Investment Banking & M&A - Finance Domain Expert

What you'll do

This is the deal-specialist version of Mercor's Bay Area Finance Domain Expert placement. The job description is word-for-word the same; what changes is who it is aimed at and what it pays. Mercor is recruiting investment bankers and M&A practitioners specifically, and paying $40–50 an hour more for them than for the generalist seat.

For six months, full-time, you work with a leading AI lab's research and program management teams on the lab's own tools and equipment:

• Data QA: vet finance tasks and model outputs for missing steps, thin reasoning and flawed assumptions, the kind of work a VP would send back to an associate
• Instruction specs and golden solutions: write the specs and the reference answers that define "correct", and define new tasks that reflect how deals actually get done
• Benchmarks: build hard finance evaluation sets and domain-specific tools with the researchers
• Calibration: translate banker judgment into explicit criteria with researchers and adjacent specialists

For a banker, the obvious raw material is the work you know best: valuation, merger models, fairness analysis, diligence and execution, though the ad itself describes the scope in general finance terms.

Who qualifies

• 5+ years of dedicated finance experience at a recognised institution (investment bank, asset manager, PE or credit fund, Big Four, large corporate finance function, or regulator); peripheral finance roles do not count
• Genuine specialisation, here investment banking and M&A
• Progression to VP, Director, Principal or MD level, with real ownership of analysis and decisions
• An MBA, MS or PhD from a strong program and/or a CFA, CPA, FRM or actuarial designation, strongly preferred
• Hands-on professional use of LLMs
• 40 hours a week for an initial 6 months
• Living in the Bay Area, or relocating at your own cost before the start

What it pays

$100–150 per hour. On 40 hours a week that annualises to roughly $208,000–312,000, which for many VPs is competitive with base salary and without the deal hours. The Private Equity & Venture Capital sibling pays $110–150.

Employment terms

Full-time W-2 employment with Cincinnatus LLC, the employer of record separate from Mercor, handling payroll, benefits and compliance. Pay frequency and visa terms are not published on the listing.

Worth knowing

Good:

• The highest-paid seat in this Bay Area program after PE
• W-2 with benefits
• Predictable 40-hour weeks rather than banking hours

Less good:

• Hybrid Bay Area only, relocation self-funded
• Six-month initial term, with nothing stated about what follows
• A $50 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. Pay, location rules, hours and qualifications are the ad's own. See Mercor.