Finance (Contract, Remote)

Patronus AI; United States; Remote; USD 69,000 - 207,000; Part time

Job summary

Patronus AI is seeking experienced finance professionals on an independent contractor basis to design and evaluate finance-related AI tasks. You will create working documents, articulate task requests, solve end-to-end and document solutions, and define precise scoring rubrics for evaluation.

The role is remote with flexible hours and rolling start dates. Ideal candidates have 3+ years in accounting, financial reporting, or audit, with strong US GAAP knowledge, excellent Excel skills, and

Qualifications

• 3+ years hands-on experience in accounting, financial reporting, or audit.
• Working knowledge of US GAAP, IFRS, PCAOB or AICPA auditing standards.
• Strong spreadsheet skills and the habit of tying figures back to their source.
• Clear, precise writing in professional English.
• Ability to work independently and asynchronously against deadlines.

Responsibilities

• Build realistic evidence files from a provided scenario, such as trial balances and reconciliations, financial models and investment memos, and audit workpapers and evidence.
• Write task requests that state the deliverable and say how uncertainty and justified assumptions should be handled.
• Solve each task end to end and document a reference solution with the reasoning behind every step.
• Write scoring criteria precise enough that two independent graders reach the same verdict, including acceptable alternative answers.
• Check your own and your peers' tasks for accuracy and ambiguity.
• Explain to our research team how work in your area is actually done: the steps, the documents, who does what, and where things go wrong.
• Review the scenarios and documents our team builds from that research, and flag anything a practitioner would find unrealistic.

Skills

Financial reporting

US GAAP knowledge

Auditing standards

Excel proficiency

Tools

Excel

Job description

Pay: $50-150/hr

About Patronus AI

Patronus AI is a frontier lab developing simulation research and infrastructure to accelerate progress toward human-aligned AGI. We are on a mission to simulate all of the world's intelligence.

We are the team behind some of the earliest and most influential research in AI evaluation like FinanceBench, Lynx, SimpleSafetyTests, CopyrightCatcher, Humanity's Last Exam, and more. We are formerly AI researchers and engineers from companies like Meta AI, Amazon AGI, and Google. Our customers include foundation model labs and Fortune 500 enterprises like Adobe. We are backed by top-tier investors like Lightspeed Venture Partners, Notable Capital, Stanford University, Noam Brown, Gokul Rajaram, and more.

At a glance

• Engagement: Independent contractor, fully remote, asynchronous
• Pay: $50 to $150 per hour. Some projects pay per task instead: you are paid when the full task is submitted, with a bonus for each accepted task. Strong performers move up within that range or onto productivity-based pay. The trial task is paid.
• Commitment: 10 or more hours per week
• Start: Rolling
• Location: Remote

The role

You'll work with our research team on two things. The first is helping us understand how work in your area is actually done. The second is designing realistic finance tasks that a qualified professional could solve with the right knowledge and tools, and that today's AI models get wrong.

Each task starts from a scenario we provide. You create the working documents someone in your role would handle, write the request, solve it yourself and define how the answer is graded. Your work becomes evaluation and training data for frontier models.

You don't need an AI background. You do need to be the kind of finance professional who catches the number that ties out but shouldn't.

Areas we're hiring for

Each area is defined by the deliverable you own, so you should fit exactly one. If you work across two, apply under the one where you spend most of your time.

• Accounting and financial reporting. Accountants, controllers and reporting teams who post journals and accruals, reconcile accounts and run the month-end and year-end close. They produce GAAP or IFRS statements and disclosures and operate the controls behind them. Typical titles: Staff Accountant, Senior Accountant, Accounting Manager, Assistant Controller, Controller, Financial Reporting Manager.
• Corporate finance, valuation and M&A. Investment banking, private equity, equity research and corporate development professionals who build three-statement models, DCFs and comps. They run diligence, write investment memos and pitch materials, and structure and price transactions. Typical titles: Investment Banking Analyst or Associate, Private Equity Associate, Equity Research Associate, Corporate Development Manager, Valuation Analyst.
• Audit and assurance. External, internal and government auditors who plan and test controls, including SOX and ITGC testing. They work from walkthroughs and evidence to workpapers, exceptions, findings and remediation. Testing a control belongs here. Designing and operating it belongs to accounting. Typical titles: External Audit Associate through Manager, Internal Auditor, IT Auditor, SOX Analyst, Government Auditor.

What you'll do

• Build realistic evidence files from a provided scenario, such as trial balances and reconciliations, financial models and investment memos, and audit workpapers and evidence.
• Write task requests that state the deliverable and say how uncertainty and justified assumptions should be handled.
• Solve each task end to end and document a reference solution with the reasoning behind every step.
• Write scoring criteria precise enough that two independent graders reach the same verdict, including acceptable alternative answers.
• Check your own and your peers' tasks for accuracy and ambiguity.
• Work in reviewer feedback within agreed turnaround times, and flag guideline gaps or edge cases you run into.
• Explain to our research team how work in your area is actually done: the steps, the documents, who does what, and where things go wrong.
• Review the scenarios and documents our team builds from that research, and flag anything a practitioner would find unrealistic.

Who we're looking for

Required

• 3+ years of hands-on experience in at least one of the areas above, in accounting, financial reporting, investment banking, private equity, equity research, corporate development or audit. You did the work yourself; supervising it is not enough.
• Working command of the standards, controls and rules in your area. Examples: US GAAP or IFRS, PCAOB & AICPA auditing standards, SOX, or valuation methods and deal mechanics.
• Strong spreadsheet skills and the habit of tying every figure back to its source.
• Clear, precise writing in professional English.
• Ability to work independently and asynchronously against deadlines.

Nice to have

• Prior experience writing or reviewing AI evaluation tasks, exam questions, case studies or training material.
• Familiarity with how AI models fail.

Our standards

• All tasks, documents and solutions are human-authored. LLM-generated content is not permitted.
• Tasks and solutions must be original. Nothing may be copied from published or easily searchable sources.
• Never use real client, employer or personal data. All scenarios are fictional.
• Quality is judged on accuracy, rubric validity, difficulty and reviewer agreement, not volume.

How hiring works

1. Short AI interview and resume review
2. One paid trial task, scored against a fixed quality checklist
3. Onboarding and your first project

Patronus AI is an equal opportunity employer. We celebrate diversity in our workplace, and all qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to age, ancestry, color, family or medical care leave, gender identity or expression, genetic information, marital status, medical condition, national origin, physical or mental disability, political affiliation, protected veteran status, race, religion, sex (including pregnancy), sexual orientation, or other legally protected characteristics.