Research Grants Coordinator

ABOUT MERCOR

Mercor’s mission is to organize human intelligence for the AI economy. We build the infrastructure that enables frontier AI labs and enterprises to train, evaluate, and improve AI on real-world professional work. More than five million experts have joined our network, and we pay out over $5 million daily for their knowledge and expertise.

We built our training and evaluation infrastructure alongside the world’s leading AI labs. Now, we’re bringing those capabilities to enterprises across industries, enabling them to train, evaluate, and improve AI using their own expertise and standards. Our APEX benchmarks measure how AI performs on economically valuable work, while our enterprise evaluations and post-training capabilities turn those insights into measurable improvements across real-world workflows.

Our work sits at the intersection of frontier AI, human expertise, and real-world application. We’re solving problems few companies have encountered, with the opportunity to influence what the world’s most advanced AI systems become capable of doing. We’re looking for people who bring different perspectives, take ownership, exercise sound judgment, and hold themselves to an exceptionally high standard. You’ll have the opportunity to do consequential work alongside talented colleagues who challenge one another, collaborate openly, and share a commitment to excellence.

Mercor is profitable and recently raised a $750 million Series D at a $20 billion valuation. We work in person five days a week in San Francisco, New York, and London.

About the Role We’re looking for a Research Grants Coordinator to help run Mercor’s research funding programs. Initially, you’ll be responsible for $10m of funding.

You’ll work closely with our research team and external researchers to move promising projects from initial application through funding, delivery, and publication. You’ll coordinate the day-to-day grantmaking process, build relationships across the research community, and make sure applicants and grantees receive clear, timely support. This role suits someone who is highly organized, enjoys working with researchers, and takes ownership of getting things done.

What You’ll Do

• Coordinate the grant process: Manage applications, organize reviews with Mercor researchers, track decisions, and keep applicants informed.
• Outbound to grantees: Reach out to applicants and potential applicants to make them aware and keep them informed of the grants process.
• Support grantees: Serve as the main operational contact for funded researchers, coordinating onboarding, answering questions, and connecting them with relevant people and resources.
• Keep projects moving: Track milestones, budgets, and deliverables; follow up on progress; and flag issues early.
• Coordinate agreements and payments: Work with legal, finance, and operations to get grants set up and funding delivered on time.
• Build research relationships: Identify prospective applicants, support outreach to universities and research organizations, and help grow the community around Mercor’s funding programs.
• Communicate results: Coordinate project updates, publications, and announcements, and help the team understand what funded projects have achieved.
• Improve how we work: Build straightforward systems for tracking grants, managing communications, and reporting on program progress.
• Organize events: Organize kickoff, checkin, and wrapup events for grantees and the wider research community.

What We’re Looking For

• Experience: Ideally 2–3 years in program coordination, research operations, grant administration, consulting, or a related role.
• Organization: Strong attention to detail and the ability to manage multiple projects, deadlines, and relationships.
• Communication: Clear, concise writing and confidence working with researchers, applicants, and internal teams.
• Ownership: You follow through, resolve problems independently, and know when to ask for input.
• Research interest: Curiosity about AI research and the ability to understand and summarize a project’s goals and progress.
• Practical judgment: Comfortable handling confidential proposals and funding information, adapting to changing priorities, and improving processes as you go.

Compensation

• $10K proximity bonus (if you live within 0.5 miles of our office)
• $1.5K monthly stipend for meals
• Free Equinox membership
• $200 monthly laundry reimbursement
• $200 monthly personal wellness reimbursement
• Health, Dental, Vision insurance
• 401(k) with company match
• Up to $15k Relocation bonus