Surety Underwriter - Bond Specialist

Obsidian; San Francisco (CA); On-site; USD 909,000 - 1,295,000; Full time

Job summary

Mercor is partnering with a leading AI lab to train frontier models on insurance reasoning data. We are hiring Surety Underwriters and Bond Specialists to design realistic bonding, credit analysis and bond-claim scenarios, and to evaluate model outputs against market standards.

Role focuses on bid, performance and payment bonds, capacity analysis, and credit judgments. 20+ hours weekly, conversion to hourly pay after onboarding, with immediate rolling applications.

Qualifications

• Have 2+ years of professional experience in surety underwriting or related fields.
• Able to read contractor financial statements and convert them to capacity/credit conclusions.
• Understand indemnity, collateral and subrogation in surety contexts.

Responsibilities

• Design bonding scenarios across bid, performance and payment bonds.
• Produce credit analyses, bond approvals/declinations, and indemnity requirements.
• Provide written feedback to improve model behavior and participate in onboarding sessions.

Skills

Underwriting experience

Credit analysis

Bond knowledge

Job description

Compensation: all experts are paid a flat $800 upon successful completion of the onboarding process, which we estimate takes approximately 10 hours. After successfully completing onboarding, you will be converted to $80/hour.

About the Role

Mercor is partnering with a leading AI lab to train frontier models on high-quality insurance reasoning data. We're hiring Surety Underwriters & Bond Specialists to design realistic bonding, credit-analysis and bond-claim scenarios, evaluate model outputs against established market standards, and help shape how the next generation of AI reasons about contractor capacity, obligee requirements and default resolution.

We welcome contract and commercial surety underwriters, bond producers, surety claims professionals, and surety credit analysts from carriers, agencies, reinsurers and bond departments. Surety is a credit-driven discipline distinct from hazard underwriting, and this role reflects that.

What You'll Do

• Design realistic scenarios involving bid, performance and payment bonds, single and aggregate capacity, work-in-progress analysis, indemnity and collateral, commercial and court bonds, and bond-default resolution
• Create work products such as capacity recommendations, credit analyses, bond approvals and declinations, obligee form reviews, indemnity requirements and claim-resolution strategies
• Write "golden" reference responses at experienced surety-professional quality
• Grade AI-generated responses against structured rubrics for credit judgment, capacity reasoning, contract and bond-form accuracy, and default-resolution realism
• Identify misread financial statements, overstated capacity, confusion between surety and insurance obligations, mishandled obligee requirements, and unrealistic default or recovery strategies
• Provide written feedback the research team uses to improve model behavior
• Participate in onboarding office hours and calibration sessions

You're a Good Fit If You

• Have 2+ years of professional experience in surety underwriting, surety claims, or contract-surety credit analysis
• Have worked with at least one bond category, such as contract surety, commercial surety, court and fiduciary bonds, license and permit bonds, or subdivision bonds
• Can read contractor financial statements and work-in-progress schedules and translate them into capacity and credit conclusions
• Understand the three-party surety relationship and how indemnity, collateral and subrogation differ from insurance loss payment
• Demonstrate excellent written reasoning, commercial and credit judgment, and high attention to detail
• Can distinguish surety credit decisions from property-casualty risk underwriting and ordinary claim adjudication

Bonus Qualifications

• AFSB, CPCU, ARM, CPA, or comparable designation
• Both underwriting and surety-claims experience
• Experience with AIA and other standard bond forms, or with public-works statutory bond requirements
• Contractor default resolution: takeover, tender, financing or completion-agreement experience
• SBA bond guarantee, funds control, or small and emerging contractor program experience

Role Highlights

• Minimum 20 hours per week (ideally 40+)
• Role starts immediately, applications reviewed on a rolling basis