Investment Banking & M&A - Finance Domain Expert

This role is for one of our clients

Compensation: $100-$150 per hour

Join a leading AI research organization and contribute your investment banking and M&A expertise to the development of advanced AI systems. We are seeking a senior Investment Banking & M&A Finance Domain Expert to work closely with research and program teams to improve how frontier AI models understand, analyze, and reason about complex financial work.

Your professional expertise will be central to the role. You will evaluate finance-related tasks and model outputs, develop detailed instructions and reference solutions, and create challenging benchmarks that accurately reflect real-world investment banking and M&A workflows.

This is a full-time position requiring approximately 40 hours per week for an initial six-month engagement.

Location: Hybrid — Bay Area, California. Candidates must currently reside in the Bay Area and be available to work on-site with the client team multiple days per week as required. Candidates outside the Bay Area must be willing to relocate at their own expense before the engagement begins. Relocation assistance is not provided.

2. Key Responsibilities

Finance Task & Model Evaluation

• Review finance-related knowledge-work tasks and AI-generated outputs for accuracy, completeness, and professional relevance.
• Identify flawed assumptions, missing analytical steps, weak reasoning, and conclusions that may appear credible but fail professional investment-banking standards.
• Evaluate whether financial analysis reflects realistic M&A and investment-banking practices.

Instruction & Reference Solution Development

• Create detailed instruction specifications that clearly define expected analytical approaches and outcomes.
• Develop high-quality reference or "golden" solutions for complex financial problems.
• Design realistic investment banking and M&A tasks based on actual professional workflows, including transaction analysis, valuation, deal structuring, and financial modeling.

Benchmark & Evaluation Development

• Build challenging finance benchmarks designed to test sophisticated financial reasoning.
• Develop evaluation datasets covering areas such as M&A analysis, valuation, transaction modeling, due diligence, capital structure, and financial analysis.
• Collaborate with research teams to identify finance-specific capabilities that should be evaluated in advanced AI systems.

Expert Calibration

• Work closely with researchers and adjacent-domain specialists to establish consistent evaluation standards.
• Translate practical investment-banking judgment and tacit deal experience into clear, measurable evaluation criteria.
• Provide precise written feedback that helps improve model performance and benchmark quality.

3. Core Qualifications

• 5+ years of substantive professional experience in investment banking, M&A advisory, transaction advisory, corporate development, private equity, private credit, or a closely related finance discipline.
• Demonstrated specialization in areas such as:
• M&A and transaction advisory
• Financial modeling and valuation
• Investment banking
• Due diligence and transaction analysis
• Capital structure and deal financing
• Corporate finance and strategic transactions
• Private equity or private credit
• Clear career progression into a senior individual-contributor or leadership position, such as Vice President, Director, Principal, Managing Director, or equivalent, with significant ownership of financial analysis and transaction decisions.
• Strong expertise in financial modeling, valuation, transaction structures, and investment analysis, with the ability to evaluate complex financial scenarios independently.
• Advanced degree such as an MBA, MS, or PhD in finance, economics, accounting, or a quantitative discipline is strongly preferred.
• Professional credentials such as CFA, CPA, FRM, or equivalent finance qualifications are advantageous.
• Practical familiarity with large language models and AI tools, with the ability to distinguish rigorous financial reasoning from plausible but incorrect outputs.
• Exceptional written communication skills and the ability to provide concise, structured, and evidence-based feedback.
• Ability to commit reliably to 40 hours per week for an initial six-month engagement.
• Currently based in the Bay Area, California, with availability for hybrid, on-site collaboration multiple days per week as required.

4. Equal Opportunity

We are committed to providing equal employment opportunities to all qualified applicants. We do not discriminate based on legally protected characteristics and provide reasonable accommodations to qualified individuals throughout the application and engagement process.

5. Engagement Details

• Employment Type: Full-Time
• Work Arrangement: Hybrid
• Location: Bay Area, California
• Expected Commitment: 40 hours per week
• Initial Engagement: 6 months
• Relocation: Candidates outside the Bay Area must relocate at their own expense
• Work Focus: Investment banking, M&A, financial reasoning, AI evaluation, benchmark development, and finance-domain expertise