Language work for AI is mostly judgement. You read or hear what a model produced in your language and decide whether a native speaker would accept it. The figures below come from the open postings on SME Careers, micro1 and Mercor and from the platforms’ own pages, read 13 October 2026.
Four jobs share the label “language expert”
Of the 84 open roles, SME Careers lists 66, micro1 lists 10 and Mercor lists 8. All of them pay by the hour. They are not one job.
Reviewing and rewriting text. SME Careers has 31 Language Expert postings. They ask you to review AI-generated text in your language, write model answers and rank several AI answers against each other. The things to catch are grammar, register, tone and mistranslation. A further 35 Team Lead and Quality Assurance Lead postings review other trainers’ work instead.
Probing a model in two languages. Mercor’s AI Safety Experts postings pair English with 8 other languages. The work is adversarial: jailbreaks, prompt injections and bias probing. Mercor says it is text-based and that higher-sensitivity projects are optional. It also asks for prior red teaming experience, so speaking both languages is not enough.
Using a profession in your second language. micro1 lists bilingual psychiatrists and psychologists for Japanese, Vietnamese and Cantonese, and a Spanish benefits counsellor. The psychiatrist postings prefer a medical degree, a completed residency and a valid licence. The counsellor posting wants a year of counselling the public and a US base. The clinician guide covers the licence questions.
Pay follows the language, and the platform
The same Mercor red-teaming project is posted once per language, and each carries its own band.
| English and… | Advertised band, an hour |
|---|---|
| Norwegian | $48–62 |
| Danish | $48–62 |
| Finnish | $48–62 |
| Swedish | $48–62 |
| Dutch | $48–62 |
| Portuguese (global) | $29–45 |
| Vietnamese | $17–25 |
| Gujarati | $16–22 |
The postings give no reason for the differences. The clinical and counselling roles state $35–200 an hour.
SME Careers is different again. 65 of its 66 postings state a ceiling and no floor, so the pay reads “up to”. Those ceilings reach $60 an hour, and the median is $33. Team Lead and Quality Assurance Lead postings have a median ceiling of $35, against $30 for Language Expert postings. A ceiling is not a promise of where a new expert starts, and SME’s postings do not say.
What counts as proof of fluency
The postings ask for evidence in four ways, and a certificate is not one of them.
- Native or near-native level. The word “native” appears in 83 of the 84 postings. The postings do not say how it is checked.
- A CEFR level for your English. A level is named in 33 postings. SME’s postings set C1 as the English minimum, with C2 preferred in some.
- A degree or equivalent work. A bachelor’s degree is asked for in 66 postings, usually in linguistics, translation, communications or journalism. SME’s Dutch posting accepts equivalent professional experience in its place.
- Years in language work. SME’s Dutch Language Expert posting asks for three years of writing, editing, translation or content quality work. Its Mandarin posting asks for five years of localisation, plus MQM/LQA quality concepts and translation-memory tools.
None of the postings names a language certificate. SME’s application asks which languages you work in. Most of its interviews are in English, but some roles interview in the role’s language. Read how SME’s AI interview works before you book one.
Variety counts too. SME’s Dutch posting asks you to say whether you cover Netherlands Dutch, Belgian Dutch or both. Its Mandarin posting wants the locale conventions of China. Mercor posts Portuguese as a single “global” project. Say which variety you speak when you apply.
Where you need to live
Many SME language roles follow the countries where the language is spoken. The Norwegian posting names Norway. The Danish posting names Denmark, Germany and Greenland. The Gujarati posting names the UK, India and the US. By their own wording, 3 of the 84 roles are limited to the US.
This site lists 31 roles as open to a reader in the US and 22 to a reader in the UK. Check each posting’s own country list. The guide to working from outside the US explains how this site reads those lists.
Two things to settle before you start
- Sensitive material. The Mercor red-teaming postings say some topics are sensitive. Topics are named before you see them, and the higher-sensitivity projects are optional. The psychiatrist postings ask you to keep patient confidentiality in case studies.
- Tracked time. SME says its hourly projects use a desktop app called Insightful and pay for active time only. The time-tracking guide covers what that means for a home setup.
Which role to try first
Start with the posting that names your language in its title. Mercor's AI safety postings state 8 to 20 openings. SME’s postings state no number of openings, and 22 of them say there is no immediate project and that qualified experts are contacted when one arises.
If your language appears on both lists, apply to a Language Expert posting before a Team Lead one. Team Lead postings review other trainers, which suits someone who has done the task before. The pay guide shows how these bands sit against other professions.
What the postings do not say
- How many hours a week each project offers. Only the Spanish benefits counsellor posting states a range.
- How fluency is tested, and in which language the interview runs, for micro1 and Mercor.
- How long a project lasts, or whether a language pool ever turns into work.
- Where a new SME expert starts inside the stated ceiling.
- Why Mercor prices one language above another.
This site is not affiliated with any platform named here, and passing a screening is not a promise of work.
Open language roles right now
The 6 newest of 78 open roles this site lists today, with the pay each posting states.