Workforce Development Specialist - AI Trainer

Obsidian; Dallas (TX); On-site; USD 9,486 - 11,160; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Performance bonuses

Compensation for task completion

Job summary

Obsidian is looking for vocational and workforce-training professionals to design realistic environments for AI assessment through Project Atlas. The role requires building digital workspaces that reflect real-world training scenarios, along with designing complex tasks for AI benchmarking.

The ideal candidate will have over 3 years of experience in community college systems or corporate training settings, with expertise in curriculum design and a strong grasp of relevant digital tools like Google Classroom and SharePoint.

Compensation includes task completion pay and performance bonuses based on task quality.

Qualifications

• 3+ years of experience in vocational training or L&D.
• Familiarity with competency-based assessments.
• Experience in using digital platforms for education.

Responsibilities

• Build realistic digital workspaces with real training tools.
• Design complex tasks based on actual workflows.
• Collaborate with peers to ensure realism and rigor.

Skills

Curriculum and instructional design

Apprenticeship program administration

Competency-based assessment

Analytical thinking

Tools

Google Classroom

Google Forms

SharePoint

Job description

Role Overview

Mercor is partnering with leading AI labs on Project Atlas — an initiative to build realistic enterprise environments that frontier AI agents are trained and evaluated in. We’re seeking experienced vocational and workforce‑training professionals from large community college systems, union apprenticeship programs, and Fortune 500 corporate training organizations to recreate the digital workspaces they use every day and design the tasks that genuinely challenge state‑of‑the‑art AI.

You’ll bring your expertise in curriculum design, competency assessment, apprenticeship administration, and skills‑credentialing to build a high‑fidelity environment that mirrors the tools, files, and workflows of real workforce‑development work — and then author tasks grounded in the programs you actually run today.

Key Responsibilities

• Build a realistic digital workspace centered on the Drive folders you use day‑to‑day — the curricula, competency rubrics, lesson plans, apprentice records, credentialing paperwork, and email threads that reflect how you actually organize your work — with some representation of the apps that support it (e.g., Google Classroom, Google Forms, SharePoint).
• Design multi‑step tasks grounded in your real workflows that require navigating multiple apps, files, and stakeholders in a way that meaningfully challenges frontier AI agents.
• Collaborate with other vocational and workforce‑training experts in your field to design the environment, shape task scope, and review each other’s scenarios for realism and rigor.
• Work asynchronously with research teams to refine task designs and evaluation criteria for workforce‑training agent benchmarks.
• Contribute to frontier AI research and benchmarking — the work you produce directly informs how leading labs train and evaluate the next generation of AI systems.

Ideal Qualifications

• 3+ years of full‑time experience at a large community college system, major union training trust, or Fortune 500 corporate training / L&D organization.
• Background in one or more areas such as:
  • Curriculum and instructional design for skilled trades or technical programs
  • Apprenticeship program administration (DOL/state‑registered)
  • Competency‑based assessment and credentialing (NOCTI, NCCER, etc.)
  • Workforce development policy and funding (WIOA, Perkins)
  • Corporate training / L&D with a technical or manufacturing emphasis
• Day‑to‑day use of platforms like Google Classroom, Google Forms, and SharePoint / Box.
• Strong analytical thinking and writing — able to translate training workflows into structured task specs.

Compensation Note

• Task Completion Pay: Competitive and based on task quality (~$850 – $1,000 per completed task, subject to change as the project evolves).
• Performance Bonus: Top performers receive a weekly bonus incentive on top of their per task rate!
• Hourly Opportunity: Top performers may be invited to transition to an hourly compensation model based on sustained quality and throughput.