Skip to content
Mercor

Strategic Project Lead

San Francisco; New York CityOnsite · United States
Staff · FullTime · Operations
POSTED 13 JULVERIFIED 23H AGO
Apply Ask
Role
123 days opentrue age
Past the 77d median close
Same title, closed before
×1
Posted 13 Jul · n=28
Payats field
$120k–200kposted
▼ −22% vs market median $205k
$120k$250k
Market p25–p75
$175k–$250k
Mercor p25–p75
$176k–$223kn=7
H-1B median · Other
$150k
SF Bay Area · n=926 · 365d to 12 Nov
CompanyMercor →
92open roles
Opened · 30d
+2
Closed · 30d
−3
11d of snapshots · 30d window
Market
23,258open · Staff Other
Opened · 7d
+2,67512% of open
All other
623,847open
All tracked boards · live 14 Nov · n=23,258
Visa
42H-1B LCAs · FY26
Median wage
$155k
LCAs FY26 · n=42 · to 2026-06-26

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

Silicon Valley’s leading AI companies partner with Mercor to scale high-quality data operations. As an SPL, you will:

Drive the tactical execution of multi-million-dollar projects.

Build deep client relationships with researchers at top AI labs.

Orchestrate the work of 1,000+ contributors.

Ensure flawless operational execution under demanding timelines.

This is a hands-on operations role for candidates excited by process optimization, rapid iteration, and high-intensity problem solving. We're an early-stage startup that operates with intensity. That means being responsive on weekends and always holding a high bar for output. The upside — performance incentives, career trajectory, and meaningful equity — reflects that.

Core Responsibilities

Operational Excellence

Design and manage end-to-end data pipelines, from customer specifications to final delivery.

Diagnose bottlenecks, restructure workflows, and implement solutions that improve quality, throughput, and cost-efficiency.

Examples include: creating incentive systems, re-sequencing workflows, refining instructions, and scaling review processes.

Customer Relationships

Act as the primary point of contact for leading AI labs.

Deliver clear, consistent reporting and proactively anticipate client needs.

Build long-term trust and identify opportunities for expansion.

Large-Scale Coordination

Manage 1,000+ distributed contributors in Slack-based workspaces.

Source, vet, train, and performance-manage domain experts.

Maintain high execution standards across all stages of production.

Quality Reporting

Run daily internal syncs (“war rooms”) to stay ahead of issues.

Provide regular, transparent progress updates to customers.

What We’re Looking For

Experience: Background in consulting, finance, startups, or other operationally intense environments.

Skills: Strong analytical and communication abilities; proven track record of managing complex projects.

Customer-Facing Experience: Comfortable working directly with high-profile clients.

Mindset: Excited by “gritty” process optimization and large-scale execution.

Key Facts

SPLs generate $10M+ in project revenue annually.

Customer requests are high-pressure and time-sensitive (e.g., onboarding 1,000 contributors in 3 days, delivering 10+ hours of quality data per contributor within 48 hours).

The role is explicitly operations-focused—not strategy, product, or GTM.

Growth Path

SPLs begin as individual contributors, running projects end-to-end.

Source · MercorFirst seen 2 Nov1 editsOriginal ↗