AI Safety Specialist - Fully Remote

Mercor; New York (NY); Remote; USD 85,000 - 120,000; Full time

Job summary

Mercor is building a remote AI red team to test and strengthen safety for conversational models. This role involves evaluating AI outputs for bias, safety risks, and failure modes in a text-based setting.

You’ll jailbreak, prompt-inject, and explore adversarial scenarios, generating high-quality data and reproducible reports. Fluency in English and Kannada is required, plus strong judgment and clear communication across technical audiences.

Qualifications

• Proven ability to assess AI outputs for accuracy, completeness and safety.
• Attention to subtle errors, inconsistencies and gaps.
• Ability to follow guidelines and quality standards.

Responsibilities

• Red team conversational AI models and agents: jailbreaks, prompt injections, misuse cases, bias exploitation, multi-turn manipulation
• Generate high-quality human data: annotate failures, classify vulnerabilities, and flag systemic risks
• Apply structure: follow taxonomies, benchmarks, and playbooks to keep testing consistent
• Document reproducibly: produce reports, datasets, and attack cases customers can act on

Skills

Red team thinking

Adversarial testing

Strong judgment

Rigorous attention

Structured communication

Adaptability

Job description

Location

Remote

Fluent Language Skills Required

English & Kannada. Native fluency in English and Kannada is required for this position.

Why This Role Exists

At Mercor, we believe the safest AI is the one that’s already been attacked — by us. We are assembling a red team for this project - human data experts who probe AI models with adversarial inputs, surface vulnerabilities, and generate the red team data that makes AI safer for our customers.

This project involves reviewing AI outputs that touch on sensitive topics such as bias, misinformation, or harmful behaviors. All work is text-based, and participation in higher-sensitivity projects is optional and supported by clear guidelines and wellness resources. Before being exposed to any content, the topics will be clearly communicated.

What You’ll Do

• Red team conversational AI models and agents: jailbreaks, prompt injections, misuse cases, bias exploitation, multi-turn manipulation

• Generate high-quality human data: annotate failures, classify vulnerabilities, and flag systemic risks

• Apply structure: follow taxonomies, benchmarks, and playbooks to keep testing consistent

• Document reproducibly: produce reports, datasets, and attack cases customers can act on

Who You Are

• You bring strong judgment about language and content: you can tell whether an AI response is accurate, complete, and appropriate, and explain why

• You’re rigorous: you notice subtle errors, inconsistencies, and gaps that others skim past

• You’re structured: you work to guidelines and quality standards consistently, not ad hoc

• You’re communicative: you explain your reasoning clearly to technical and non-technical audiences

• You’re adaptable: you thrive moving across projects, task types, and customers

Nice-to-Have Specialties

• Adversarial ML: jailbreak datasets, prompt injection, RLHF/DPO attacks, model extraction

• Cybersecurity: penetration testing, exploit development, reverse engineering

• Socio-technical risk: harassment/disinfo probing, abuse analysis, conversational AI testing

• Creative probing: psychology, acting, writing for unconventional adversarial thinking

What Success Looks Like

• You uncover vulnerabilities automated tests miss

• You deliver reproducible artifacts that strengthen customer AI systems

• Evaluation coverage expands: more scenarios tested, fewer surprises in production

• Mercor customers trust the safety of their AI because you’ve already probed it like an adversary

Why Join Mercor

• Build experience in human data-driven AI red teaming at the frontier of safety

• Play a direct role in making AI systems more robust, safe, and trustworthy