What the work actually is

You start from a real submittal: drawings, supporting documents, site photos. You then produce the deliverable you'd produce at work — a correction letter with code citations, an approve/deny/resubmit decision with reasoning, or a marked-up set — and you write the authoritative answer key that an AI model will be scored against. Task types span building plans examiner review, third party and private provider review, ICC A117.1 and accessibility checks, IECC energy code drawing review, occupancy classification and change of use for storefronts, zoning site plan review, permit intake completeness screening, as-built versus permitted deviation, and specialty occupancies including healthcare, K-12, food service and public pools.

The value isn't in reciting a code section. It's in encoding what a careless reviewer misses — the missing accessible route across a re-striped lot, the mezzanine that quietly pushes occupant load past a second exit threshold, the energy compliance path that was claimed on the cover sheet but never followed through on the wall sections. Tasks that only test lookup skills get sent back.

What the screen looks for

  • Seat time, not adjacency. ICC B1/B2/B3 certification, or current/recent employment doing AHJ, third party or private provider plan review. Three years minimum in the reviewing seat; eight or more is preferred. No degree requirement.
  • Jurisdictional range. Reviewers who can say precisely what changed between the 2015, 2018 and 2021 IBC on a given provision — and what their state amended — screen well. So do people who've trained junior examiners, maintained a comment library, or done QA on other reviewers' output.
  • Markup fluency. Bluebeam Revu or equivalent: you can measure, scale, calibrate and annotate a set without hand-holding.
  • Not a fit: GCs and superintendents without review responsibility, estimators, CAD drafters, permit expediters who file but don't review.

Logistics

Fully remote, US-based, asynchronous. You pick up task batches and work them on your own schedule; there are no shift blocks, though reviewers who commit consistent weekly hours tend to get first look at higher-value specialty batches. Observed pay is $45–60/hr depending on depth and certification, with rate growth as the project scales — as always, stated as observed and not guaranteed. Expect a calibration period where your first several tasks get heavier reviewer commentary than later ones.