, London, Nairobi, Bengaluru. Remote roles are open across those countries and, for some positions, the wider region named on the listing.
We do not currently sponsor visas for roles outside the US, and we say so on the listing rather than at the offer stage.