Payments Risk & Controls Expert

Mercor is collaborating with a leading AI research initiative focused on evaluating risk and control assessments across payments operations. We are seeking experienced payments risk and operational risk professionals to author and review structured risk/control rubrics against real-world banking standards. This project offers a unique opportunity to apply senior-level risk judgment to improve the reliability of frontier AI systems. This is a time-sensitive, project-based engagement with near-term availability preferred.

Key Responsibilities

• Review and author payments risk and control assessments across payment capture and validation, authorization, tracking, funds control, smart routing, FX conversion, netting, prioritization, returns, and tokenization
• Evaluate inherent risk, residual risk, and control effectiveness using standard impact-and-likelihood frameworks
• Map risks to controls and identify control gaps or elevated vulnerabilities
• Identify failure modes in payments capabilities (system failures, stale data, bypassed authorization, missed cut-offs, misconfigured routing/netting/funds controls)
• Provide structured evaluations with clear written justifications grounded in operational risk and RCSA standards

Ideal Qualifications

• 5+ years of experience in payments risk assessment, bank operational risk, risk and control self-assessment (RCSA), issue management, risk and controls, compliance risk assessment, or banking risk advisory
• Experience in titles such as VP / AVP Operational Risk Management, RCSA Program Manager / Lead, Business Risk & Control Officer, Payments Risk & Controls Manager, Payments Operations / Treasury Services Risk Manager, or Compliance Risk Assessment Manager
• Background at a top-tier bank strongly preferred (e.g., JPMorgan Chase, Citi, Bank of America, Wells Fargo, BNY, Barclays, Deutsche Bank, Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley)
• Risk-control advisory experience at a leading consulting firm also considered (e.g., KPMG, Deloitte, PwC, EY, Accenture financial-services risk advisory)
• Comfort with standard payments risk lenses: execution and accuracy, authorization and fraud, data integrity, timeliness and cut-offs, client impact, and regulatory/compliance impact
• Strong command of inherent risk scoring drivers — transaction value and volume, time sensitivity, geographic footprint, client harm, regulatory and operational impact, reputational impact, and historical signals (operational risk events, KRIs, issues, limits, external events)
• Has personally created or reviewed risk/control assessments
• Can articulate the difference between inherent risk, residual/control effectiveness, issue severity, and remediation priority
• Excellent analytical and written communication skills
• Comfortable working independently with digital tools

We consider all qualified applicants without regard to legally protected characteristics and provide reasonable accommodations upon request.

Contract and Payment Terms

• You will be engaged as an independent contractor.
• This is a fully remote role that can be completed on your own schedule.
• Projects can be extended, shortened, or concluded early depending on needs and performance.
• Your work at Mercor will not involve access to confidential or proprietary information from any employer, client, or institution.
• Payments are weekly on Stripe or Wise based on services rendered.
• Please note: We are unable to support H1-B or STEM OPT candidates at this time.

About Mercor

Mercor partners with leading AI labs and enterprises to train frontier models using human expertise. You will work on projects that focus on training and enhancing AI systems. You will be paid competitively, collaborate with leading researchers, and help shape the next generation of AI systems in your area of expertise.