MercorCoding & software eval
Machine Learning Expert
up to $200/hr
About this role, in Mercor's words
To qualify you must work as an ML research engineer, research scientist or applied scientist, and have personally trained, fine-tuned or optimized models in PyTorch or JAX.
What you'll do
- Come up with ideas for hard machine learning engineering tasks ("plans") for a long-horizon AI research project with a leading AI lab
- Design tasks hard enough to stump frontier models: a strong task is solved in no more than 2 out of 8 attempts
- Lean toward inference, evaluation and systems work rather than heavy model training. About half of the tasks run on GPU and half are CPU-only
Show all 5 itemsHide the other 2 in What you'll do
- Explain clearly why each problem is hard for a frontier model
- You mainly contribute ideas. You do not need to build or review the tasks yourself
Quoted from selected sections of Mercor's posting. The full posting may state other conditions. Read the full posting
A closer look
More context, when you need it.
Full job descriptionThe original posting, in Mercor's words
Posted by Mercor, reproduced here so you can judge the role before clicking. Original posting ↗
To qualify you must work as an ML research engineer, research scientist or applied scientist, and have personally trained, fine-tuned or optimized models in PyTorch or JAX.
What you'll do
• Come up with ideas for hard machine learning engineering tasks ("plans") for a long-horizon AI research project with a leading AI lab
• Design tasks hard enough to stump frontier models: a strong task is solved in no more than 2 out of 8 attempts
• Lean toward inference, evaluation and systems work rather than heavy model training. About half of the tasks run on GPU and half are CPU-only
• Explain clearly why each problem is hard for a frontier model
• You mainly contribute ideas. You do not need to build or review the tasks yourself
Must-haves
• Current or recent role as an ML research engineer, research scientist or applied scientist
• Hands-on experience personally training, fine-tuning or optimizing models in PyTorch or JAX
• Deep knowledge of at least one of these areas:
• LLMs: pretraining, alignment, evals
• GPU inference and performance: vLLM, Triton, CUDA, profiling
• Reinforcement learning (RL)
• Scientific ML: weather and climate, physics, biology
• Able to explain why a problem is hard for a frontier model
Nice-to-haves
• Experience writing benchmark or evaluation questions (a big plus)
• PhD in ML, CS or physics, or an MSc plus strong research output
• Publications
• Prior Mercor contracts with strong performance
Not a fit
• Software or full-stack engineers whose AI experience is mainly building LangChain or RAG applications
• Backgrounds limited to AI trainer, rater or annotator work
Working with MercorPay, getting started and work, from Mercor's own pages
What the platform publishes in general. These are not extra terms confirmed for this particular role.
- Getting paid
- Hourly work is paid every Wednesday for the previous week, through Stripe Connect or Wise, whichever Mercor assigns to your region. Stripe holds the first payout for 7 days. talent.docs.mercor.com/how-to/payments, talent.docs.mercor.com/policies/contracts
- Before your first paid task
- An AI interview of about 20 minutes, reused for other roles that need it, then any assessments the role asks for. Before logging hours: ID verification through Persona, a tax form, the contract documents, the Insightful time tracker, and a background check the onboarding guide says usually takes one to two weeks. talent.docs.mercor.com/support/ai-interview, talent.docs.mercor.com/how-to/apply, talent.docs.mercor.com/policies/contracts, talent.docs.mercor.com/how-to/id-verification, talent.docs.mercor.com/working/project-onboarding
- How much work
- The current interview FAQ gives no reply-time estimate. Mercor says it notifies you when your application moves to the next stage and that you can keep applying. When a project ends you are not moved to a new one automatically. talent.docs.mercor.com/support/ai-interview, talent.docs.mercor.com/support/project
- Contract
- Independent contractor with Mercor.io Corporation of San Francisco, which deducts no taxes. talent.docs.mercor.com/policies/taxes-work-authorization, talent.docs.mercor.com/support/legal
Read on the pages linked above on 23 Sep 2026. Platforms change these terms, so check the linked page before you rely on one.
Alex's experience on MercorA personal account, not a promise about your project
Alexruns this site and has worked on Mercor himself. Written 31 Aug 2026.
- Every interview I took used an AI interviewer. They always checked my microphone and camera and asked me to share my screen, and some included a timed exercise of around 25 minutes.
- Many later applications needed no new interview from me. With the required assessments complete and no other outstanding steps, applying could be close to one click.
- The application I checked did not ask for a rate. My offer matched my minimum in Work Preferences. That does not establish that Mercor always caps higher offers at your preference.
- Onboarding and setup came to about 4 hours, with more security and tool setup. Of the three platforms I worked on, it was the most complicated for me. That is an estimate from my projects, not a platform average.
- Mercor required the Insightful tracker on my project. I observed app and website usage monitoring, and I am unsure which screenshot settings applied, so check the configuration.
- I was paid for hours logged, once every 14 days, and I have not experienced late or incorrect payments. That was my arrangement. Mercor's current documentation describes weekly payout cycles, so check your own offer.
One person's applications, not a promise about yours.
What happens after you apply, first-handHow does the pay compare?Across Coding & software eval roles, not this role alone
From our own daily reads of every open listing on the platforms we follow, not from Mercor's posting. How we count.
Pay across the field: Coding & software eval
Across 393 roles in this field with a stated hourly rate in US dollars, on 14 platforms, the middle half pays $65 to $120 an hour at the top of the range, and the median is $90. This role's top rate, $200, is in the top quarter. Of the 142 distinct rates we count, 134 are lower and 5 are higher.
| Platform | Roles | Top of range, per hour |
|---|---|---|
| Alignerr | 125 | $50 to $400 · median $100 |
| micro1 | 50 | $60 to $400 · median $110 |
| Handshake AI | 43 | $47 to $125 · median $80 |
| Mercor (this platform) | 35 | $60 to $200 · median $105 |
| Meridial (Invisible) | 34 | $22 to $150 · median $60 |
Sources and listing historyWhere this information comes from
This listing's history
- First seen here on 20 Oct 2026.
- The listed pay has not changed since then.
- Posted by Mercor
- First seen by AIPayList
- Last seen live
- Listing ID
- list_AAABoVbx1lSSTH-CB6hAt4WE
Pay as the source states it: “150–200 USD HOUR”.
Platforms sometimes change a rate after posting. Every listing here is re-read at least once a day and corrected when its source moves, so a difference you see on the platform is usually a change made since the last read. How freshness works.
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