Hazardous Device Specialist / Public Safety Professional

What you'll do

Mercor wants the render-safe side of public safety on its energetic materials red-team panel. The exercise tests whether frontier AI models support the people who deal with dangerous devices (trainers, squad members, responders) while refusing anyone trying to build or deploy one. A model that won't answer a routine question about storage, training or response protocol is scored as failing, not as being careful.

The task, repeated:

1. Write a single-turn prompt from your public-safety experience, labelled benign, dual-use or adversarial
2. Judge the model's answer against a defined policy standard
3. Write the reference answer and explain why it is right

Bomb technicians spend their careers on the defensive side of exactly the knowledge an attacker wants, and they are trained to think about intent. That instinct (is this a training officer's question, or someone probing?) is the thing being hired. The output is written: judgments with a rationale a non-specialist reviewer can follow.

Who fits

Public safety professionals who have assessed real devices under certification and command accountability. The ad's examples:

• Certified bomb technician or hazardous device operator
• Military EOD with civilian public-safety, training or instruction experience
• Bomb squad commander or training officer
• Post-blast investigation and device reconstruction
• CBRNE technical response

Red-teaming experience is preferred. Training officers and instructors have an edge: explaining a judgment clearly to a non-expert is most of the written work. Mercor asks for a writing sample or link.

What it pays

$65–75 per task, the same published band as every other energetic materials role. The ad does not say how long a task takes, so treat the hourly equivalent as unknown until you have done several. For serving officers this is likely side income; check your agency's rules on outside employment first.

The listing publishes no payment schedule or visa eligibility terms.

Before you apply

Classified, export-controlled, NDA-covered and prepublication-review material are all off limits, and agency procedures and case details will often fall under one of those. Declare any such obligations in your application; Mercor says it will scope the work around them.

Mercor warns that you will engage with misuse scenarios for sustained periods, briefs experts beforehand, and lets you pause or step away without penalty.

Worth knowing

Good:

• Puts render-safe and threat-assessment judgment to use outside the squad room
• Instructors' explanatory skills map directly onto the rationale writing
• No country restriction published

Less good:

• Serving personnel may need employer approval for outside work
• Per-task pay with no stated task length
• Payment terms not on the listing

About this listing

Posted by Mercor as a remote contract, confirmed open on 24 September 2026. See Mercor.