Strategic Finance Expert

$100/hrrate as listed

Mercor is assembling a reference library of strategic finance deliverables, and you'd build them from mock company files — business cases with NPV and IRR, pricing and margin recommendations, capital allocation rankings. Each exercise is self-contained and graded against a rubric, with pay observed at around $2,000 per task.

Summary, eligibility guidance and screening preparation are prepared by Sidequest from the platform's posting. Check the source listing before applying.

What the work involves

You receive a packet of mock files — market data, cost baselines, pricing schedules, project assumptions — and produce the finance work product a leadership forum would actually see. In practice that means a business case or investment appraisal carrying NPV, IRR and payback for a project, product launch, or make-versus-buy call; a capital allocation determination that ranks competing investments against hurdle rates with a portfolio view; scenario and sensitivity work across demand, price and cost; pricing and discount economics that support price setting or deal desk approval, with margin impact spelled out; and supporting analyses like market sizing, cohort and unit economics, or a cost baseline and savings plan for a reduction program.

Work is graded against a rubric, so how you get there matters as much as the number. Assumption logs, clearly labeled drivers, sensitivity ranges rather than single-point answers, and a recommendation a CFO could act on all count. The library is meant to capture operator judgment — the reasoning behind a hurdle rate, why a discount tier destroys contribution margin, when payback beats IRR as the deciding metric.

What the platform screens for

Operator seat, not fund seat. Four or more years in strategic finance, corporate strategy, or corporate planning inside an operating company. Fund-side strategy is explicitly out of scope; the same seat sometimes reads as Corporate Planning or Business Analysis.
A decision you owned. Screeners probe for a specific capital or pricing decision you took to a leadership forum — what you recommended, what was contested, what happened.
Depth under follow-up. Expect pushback on discount rate choice, terminal value treatment, how you handled cannibalization or stranded cost, and where your model was wrong.
Consulting or Big 4 strategy background now in an operator seat, growth equity experience now in-house, or deal desk and pricing strategy work are all favorably weighted.

Logistics

Fully remote and asynchronous. Tasks are discrete and self-contained — you take them as your schedule allows rather than committing to fixed hours — and most experts treat this as evening or weekend work alongside a full-time role. Screening starts with an AI-led interview, followed by a graded assessment: a business case with NPV and IRR from mock project files, a pricing and margin recommendation, and a capital allocation ranking. Pay is stated as observed at $2,000 per task and is not guaranteed.

What they look for

4+ years in strategic finance, corporate strategy, or corporate planning at an operating company
Ownership of a capital or pricing decision presented to a leadership forum
Investment appraisal fluency: NPV, IRR, payback, hurdle rates, make-versus-buy
Scenario and sensitivity modeling across demand, pricing and cost
Pricing and discount economics, contribution margin and deal desk analysis
Market sizing, cohort and unit economics, cost baseline and savings analysis

Before you apply

Would you pass this screen?

Drawn from what this listing actually requires. Answered in your browser — nothing is sent to us, and we do not store your answers.

Do you have at least 4 years of experience in strategic finance, corporate strategy, or corporate planning inside an operating company (not consulting or fund-side strategy)?
Strategic finance experience · required
Have you owned a capital investment or pricing decision that was presented to and approved by a leadership forum (e.g., executive committee, board, or C-suite)?
Capital or pricing decision ownership · required
Are you proficient in building NPV and IRR analyses in Excel or similar tools, as a core part of your work?
DCF modeling capability · preferred
Have you built financial analyses to support pricing decisions, deal desk approvals, or margin-based customer or product decisions?
Pricing or deal economics experience · preferred

0 of 4 answered

Included with this listing

Interview prep — 12 questions

Matched to what this platform's screening actually measures. Answer each out loud in 60–90 seconds: claim → concrete example → implication.

What it tests: Whether you've actually built a defensible case under ambiguity and presented it upward, not just analyzed data in a staff role. Reveals comfort with judgment calls and stakeholder management at scale.
A strong answer: Name a specific decision (capex, product investment, pricing move, or M&A), state what you recommended and why, and note what data or trade-off was critical to get leadership to act on it. The decision should have mattered—not a routine approval.
Where people lose it: Describing a decision you analyzed but didn't own, or one so junior (a procurement saving, a process tweak) that it signals you haven't carried a material P&L or strategic call.