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Mercor · Finance & specialist

Cybersecurity Research Expert – Offensive Security & Vulnerability Research - review AI outputs in your specialty

Listed on Mercor as “Cybersecurity Research Expert - Offensive Security & Vulnerability Research”

$200-$250/hrRemoteContractPaid in USD
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How this rate compares

This listing

$200–$250 per hour

Typical in Finance & specialist

$60–$100 per hour

Above the typical range

Typical: the middle of the lowest and highest rates posted by 345 listings in this category on Seoulstart, in US dollars.

What this actually is

You bring your specialist expertise to AI evaluation. The shape of the work varies but the pattern is the same: review outputs, rate quality, write prompts, flag errors. The platform title (Cybersecurity Research Expert - Offensive Security & Vulnerability Research) reflects the rate band and the expertise required, not the day-to-day work.

How Mercor picks people

  1. Upload your CV and answer the role's written questions.
  2. Do a video interview with Mercor's AI interviewer. Most take about 20 minutes, in English unless the role says otherwise.
  3. Some roles add a skills test. A test you pass once counts for similar roles.
  4. The project team reviews your results and sends offers to the people it picks.

Before you start

  • Take Mercor's free practice interview first. It does not count toward any application.
  • Use Chrome on a computer with a camera and microphone, in a quiet room.
  • You can retake an official interview up to 3 times, but hiring teams see how many times you retook it.

Not every applicant gets an offer. Prepare well for the interview.

How to prepare for the Mercor interview

Source: Mercor's help pages. talent.docs.mercor.com

Can you do this on your visa?

F-2 / F-4 / F-5 / F-6: open. E-1 to E-7: needs concurrent-employment permit. D-2 / D-4 students: S-3 permit, 20 hr/week cap. D-10 / D-8: case by case.

Korean tax on USD income

First 5 years in Korea: foreign-source income only taxed if remitted into Korea. After year 5: worldwide income. Full tax guide.

Original posting from Mercor

We're looking for highly accomplished Cybersecurity Research Experts to help evaluate cutting-edge AI systems in advanced security reasoning, vulnerability analysis, exploit development, and secure software engineering. This project is ideal for practitioners with a strong track record in offensive security research and publicly recognised technical contributions.

What You'll Do

  • Evaluate AI-generated analyses of complex cybersecurity scenarios, exploits, and vulnerability reports.
  • Review technical writeups for correctness, exploitability, and mitigation quality.
  • Validate vulnerability root-cause analysis across software, operating systems, networking, cloud, and web applications.
  • Provide structured feedback on security reasoning, exploit chains, and defensive recommendations.
  • Contribute to benchmark development for advanced AI security capabilities.

Ideal Background

We are looking for candidates with multiple of the following credentials:

  • Member of a top-ranked Capture The Flag (CTF) team with demonstrated competitive achievements.
  • Discoverer or co-author of CVEs affecting widely used open-source or commercial software.
  • Publicly recognised bug bounty researcher with findings accepted by major programs (e.g., Google, Microsoft, Apple, Meta, GitHub, Mozilla, Chromium, Kubernetes, Linux Foundation, etc.).
  • Research experience at a well-respected security laboratory or academic research group (e.g., KAIST Security Lab, SSLab, university security research groups, or equivalent industry research organisations).
  • Author of high-quality security research publications, conference papers, or widely cited technical writeups.
  • Strong understanding of exploit development, reverse engineering, binary analysis, vulnerability research, operating systems, networks, web security, or cryptography.

Preferred Qualifications

  • Professional experience in offensive security, application security, vulnerability research, product security, or security engineering.
  • Experience with reverse engineering tools such as IDA Pro, Ghidra, Binary Ninja, or Radare2.
  • Familiarity with fuzzing, symbolic execution, static analysis, or dynamic analysis frameworks.
  • Experience with Linux internals, Windows internals, browser security, cloud security, embedded security, or mobile security.
  • Strong programming skills in C/C++, Rust, Python, Go, or Java.
  • Excellent written communication and ability to explain complex security concepts clearly.

Nice to Have

  • Hall of Fame recognition from major bug bounty programs.
  • Black Hat, DEF CON, USENIX Security, IEEE S&P, ACM CCS, NDSS, or similar conference presentations/publications.
  • Maintainer or significant contributor to well-known open-source security tools.
  • Offensive Security certifications (OSCP, OSEP, OSCE3), GIAC certifications, or equivalent credentials.

Why Join?

  • Work on frontier AI models tackling real-world cybersecurity problems.
  • Collaborate with leading researchers on advanced security evaluation tasks.
  • Help shape the next generation of AI systems for cybersecurity.

Quoted from Mercor's public listing on 2026-11-13. We don't edit platform copy; honest framing is in the title and the “what this actually is” block above.

Mercor pays MantaWork a fee if it hires you through this link. Your pay is the same.