Higher Education Expert

Role Overview

Mercor is partnering with leading AI labs to engage experienced higher education professionals — faculty, administrators, and academic researchers — to improve AI systems' understanding of university operations, academic workflows, and institutional decision-making. Contributors will apply their expertise in areas such as curriculum design, accreditation, student affairs, research administration, and academic policy to evaluate and enhance AI performance on education-specific tasks. This is a project-based opportunity with potential for ongoing engagement depending on performance and project needs.

Key Responsibilities

• Review and evaluate AI-generated outputs related to academic content, institutional policy, and higher education operations

• Create realistic scenarios based on university workflows — admissions decisions, tenure review, grant administration, curriculum development, and accreditation processes

• Annotate, label, and validate data across higher education use cases (e.g., student advising, course planning, institutional research)

• Provide structured feedback on AI accuracy in areas such as academic writing, pedagogical reasoning, and compliance with education regulations (FERPA, Title IX, accreditation standards)

• Collaborate asynchronously with research teams to refine evaluation frameworks for education-domain AI

Ideal Qualifications

• 3+ years of professional experience in a higher education institution (e.g., R1 university, liberal arts college, community college system, or equivalent)

• Background in one or more areas such as:

  • Faculty roles (teaching, research, departmental governance)

  • Academic administration (registrar, provost office, enrollment management)

  • Student affairs (advising, financial aid, residential life)

  • Research administration (grants, IRB, sponsored programs)

  • Accreditation, assessment, or institutional effectiveness

• Strong analytical thinking and ability to translate academic workflows into structured evaluation tasks

• Clear written communication and attention to detail

Compensation Note

• Task Completion Pay: Competitive and based on task quality (~$850 – $1,000 per completed task, subject to change as the project evolves)

• Performance Bonus: Top performers receive a weekly bonus incentive on top of their per task rate!

• Hourly Opportunity: Top performers may be invited to transition to an hourly compensation model based on sustained quality and throughput.

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.