Mercor · STEM & research
Machine Learning Expert - review AI outputs in your specialty
Listed on Mercor as “Machine Learning Expert”
What this actually is
You design problems that stump current AI models, evaluate AI reasoning against the correct answer, write rubrics, and provide expert feedback. Often the highest-paid category because the expertise pool is small. The platform title (Machine Learning Expert) reflects the rate band and the expertise required, not the day-to-day work.
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Can you do this on your visa?
F-2 / F-4 / F-5 / F-6: open. E-1 to E-7: needs concurrent-employment permit. D-2 / D-4 students: S-3 permit, 20 hr/week cap. D-10 / D-8: case by case.
Korean tax on USD income
First 5 years in Korea: foreign-source income only taxed if remitted into Korea. After year 5: worldwide income. Full tax guide.
Original posting from Mercor
The research teams behind the best-known AI models come to Mercor for machine learning judgment they can't generate on their own. Your standards and expertise become the rubric that frontier AI is graded against.
This is a standing listing for machine learning practitioners who want AI training and evaluation work, not a specific job opening. It stays open whether or not a matching project is running this week.
New projects start on short notice, so instead of posting and pulling a listing each time, we keep one open per field and draw from it when one begins.
What the work looks like
We match machine learning practitioners in the network to projects like:
- Writing a modeling problem from a system you actually shipped, with the data, the objective, and the constraint, plus the reference answer a model's attempt gets graded against
- Grading model-written training and evaluation code: whether the loss matches the objective, whether the eval set leaks, whether the ablation supports the conclusion drawn from it
- Flagging where a model proposes an approach that would train cleanly and still fail in production, given distribution shift, label noise, or a metric that rewards the wrong behaviour
Comparable machine learning projects have posted at $70 to $120 an hour, set per project by scope and depth.
What we're looking for
- Professional experience training, evaluating, or deploying machine learning systems
- Clear written communication, since most of the work involves explaining your reasoning
- Comfort with ambiguous tasks, and willingness to flag unclear instructions
Where you trained matters less than whether you have put models in front of real users and dealt with what came back.
How it works
Apply here with your resume and confirm where you work from, then take a short AI interview, about 20 minutes total.
We verify your background and add you to the machine learning pool.
When a project needs machine learning expertise, we invite matching people from the pool to that specific listing. It names the rate, the hours, and the client, and any hiring decision is made there.
What to expect
This listing does not accept or reject candidates, so you will not get a decision on it. We reach out when a project matches your background. Depending on what our clients are running, that can be within a week or several months.
Finishing the domain expert interview and joining every network you qualify for both improve your odds of being matched. You only need to sign up once to be eligible across all of them.
Quoted from Mercor’s public listing on 2026-09-22. We don’t edit platform copy; honest framing is in the title and the “what this actually is” block above.
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About Mercor
AI-interview-based talent network. One application, voice interview with their AI, then matched to projects across coding, research, and specialist work. Pay scales with track and seniority.
Mercor review: AI-interview talent network
4.1/5 on Glassdoor, fastest-growing platform in the category (+509% YoY). What the AI video interview actually asks, real pay across coding/research/medical/legal/finance tracks ($25-$200/hr), and the project-availability problem.
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