Compensation & Equity Expert (Total Rewards)

Mercor's People team is building its compensation and equity foundation from scratch. We want to think it through with people who have done it before.

We're looking for Total Rewards practitioners with depth in one or both of the following. Either one on its own is enough.

Compensation design & architecture

• Built salary bands, leveling frameworks, and job architecture from the ground up

• Owned an annual compensation cycle: merit planning, promotion decisions, bonus programs, equity refresh

• Benchmarked against a peer set you then had to defend to a skeptical exec team

• Designed incentive structures that were simple, credible, and changed behavior

Equity program management

• Designed option and RSU programs: grant guidelines, pool planning, vesting structures, refresh philosophy

• Worked through 409A valuations, plan governance, and grant administration at a venture-backed company

• Built the modeling and communication that lets candidates and employees understand what their equity is worth

Those two are what we screen on. Nothing below is required. If you have the whole Total Rewards picture, say so.

Also valuable

• Compensation philosophy, benchmarking methodology, pay equity and pay transparency

• Compensation design for a global or contractor workforce at scale

• Benefits program design, HRIS and compensation tooling

• Executive compensation, plan governance, or equity through IPO readiness

Context

Mercor is a Series C company at a $10B valuation, scaling from roughly 500 employees, with a large global contractor network alongside a growing full-time workforce. Nothing is settled yet: what the compensation philosophy should be, how levels map across very different functions, how equity gets granted and explained.

How this works

Applying starts with a short screen. If your background fits, we'll invite you to a paid conversation about a live question we're facing. You're paid for it whether or not anything follows.

Rate is $50–$200/hr depending on depth of experience. Engagements run a few hours at a time, scoped to one question.

We review every submission.

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.