Accounting & Audit Domain Expert

What you'll do

The accounting seat in the same Bay Area program as the Insurance Domain Expert: a full-time, six-month placement with a leading AI lab's research and program management teams, on client-issued equipment and inside the lab's own tools.

The bar the ad sets for your reviews is a useful one: answers "that read well but would not survive review by a reviewing partner." That is the standard you apply across four strands of work:

• Data QA and review: vet accounting and audit tasks and model outputs for thin reasoning, misapplied standards and unsupported accounting treatments
• Instruction specs and golden datasets: write the specs, produce golden solutions to accounting and audit problems, and define tasks that reflect how the work is really done
• Benchmarks: design hard accounting and audit evaluation sets, and help build domain-specific skills and tools with researchers
• Calibration: turn tacit accounting judgment into explicit, teachable criteria with researchers and adjacent specialists

If you would rather stay remote and freelance, Mercor's Accounting Expert and Accounting Expert (CL Funnel) contracts cover similar ground from a task queue rather than the lab floor.

Who qualifies

• An active professional credential (CPA, CA, CIA, CFE or CMA are the examples) plus a bachelor's or master's in accounting or a closely related field
• 4+ years of accounting or audit experience at a recognised institution: a public accounting firm, a corporate controllership or finance function, internal audit, or a regulator. Bookkeeping-only roles do not count
• A real specialism: external audit and assurance, technical accounting and reporting under US GAAP or IFRS, internal audit and SOX, tax, forensic accounting and fraud examination, or revenue recognition
• Senior progression (Audit Manager, Senior Manager, Controller, Director of Accounting, Partner) with ownership of engagements or reporting cycles
• Hands-on professional LLM use and the judgment to catch a confident wrong answer
• 40 hours a week for an initial 6 months
• Living in the Bay Area or relocating at your own cost before the start

CIA and CFE holders are named alongside CPAs, which opens this to internal auditors and fraud examiners who are often overlooked for expert AI roles.

What it pays

$60–100 per hour, the same band as the insurance seat. At 40 hours a week that is about $125,000–208,000 on an annual basis.

Employment terms

A full-time W-2 position with Cincinnatus LLC, a separate staffing company acting as employer of record (payroll, benefits, compliance). Pay frequency and visa terms are not published on the listing.

Worth knowing

Good:

• W-2 with benefits
• Internal audit, forensic and tax specialists are all in scope
• Direct influence on how the lab measures accounting ability

Less good:

• Hybrid Bay Area only, relocation at your own cost
• Full-time for six months, so not compatible with a current role
• A $40-wide band with no stated placement criteria
• The lab is not named

About this listing

Posted by Mercor for a Cincinnatus LLC placement, confirmed open on 24 September 2026. Credentials, location rules, hours and pay are the ad's own. See Mercor.