SME Careers is SuperAnnotate's network of subject matter experts, who train and evaluate AI models on paid, remote, hourly projects.

What does SME Careers pay?

Across the 185 hourly SME Careers roles we track, the listed rates span up to $150 an hour in US dollars, as each posting states them. Individual ranges vary widely by role, and every role states its pay. We show what each posting lists and never estimate.

How does SME Careers screening work?

You apply with a CV, then take a recorded AI video interview of about 15 minutes. Automated tools summarise it and people make the final decision, usually within 1 to 2 business days, SME says. If you pass, SME's team reviews your profile before inviting you to onboard.

How does SME Careers pay?

Approved work is paid weekly through Deel, for work done Monday to Sunday, and SME says it typically arrives 1 to 3 days after the payout is submitted. On hourly projects only active time recorded in the Insightful app is paid.

Why does the pay differ by country?

SME sets many roles' rates by the country you work from. Each role page here lists every country's figure as SME states it, and every figure is a maximum.

What if I hear nothing back from SME Careers?

SME says interview grading usually takes 1 to 2 business days. After a pass there is no fixed screening timeline, because openings depend on active projects. Your profile stays in the network and you can keep applying to open jobs.

Can I retake the SME Careers AI interview?

You get one interview plus one retake, if offered, per job. An interview that ended with a technical problem, or with fewer than three questions answered, does not count. The limit is per job, so you can still interview for other roles.

How many hours a week is SME Careers work?

SME's pages give no hours-per-week figure, and its time-tracking rules set no hour limit. Pay is the project's hourly rate for approved active time, and work depends on client demand.

Why would an SME Careers project end?

SME lists withdrawing, failing bootcamp, repeatedly falling below the quality bar, breaking the rules, or the project winding down. Leaving a project ends that project only, apart from serious rule breaks. Approved work is still paid on the weekly schedule.

Does SME Careers charge a fee?

None of the SME Careers pages listed under "How we checked" mentions a fee for applicants or contractors.

Do you work for SME Careers?

No. This site is independent of SME Careers and SuperAnnotate, and it is not their agent, recruiter or employer. It is enrolled in SME's referral programme, which SME calls a partner programme: if someone applies through a link here and is hired, SME Careers pays this site a referral fee. It never changes what the reader is paid.

SME Careers review: expert AI training work, the pay (up to $150 an hour listed) and the AI interview (Oct 2026)

The short version

SME Careers connects subject experts with paid, remote, hourly projects that train and evaluate AI models. Screening is an application, a recorded AI interview of about 15 minutes and a review by SME's team. Approved work is paid weekly through Deel, and hourly projects pay active tracked time only. SME says onboarding does not guarantee a project. It suits experienced professionals who can wait for an invitation.

At a glance

Work type: Remote hourly contract work, on projects you are invited to
Screening: A CV-based application, a recorded AI video interview of about 15 minutes, then a review by SME's team
Paid: Weekly, through Deel, for approved work
Pay by country: Many roles pay a different maximum in each country; the role pages list every country's figure
Best for: Subject experts with a degree or hands-on professional knowledge.
Open roles: 185

What SME Careers is

SME Careers is SuperAnnotate's network of subject matter experts: people with real expertise in fields such as medicine, law, engineering and languages, who train and evaluate AI models on paid projects.

We are not part of SME Careers, we do not recruit for it, and we are not its agent, representative or partner. How this site earns money sets out the one commercial link there is.

How to get hired

Open a SME Careers role on this site and press Apply.
Create an SME Careers account, then complete the application: a CV as a PDF or your education and work history, your languages and your country. The link opens the application with this role already selected.
Take the AI interview for the role: a recorded video interview of about 15 minutes, in English for most roles, best on a desktop computer.
If you pass, SME's team reviews your profile and may invite you to a short call. If screening succeeds you sign a contract through Deel, verify your identity and link Discord, then wait for a project invitation.

You apply with a CV as a PDF of 5 MB or less, or enter your education and work history by hand, plus the languages you work in and your country. Some applicants are also asked for the hourly rate they expect. Your country must be one Deel can pay.

Most roles then ask for a recorded AI video interview of about 15 minutes, best taken on a desktop computer. Automated tools produce a summary and a first assessment and people make the final decision; SME says grading usually takes 1 to 2 business days, and one retake may be offered if you do not pass.

Passing qualifies you for the role. SME's team then reviews your profile and CV, may invite you to a short call, and if screening succeeds invites you to onboard: a contract and identity check through Deel, and a linked Discord account.

How to prepare for the interview

What the work involves

The 185 SME Careers roles open this morning cover 18 of the professions on this site.

It is contract work, not employment, and the roles we track are paid by the hour. The work itself happens in each project's own tools, such as SuperAnnotate's platform, and a project's Discord channel is its hub.

Most projects start with a paid training period SME calls bootcamp, scored against the project's quality bar. Not passing ends that project but not your place on the platform.

Hourly projects record your time with a desktop app called Insightful. SME pays for active time only: idle time and time on non-work sites are not paid, and random checks can review screenshots, screen recordings and the sites you visited while tracking.

Being accepted is not the same as having work. SME says onboarding makes you eligible for project matching, does not guarantee a placement, and that invitations depend on client demand.

What it pays

Across the 185 hourly SME Careers roles we track, listed rates span up to $150 an hour in US dollars, exactly as each posting states them. That is a span, not an average. The only pay figure we ever show is the one on the posting. We do not estimate, and we do not convert currency.

When and how SME Careers pays out for completed work is a separate question: see what we do not know.

Pros and cons

Pros

Weekly pay through Deel. SME says funds typically arrive 1 to 3 days after it submits the payout.
The AI interview takes about 15 minutes, and one retake may be offered if you do not pass.
Grading usually takes 1 to 2 business days, and people make the final decision, SME says.
SME says interview recordings are not used to train AI models, and it deletes one within 30 days of a request.
Leaving one project does not remove you from the platform, apart from serious rule breaks.

Cons

Being onboarded does not guarantee work. Placement depends on client demand, with no timeline.
Many SME postings say there is no immediate project for the role.
After the interview, SME gives no fixed timeline for screening.
One interview plus one retake, if offered, per job. Extra attempts are rare.
Hourly projects pay active time only. More than 2 minutes without keyboard or mouse activity counts as idle and is unpaid.
Before any work you sign a Deel contractor agreement, verify your ID with a selfie, and link Discord.

What is known, and what is not

Known

Pay is weekly, through Deel, for approved work.
The AI interview takes about 15 minutes.
SME says grading usually takes 1 to 2 business days.
Every role names its countries and each country’s maximum rate.

Not known

How much work reaches you.
How long screening takes.
The rate you will get.
The referral terms.

The questions we cannot answer yet, in full:

How much work reaches you. SME gives no timeline for a first project and says placement depends on client demand, so how many hours a week a project offers, and how long it lasts, is not stated.
How long screening takes. After the interview SME says there is no fixed timeline; it depends on the role and on current demand.
The rate you will get. Every rate SME lists is a maximum. The application asks for the hourly rate you expect; what a given project pays below that maximum is not stated publicly.
The referral terms. SME Careers publishes no public referral terms. Its help centre says a partner's commission rate and bonuses are set in a partner agreement, so the terms behind this site's fee are not public.

Who should apply, and who should skip

Many postings ask for a bachelor's degree or higher, or equivalent professional experience. Roles span science, engineering, medicine, law, finance, software and dozens of languages, and some also ask for experience in AI training work such as data annotation.

Each role names the countries it hires from, and many pay a different maximum in each. Every role page here lists each country's figure as SME states it.

Apply if

You hold a degree or work in the field.
Deel can pay people in your country.

Skip if

You can only use a phone. SME does not recommend phones for the interview.
You need a guaranteed rate. Every SME figure is a maximum.

Is SME Careers legit?

SME Careers is part of SuperAnnotate, publishes a detailed help centre on screening, contracts, time tracking and pay, and pays through Deel. That is what we can verify from the outside, and it is all we claim.

We have not done paid work on SME Careers. The person who runs this site has worked on micro1, Mercor, DataAnnotation, Prolific and Fleet, so the reading of this market is not purely outside-in, but none of it is SME Careers.

One person's experience is not evidence about yours, so this page carries no testimonials, no payout stories and no numbers about how many people have been placed. If you see those elsewhere, ask who verified them.

Against the other platforms

The listed pay and the screening step of the other platforms we track, as of this morning.

micro1 Listed pay: $6 to 400 / hr 220 roles. A 20 to 40 minute AI interview.
Mercor Listed pay: $15 to 450 / hr 202 roles. Assessments and an AI interview of about 20 minutes.
Terac Listed pay: $5 to 112 / hr 43 roles. Verified phone to apply, then a short screener per opportunity.
AfterQuery Listed pay: $15 to 200 / hr 47 roles. An interview and a short skills assessment.
Turing Listed pay: $15 to 30 / hr 15 roles. An application, proctored tests on some roles, then an interview.
Ethos Listed pay: $70 to 100 / hr 363 roles. One profile, reviewed by Ethos; you may be invited to a short AI voice screen.
Sovrano AI Listed pay: $35 to 125 / hr 22 roles. Skills assessments and an AI interview.

Side by side: Mercor vs SME Careers, micro1 vs SME Careers.

How we checked

Pay, role counts and openings on this page come from the SME Careers postings we read each morning. The last check was on 15 Oct 2026. Each figure is the one a posting states. We never estimate, average or convert one.

What SME Careers says about its screening, pay and referrals comes from its own pages, listed below and last checked on 13 Oct 2026. Anything those pages do not say is listed under what is not known, not guessed.

Written and checked by Hamza Hussain, who runs this site. How this site earns money.

Questions

Is SME Careers legit?: SME Careers is part of SuperAnnotate, publishes a detailed help centre on screening, contracts, time tracking and pay, and pays through Deel. That is what we can verify from the outside, and it is all we claim.
What is SME Careers?: SME Careers is SuperAnnotate's network of subject matter experts, who train and evaluate AI models on paid, remote, hourly projects.
What does SME Careers pay?: Across the 185 hourly SME Careers roles we track, the listed rates span up to $150 an hour in US dollars, as each posting states them. Individual ranges vary widely by role, and every role states its pay. We show what each posting lists and never estimate.
How does SME Careers screening work?: You apply with a CV, then take a recorded AI video interview of about 15 minutes. Automated tools summarise it and people make the final decision, usually within 1 to 2 business days, SME says. If you pass, SME's team reviews your profile before inviting you to onboard.
How does SME Careers pay?: Approved work is paid weekly through Deel, for work done Monday to Sunday, and SME says it typically arrives 1 to 3 days after the payout is submitted. On hourly projects only active time recorded in the Insightful app is paid.
Why does the pay differ by country?: SME sets many roles' rates by the country you work from. Each role page here lists every country's figure as SME states it, and every figure is a maximum.
What if I hear nothing back from SME Careers?: SME says interview grading usually takes 1 to 2 business days. After a pass there is no fixed screening timeline, because openings depend on active projects. Your profile stays in the network and you can keep applying to open jobs.
Can I retake the SME Careers AI interview?: You get one interview plus one retake, if offered, per job. An interview that ended with a technical problem, or with fewer than three questions answered, does not count. The limit is per job, so you can still interview for other roles.
How many hours a week is SME Careers work?: SME's pages give no hours-per-week figure, and its time-tracking rules set no hour limit. Pay is the project's hourly rate for approved active time, and work depends on client demand.
Why would an SME Careers project end?: SME lists withdrawing, failing bootcamp, repeatedly falling below the quality bar, breaking the rules, or the project winding down. Leaving a project ends that project only, apart from serious rule breaks. Approved work is still paid on the weekly schedule.
Does SME Careers charge a fee?: None of the SME Careers pages listed under "How we checked" mentions a fee for applicants or contractors.
Do you work for SME Careers?: No. This site is independent of SME Careers and SuperAnnotate, and it is not their agent, recruiter or employer. It is enrolled in SME's referral programme, which SME calls a partner programme: if someone applies through a link here and is hired, SME Careers pays this site a referral fee. It never changes what the reader is paid.

What happens when you apply

The apply button sits on each role page, never on a page meant to be shared. Pressing it sends you through our own /go/ redirect, which records that a role was clicked (no cookie, no personal data) and then on to SME Careers.

The link opens the role you came from on SME Careers. Sign up from there and the credit holds; go around the link and it does not.

Browse 185 open SME Careers roles Compare platforms

If you're hired through a link here and start paid work, SME Careers pays this site a share of what you earn. Your pay is unaffected. SME Careers credits the link. Apply through it for the fee to count.

Checked 15 Oct 2026. The list is rebuilt every morning; roles that disappear from SME Careers are marked closed rather than deleted. Read the full disclosure and who runs this.

SME Careers review: the work, the pay and the screening