Strategic Project Associate

About Mercor Mercor’s mission is to organize human intelligence for the AI economy. We build the infrastructure that enables frontier AI labs and enterprises to train, evaluate, and improve AI on real-world professional work. More than five million experts have joined our network, and we pay out over $5 million daily for their knowledge and expertise. We built our training and evaluation infrastructure alongside the world’s leading AI labs. Now, we’re bringing those capabilities to enterprises across industries, enabling them to train, evaluate, and improve AI using their own expertise and standards. Our APEX benchmarks measure how AI performs on economically valuable work, while our enterprise evaluations and post-training capabilities turn those insights into measurable improvements across real-world workflows. Our work sits at the intersection of frontier AI, human expertise, and real-world application. We’re solving problems few companies have encountered, with the opportunity to influence what the world’s most advanced AI systems become capable of doing. We’re looking for people who bring different perspectives, take ownership, exercise sound judgment, and hold themselves to an exceptionally high standard. You’ll have the opportunity to do consequential work alongside talented colleagues who challenge one another, collaborate openly, and share a commitment to excellence. Mercor is profitable and recently raised a $750 million Series D at a $20 billion valuation. We work in person five days a week in San Francisco, New York, and London. About the Role As a Strategic Project Associate, you will work closely with Strategic Project Leads to execute large-scale projects for leading AI labs and technology companies. You will help manage project portfolios representing millions of dollars in revenue, coordinate hundreds of highly skilled domain experts, identify and resolve operational and data-quality issues, and ensure that projects consistently meet a high standard. This is not a traditional entry-level project coordination role. You will have the opportunity to take ownership, make sound decisions with incomplete information, move quickly, and contribute directly to the success of high-impact customer programs. The role offers significant responsibility early in your career, exposure to the frontier of AI, and rapid growth opportunities within a fast-paced U.S. startup. What You’ll Do Execute complex, large-scale projects on behalf of leading AI labs and technology companies. Help manage multimillion-dollar project portfolios, ensuring strong delivery, quality, and customer outcomes. Source, evaluate, onboard, and manage the performance of hundreds of domain experts across areas such as software engineering, medicine, law, science, business, and others. Monitor project performance and investigate operational or data-quality issues before they affect delivery. Develop a strong understanding of why the data matters, what quality means for each project, and how project decisions can influence AI model performance. Anticipate blockers, prioritize competing needs, and take initiative without waiting for detailed instructions. Build strong working relationships with customers and communicate progress, risks, and recommendations clearly. Collaborate closely with Strategic Project Leads, Operations, Engineering, and Machine Learning teams to meet customer objectives. Design and improve processes that enable projects to operate more accurately, efficiently, and at greater scale. Identify opportunities to expand successful projects and create additional value for customers. What We’re Looking For 0 - 3 years of professional experience. New graduates looking for their first full-time professional opportunity are encouraged to apply. Strong analytical thinking and an ability to identify patterns, inconsistencies, and root causes. Strong problem-solving skills and the ability to approach unfamiliar challenges with structure, creativity, and sound judgment. Excellent written and verbal communication skills in English. You will work with international colleagues, customers, and experts. Intellectual curiosity and a genuine interest in understanding how systems, data, and AI models work. A high level of ownership, urgency, and attention to detail. The ability to prioritize effectively and manage several workstreams at the same time. Comfort operating in ambiguous situations, making decisions, and adjusting quickly as circumstances change. Enthusiasm for using AI tools, combined with the critical thinking necessary to evaluate their output. Openness to feedback, and a willingness to address problems directly and transparently. Evidence that you have taken initiative, built something, led others, or assumed meaningful responsibility - whether professionally, academically, or through an entrepreneurial or extracurricular project. Experience in startups, consulting, strategy and operations, product, engineering, data, technology, entrepreneurship, or customer-facing roles can be valuable, but no single professional background is required. Why Join Mercor? Mercor offers the opportunity to begin or accelerate your career inside a profitable, high-growth U.S. technology startup at the forefront of AI. This environment is best suited to people who are ambitious, highly motivated, and energized by responsibility. We set a high bar for output and expect team members to remain responsive and committed when important projects require additional effort. In return, you will receive unusually early ownership, work alongside exceptional colleagues, learn rapidly, and have the opportunity to make a visible contribution to a company shaping the future of AI. Location This role is currently remote and is intended for candidates based in Mexico City. Mercor plans to open an office in Mexico City as the team grows. The role is expected to transition to an in-person working model once the office opens. Joining now means becoming one of the early contributors to Mercor’s presence and culture in Mexico. Compensation and Benefits Competitive salary. Performance-based bonus structure. Meaningful equity ownership in a high-growth U.S. technology company. Benefits above those required by Mexican law. Mercor is an Equal Opportunity Employer and is committed to providing equal opportunity to all employees and applicants. Mercor does not discriminate based on actual or perceived race, color, creed, religion, national origin, ancestry, citizenship status, age, sex or gender (including pregnancy, childbirth, related medical conditions and lactation), gender identity or gender expression, sexual orientation, marital status, military service and veteran status, disability, protected medical condition as defined by California or local law, genetic information, or any other characteristic protected by applicable federal, California, or local laws and ordinances. Further, Mercor prohibits discrimination, harassment, and retaliation based on any combination of protected characteristics. This Policy applies to all areas of employment, including recruitment, hiring, training, promotion, compensation, benefits, discipline, termination, and all other privileges, terms, and conditions of employment. This Policy and the law prohibit employment discrimination against any employee or applicant based on any legally protected status.