IAEA Safeguards Analyst (Remote, Task-Based)
Listing checked September 15, 2026 · pay as published by Mercor
Overview
The project brings together nuclear materials and safeguards experts to red-team frontier AI models. Your job is to write single-turn prompts that test whether a model can separate legitimate technical requests from dangerous ones. Prompts fall into three buckets: benign, dual-use, and adversarial. You then score model responses against a policy standard and draft the reference answer with the technical reasoning behind it. The work sits on the dual-use line that defines safeguards: a material-balance calculation can close an inspector's account or hide a diversion, and a fuel-cycle step can power a reactor or feed a proliferation pathway.
What You'll Do6
- 1Draft single-turn prompts in nuclear safeguards and tag each one benign, dual-use, or adversarial.
- 2Score each model reply against a defined policy standard and determine whether it held the line.
- 3Write reference answers that show what a sound response includes, with the technical rationale.
- 4Separate routine professional questions from requests that seek details for misuse or proliferation.
- 5Explain every judgment in writing so a reader without your domain background can follow it.
- 6Review and write about misuse scenarios in your field across long work sessions.
Requirements10
- 1Verified nuclear material in a professional setting instead of studying it in theory alone.
- 2Hands-on experience with inspection regimes, material accountancy, or safeguards verification.
- 3Familiarity with IAEA, Euratom, or state-system (SSAC/RSAC) inspection planning, verification, and reporting.
- 4Ability to evaluate MUF, inventory change reports, and facility declarations.
- 5Knowledge of Additional Protocol implementation, declarations, complementary access, and information analysis.
- 6Background in safeguards instrumentation, containment and surveillance, non-destructive assay, seals, or unattended monitoring.
- 7Experience with safeguards-by-design or safeguards policy analysis at a lab, regulator, or ministry.
- 8Strong technical writing, published research, or expert witness work. Submit a sample or link.
- 9Red-teaming experience preferred.
- 10No reliance on classified, export-controlled, NDA-covered, or prepublication-reviewed information.
Who Should Apply
Ideal candidates have verified nuclear material through inspection work, accountancy, or safeguards policy and can point to a writing sample that shows clear technical reasoning. You may come from the IAEA, Euratom, a state system, a regulator, a laboratory, or a ministry, and you know how to spot a routine accountancy question that hides a request for diversion details. Generalists who have read about safeguards but never worked an inspection, an MUF investigation, or an Additional Protocol declaration will find the fit weak. Candidates often lose points when they submit no writing sample or link, or when their application stays at the level of policy theory and does not name specific regimes, tools, or tasks they handled. Another common gap is failing to disclose NDA, export-control, or prepublication obligations up front, which creates scope problems later.
Salary Insight
The engagement pays a one-time $75 for the task. That figure fits a short, expert red-teaming contribution rather than a full inspection post, so treat it as project-based work that draws on your safeguards background.
Pay and demand for Cybersecurity roles
AggregatedTypical pay
$55/hour
This role
$75 fixed
Most Cybersecurity roles pay $35–$78 per hour.
Based on 44 similar roles that publish pay · 3 publish only a top rate; those count at the rate they gave
Rates shown per hour. Yearly and monthly pay converted; one-time fees and non-USD pay are not included.
- Live similar roles
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- Listed in last 30 days
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Hiring most right now: Neon (27) · micro1 (16) · AfterQuery (4)
Most requested skills · share of roles
- red teaming34%
- penetration testing29%
- reverse engineering28%
- technical writing28%
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Compensation
$75 fixed
Required Skills
Application Tip
Lead with the exact safeguards systems you have worked in (IAEA, Euratom, SSAC, or RSAC) and name concrete tasks such as MUF evaluation, inventory change reports, or complementary access. Attach a technical writing sample or link, and mention any red-teaming or expert witness experience. If you hold an NDA, export-control, or prepublication obligation, state that in the first paragraph so the work can be scoped.
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