People Operations AI Research Contributor

Aptura; Dubai; Remote; AED 364,000 - 546,000; Full time

Job summary

Aptura is seeking Subject Matter Experts in people ops, HR or workforce planning to design realistic Excel tasks that test AI performance in People Ops analytics. You will craft tasks from real work, validate them personally, and define precise yes-no criteria for automated grading.

The engagement is fully remote and task-based, with weekly payments. Start date is immediate and project duration is approximately 4–6 weeks, with potential extensions based on needs and performance.

Qualifications

• 3+ years in people operations, HR analytics, total rewards or workforce planning.
• Hands-on Excel: headcount and comp models, named ranges, multi-criteria lookups, pivot tables and conditional formatting.
• Strong written English communication.
• Attention to detail, and willingness to learn concepts in AI and Evals.

Responsibilities

• Write realistic Excel tasks drawn from your own work: extending existing models, fixing broken ones and building from a brief.
• Working through each task yourself so there is a clear, correct answer.
• Writing yes-or-no criteria precise enough that a grader can mark any attempt against them.

Skills

People operations experience

HR analytics

Total rewards

Workforce planning

Strong written English

Tools

Excel

Job description

About The Role

Aptura is looking for Subject Matter Experts from people ops, HR or workforce planning, across headcount, compensation or org design, who build headcount plans, comp models and people analytics in Excel. You have used AI tools on your own work and been frustrated by the mistakes they make. You will turn that experience into realistic Excel tasks that test how well AI does the work of a People Ops Analyst.

Responsibilities

• Writing realistic Excel tasks drawn from your own work: extending existing models, fixing broken ones and building from a brief
• Working through each task yourself so there is a clear, correct answer
• Writing yes-or-no criteria precise enough that a grader can mark any attempt against them

Necessary Qualifications

• 3+ years in people operations, HR analytics, total rewards or workforce planning, covering headcount, compensation, benefits or org design
• Deep hands-on Excel: headcount and comp models, named ranges, multi-criteria lookups, pivot tables and conditional formatting
• Strong written English communication skills.
• Attention to detail, and willingness to learn concepts in AI and Evals

Additional Information

• Start Date : Immediate
• Duration: Approximately 4-6 weeks
• Payment: task-based. Experts who complete their first task within the required timeline will then be qualified to do multiple tasks for the remainder of the project.

Contract and Payment Terms

• You will be engaged as an independent contractor.
• This is a fully remote role that can be completed on your own schedule.
• Projects can be extended, shortened, or concluded early depending on needs and performance.
• Your work at Aptura will not involve access to confidential or proprietary information from any employer, client, or institution.
• Payments will be weekly following task completion.

Getting Started

• Attend the walkthrough and create one original task from your own work. Submit the brief, the actual input workbook(s) needed to complete it. Input-file uploads are compulsory.
• Write the brief yourself. Input workbooks must also be human-built. Use real data that has been sanitised, or public data with the source named. No AI usage allowed.
• We run your task against current frontier AI models. If the models get it wrong, you then write a detailed yes-or-no rubric, and a reviewer signs off on the task with you.
• Completing onboarding does not guarantee a job offer; selection remains subject to written approval of the task proposal.

About Aptura

Aptura is an applied AI and data company working with frontier labs to train AI systems on real professional work. We do this by building high-quality evaluation and training environments that teach AI agents to produce work that can be used in daily workflows.