Research Operations Specialist - Grants

About the job

Mercor connects elite creative and technical talent with leading AI research labs. Headquartered in San Francisco, our investors include Benchmark, General Catalyst, Peter Thiel, Adam D'Angelo, Larry Summers, and Jack Dorsey.

Position: Research Operations & Administration Expert
Type: Contract
Compensation: $45–$65/hour
Location: Remote

Role Responsibilities

• Build a realistic digital workspace centered on the Drive folders you use daily. Include grant proposals, budgets, IRB/IACUC protocols, and compliance training records.
• Design multi-step tasks grounded in real workflows. Navigate multiple apps, files, and stakeholders to challenge frontier AI agents.
• Collaborate with other experts to design the environment, shape task scope, and review scenarios for realism and rigor.
• Work asynchronously with research teams to refine task designs and evaluation criteria for research-administration agent benchmarks.
• Contribute to frontier AI research and benchmarking. Inform how leading labs train and evaluate the next generation of AI systems.

Qualifications

Must-Have

• 3+ years of full-time experience at a top R1 university, academic medical center, federal research agency, or large research nonprofit.
• Background in pre-award grants management, post-award financial/compliance management, sponsored-programs administration, or research compliance.
• Day-to-day use of SharePoint, Box, DocuSign, Mendeley, EndNote, and ADP Workforce Now/UKG Pro.
• Strong analytical thinking and writing skills.

Preferred

• Certifications: CRA, CPRA, CFRA.

Compensation & Legal

• Compensation will transition from an hourly rate to a model based on throughput of quality work.

Application Process (Takes 20–30 mins to complete)

• Upload resume
• AI interview based on your resume
• Submit form

Resources & Support

• For details about the interview process and platform information, please check: https://talent.docs.mercor.com/welcome
• For any help or support, reach out to: [email protected]

PS: Our team reviews applications daily. Please complete your AI interview and application steps to be considered for this opportunity.