Water Infrastructure & Municipal Finance Expert (U.S.)

Mercor is seeking a Water Infrastructure & Municipal Finance Expert to support a leading AI research lab on a short-term, high-impact project focused on modeling U.S. water and wastewater capital expenditure (capex). In this role, you will review and validate a live Excel-based financial model projecting national water and wastewater capex for CY2026–2028. The model incorporates federal funding flows, state-level overlays, municipal capital improvement plans (CIPs), EPA needs assessments, and policy-driven scenarios. Your expertise will be critical in ensuring the model’s assumptions, structure, and outputs accurately reflect real-world infrastructure financing dynamics.

Key Responsibilities

• Review and validate a complex Excel model forecasting U.S. water and wastewater capex (2026–2028)

• Assess assumptions tied to federal water funding programs, including:

  • State Revolving Funds (SRF)

  • WIFIA (Water Infrastructure Finance and Innovation Act)

  • IIJA (Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act) allocations and supplementals

• Evaluate integration of state funding mechanisms and municipal CIP rollups

• Cross-check model logic against EPA Clean Watersheds Needs Survey (CWNS) and Drinking Water Infrastructure Needs Survey (DWINSA) extrapolations

• Provide feedback on policy scenario modeling (e.g., funding changes, allocation shifts, regulatory impacts)

• Identify inconsistencies, gaps, or unrealistic assumptions in projections

• Suggest improvements to model structure, clarity, and robustness

Requirements

• 5+ years of experience in water infrastructure, municipal finance, or public sector capital planning

• Direct experience with:

  • Municipal water/wastewater utilities or infrastructure advisory

  • Capital expenditure planning (CIP) or infrastructure investment analysis

  • U.S. federal water funding programs (SRF, WIFIA, IIJA)

• Strong familiarity with:

  • EPA needs surveys (CWNS, DWINSA) and infrastructure funding flows

  • State-level water financing mechanisms and bond issuance dynamics

• Advanced Excel skills (required):

  • Comfortable auditing complex formulas, linked sheets, and scenario models

  • Experience working with large-scale financial or infrastructure models

• Strong analytical judgment and ability to validate real-world assumptions against modeled outputs

• Excellent written communication skills for structured feedback

Work Arrangement

• Project-based / short-term engagement (likely a few weeks)

Why Join

• Work with a frontier AI lab tackling large-scale infrastructure modeling problems

• Apply your domain expertise to shape data-driven insights in public infrastructure investment

• Flexible, high-impact consulting engagement with a focused scope

• Opportunity to contribute to next-generation economic and policy modeling systems

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.