MercorCybersecurity
Cybersecurity Practitioner: Paid Expert Interviews (SOC, Incident Response, Detection, AppSec)
up to $175/hr
About this role, in Mercor's words
Mercor is designing a benchmark that measures how well AI agents do real enterprise cyber defense work. Before we build it, we want to hear from people who do that work every day.
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 ↗
About the work
Mercor is designing a benchmark that measures how well AI agents do real enterprise cyber defense work. Before we build it, we want to hear from people who do that work every day.
This is a short paid research engagement, not a task or data project. You will join two to three one-hour video conversations with the Mercor team over roughly four weeks, scheduled around your availability.
What we will talk about
• How your work actually happens: the tools you live in, what lands in your queue, where judgment matters and where it does not.
• How your team measures whether a triage, investigation, containment, hunt, detection rule or patch was done well.
• Where AI assistance helps you today, where it gets in the way, and what would make a benchmark of AI on this work credible to you.
• Our draft task taxonomy: what is missing, what is mislabeled, what you would weight differently.
Who we are looking for
Current or recent hands-on practitioners in enterprise security, for example:
• SOC analysts and SOC leads (tier 2 and above)
• Incident responders and digital forensics investigators
• Detection engineers and threat hunters
• Application security or product security engineers who find and fix vulnerabilities in production code
• Security engineers who have run or been on the receiving end of a red team engagement
Experience with an EDR and SIEM stack (CrowdStrike Falcon, Microsoft Defender and Sentinel, Splunk, SentinelOne, Elastic or similar) is a plus. Security leaders are welcome if you are still close to the work.
Pay and time
• Paid hourly for interview time as a spot bonus. Sessions are one hour; no prep is expected.
• Two to three sessions in total. Nothing to build, label or submit.
• Remote, US-based.
Confidentiality
We will ask you to describe patterns, not specific incidents, and to leave out anything confidential about current or former employers or customers. Your input is used only to design the benchmark and is never attributed to you or your employer.
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
- Hearing back after the AI interview usually takes 2 to 4 weeks. 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 Cybersecurity 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: Cybersecurity
Across 54 roles in this field with a stated hourly rate in US dollars, on 10 platforms, the middle half pays $60 to $113 an hour at the top of the range, and the median is $90. This role's top rate, $175, is in the top quarter. Of the 26 distinct rates we count, 24 are lower and 1 are higher.
| Platform | Roles | Top of range, per hour |
|---|---|---|
| Alignerr | 32 | $55 to $120 · median $60 |
| micro1 | 4 | $95 to $175 |
| AfterQuery | 4 | $75 to $135 |
| Mercor (this platform) | 3 | $90 to $250 |
| DataAnnotation | 3 | $125 |
Sources and listing historyWhere this information comes from
This listing's history
- First seen here on 23 Sep 2026, and still on Mercor's list when we last read it on 13 Oct 2026.
- The listed pay has not changed since then.
- Posted by Mercor
- First seen by AIPayList
- Last seen live
- Listing ID
- list_AAABoNB0XIYO9wcITgdLWrr3
Pay as the source states it: “125–175 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.
Keep exploring
More like this
Related field, different requirements. Check each role's own page before you apply.