Finance Expert — Public Finance & Empirical Policy

About the Opportunity

A leading AI research organization is seeking experienced finance professionals to help evaluate how advanced AI systems perform in public finance, fiscal analysis, pensions, municipal credit, and empirical policy research.

This is an expert-evaluation engagement. Rather than joining a traditional finance team, you will apply your professional judgment to assess domain-specific tasks, the environments in which those tasks are completed, and the rubrics used to evaluate performance. The exact task content and research workflows are confidential and may vary over the course of the project.

What You'll Do

• Evaluate whether finance tasks are realistic, well-scoped, internally consistent, and representative of professional practice
• Inspect task environments, provided information, and expected workflows for clarity, usability, and domain fidelity
• Review scoring rubrics for technical correctness, completeness, objectivity, and alignment with the stated task
• Identify ambiguity, missing assumptions, unsupported requirements, edge cases, and criteria that could reward incorrect work
• Apply rubrics to sample outputs and assess whether they distinguish strong work from superficially plausible or materially flawed work
• Provide precise, structured written feedback and recommend targeted improvements
• Participate in calibration and incorporate reviewer feedback to support consistent evaluation standards

Who We're Looking For

• 5–12 years of relevant experience for the practitioner track, or 10–18 years for the senior reviewer track
• Experience in public-sector finance, municipal credit, public pensions, fiscal policy, applied economics, or empirical finance
• Strong quantitative reasoning and fluency with financial or econometric analysis
• Ability to assess evidence quality, methodological choices, causal claims, and policy interpretations
• Excellent written communication and the ability to explain not only whether something is correct, but why
• High attention to detail, sound professional judgment, and comfort evaluating work against explicit standards
• Experience reviewing analysts, approving work, designing controls, or setting quality standards is especially valuable for the senior track

Why This Work Matters

Advanced AI systems need to be evaluated against standards that reflect genuine professional practice, not just plausible-looking answers. Your expertise will help ensure the tasks, environments, and rubrics used in this research measure meaningful finance capability with rigor and consistency.

We consider all qualified applicants without regard to legally protected characteristics and provide reasonable accommodations upon request.

Contract and Payment Terms

• You will be engaged as an independent contractor.
• This is a fully remote role that can be completed on your own schedule.
• Projects can be extended, shortened, or concluded early depending on needs and performance.
• Your work at Mercor will not involve access to confidential or proprietary information from any employer, client, or institution.
• Payments are weekly on Stripe or Wise based on services rendered.
• Please note: We are unable to support H1-B or STEM OPT candidates at this time.

About Mercor

Mercor partners with leading AI labs and enterprises to train frontier models using human expertise. You will work on projects that focus on training and enhancing AI systems. You will be paid competitively, collaborate with leading researchers, and help shape the next generation of AI systems in your area of expertise.