What the work involves

You receive realistic power station electrical scenarios — a protection coordination problem, a switchgear specification, a single-line diagram with load and fault data, a control scheme for a plant auxiliary — usually paired with a model-produced solution or deliverable. Your job is to work the problem as an engineer would and then say, in writing, exactly where the reasoning holds and where it breaks. That means re-checking short-circuit and coordination calculations, verifying that equipment ratings and CT/relay data are plausible, confirming the standard or code invoked actually applies, and calling out constraints the task never specified but a real design would require.

A large share of the value is in flagging what is missing rather than what is wrong. Tasks frequently omit fault duty at the bus, grounding philosophy, ambient and altitude derating, interrupting ratings, or whether a deliverable is even producible from the data given. Reviewers who only mark answers right or wrong are less useful than reviewers who explain why a deliverable is unrealistic as scoped.

What the platform screens for

Mercor's screen is explicit that hands-on power station experience is mandatory and must be evidenced on the resume — employer, facility, and your own electrical scope of work. An AI-led interview will push on that: which plant, what voltage classes, what you personally designed, specified, commissioned, or troubleshot. Expect follow-ups that go a layer deeper than your first answer, since generic familiarity with protection and controls is easy to claim and hard to sustain under specifics. Experience at an EPC contractor, generation developer, utility, or owner's engineering group is treated as a strong positive signal.

Logistics

  • Remote and largely asynchronous, work delivered against task queues
  • Roughly 10–20 hours per week initially, with immediate start
  • $70/hr is the observed band for this listing, not a guarantee; rates on Mercor vary by track and assessed depth
  • Volume can be uneven — availability that flexes week to week is realistic