Freelance Economics Expert - AI Trainer

Mindrift; Johannesburg; Remote; ZAR 200 000 - 300 000; Part time

Job summary

A flexible project-based AI consultancy is seeking candidates for part-time roles that involve creating complex tasks for AI systems. Ideal applicants hold a higher degree in Economics or a related field and have strong analytical skills. Successful candidates will engage in innovative AI projects on their own schedule while being compensated for their expertise, with rates up to $21/hour depending on experience. Excellent English proficiency and experience with AI-generated content are key to this opportunity.

Benefits

Flexible working hours

Competitive pay rates up to $21/hour

Experience on advanced AI projects

Qualifications

• Advanced English level (C1) or above.
• Minimum 3 years industry experience in relevant economics fields.
• Strong GPA (3.5-4) required.

Responsibilities

• Create tasks pushing frontier AI agents to their limits.
• Build detailed and ambiguous versions of tasks for AI training.

Skills

Critical thinking

Analytical thinking

Creativity in design

Ability to write clearly

Education

Bachelor's, Master's or PhD in Economics

Tools

LLMs exposure

Job description

This opportunity is only for candidates currently residing in the specified country. Your location may affect eligibility and rates. Please submit your resume in English and indicate your level of English proficiency.

At Mindrift, innovation meets opportunity. We believe in using the power of collective intelligence to ethically shape the future of AI.

What We Do

The Mindrift platform, launched and powered by Toloka, connects domain experts with cutting‑edge AI projects from innovative tech clients. Our mission is to unlock the potential of GenAI by tapping into real‑world expertise from across the globe.

Who we're looking for:

We're looking for curious and intellectually proactive contributors, the kind of person who double‑checks assumptions and plays devil's advocate.

Are you comfortable with ambiguity and complexity? Does an async, remote, flexible opportunity sound exciting? Would you like to learn how modern AI systems are tested and evaluated?

This is a flexible, project‑based opportunity well‑suited for:

• Analysts, researchers, experienced professionals and consultants with strong critical thinking skills.
• People open to a part‑time and non‑permanent opportunity.

About the project:

You will create complex, realistic tasks that push frontier AI agents to their limits. Think scattered data, conditional procedures, and genuine domain expertise required. You'll build a detailed version with objective scoring, then write an ambiguous version intended to train the agent to succeed with less hand‑holding. Real expert complexity only. You're improving the AI tools you'll eventually use yourself.

How to get started:

Apply to this post and get the chance to contribute to projects aligned with your skills, on your own schedule. To begin working in production, you'll need to complete the qualification step and project onboarding, where you'll get familiar with the guidelines interface and try your first real task with guidance from our quality team. From creating training prompts to refining model responses, you'd be directly shaping how useful these models become for your own future work.

Requirements

• You hold a Bachelor's, Master's or PhD Degree in Economics or relevant fields with a strong GPA (3.5‑4).
• You have a professional industry experience in accounting with a minimum of 3 years in relevant economics fields (Economics Experts, Analysts, researchers, or consultants).
• Your level of English is advanced (C1) or above.
• You are able to write clearly and professionally, including explaining complex tasks in simple, structured language as well as analyze and synthesize information from multiple sources and turn it into accurate, coherent outputs.
• You have excellent analytical thinking and strong attention to detail skills.
• You bring creativity in designing realistic and engaging examples, cases, or workflows based on your domain knowledge.
• You have exposure to LLMs, prompt engineering, or AI‑generated content with some understanding of how scoring or evaluation works in agent testing (precision, coverage, etc.).
• You are ready to learn new methods, able to switch between tasks and topics quickly and sometimes work with challenging, complex guidelines.
• Our freelance role is fully remote so you just need a laptop, internet connection, time available and enthusiasm to take on a challenge.

Benefits

Why this freelance opportunity might be a great fit for you?

• Get paid for your expertise, with rates that can go up to $21/hour depending on your skills, experience, and project needs.
• Take part in a part‑time, remote, freelance project that fits around your primary professional or academic commitments.
• Work on advanced AI projects and gain valuable experience that enhances your portfolio.
• Influence how future AI models understand and communicate in your field of expertise.