“Good work hides in the questions we skip.”
Senior TPM · Mercor · AI programs & RL environments
About
What I do
I take loosely-defined AI research goals and turn them into structured programs that ship.
RL environments
Run the programs that build, evaluate, and scale reinforcement learning environments for frontier AI labs.
Human data & evaluations
Coordinate 500+ domain experts on my programs across data collection, model evaluation, and quality feedback loops.
Program execution
Built ops systems now used as Mercor’s default for running expert programs at scale.
Where I work
At Mercor
Mercor is the data and evaluation backbone of frontier AI: a marketplace connecting leading AI labs with domain experts for model training, evaluation, and red-teaming. One of the fastest-growing AI companies in history.
My role: I run the human-data and evaluation programs that directly serve these labs.
Trusted by the world's top AI labs and 6 of the 7 Magnificent 7, including OpenAI, Anthropic, Google, and Meta.
Mercor · public facts
- Valuation (Series C, 2025)
- $10B
- Two years running
- Forbes AI 50
- Annual revenue run rate
- $1B+
- “Magnificent 7” as clients
- 6 of 7
Resume
Experience
Senior TPM at Mercor, running RL environment and evaluation programs for frontier AI labs. Promoted twice in under a year.
Senior Technical Program Manager · Mercor (Forbes AI 50)
Remote — Bangalore, India
Business Consultant · iRely
R&D Software Intern · OpenText
Writing
Things that ship
Notes on AI, program management, and turning ambiguity into work that ships.
Recommendations
What people say
“Nikhil has rolled out scalable systems now widely adopted as best practice at Mercor — always someone I turn to when a job needs to be done well.”
Account Lead, Mercor
“Nikhil applies logical thinking to hard problems and his quality of work speaks volumes about his dedication — a valuable team member on any project.”
Project Lead, iRely
Let's talk
Book a session
Book a 1:1 on Topmate for AI program management, RL environments, breaking into frontier AI, or career advice. Rated 5/5 for mentorship.
★ 5/5 · “I had a great conversation with Nikhil. He was approachable, insightful, and has a strong understanding of project management and what the role demands.” — Nandita Rawat
Also
Mentorship
I mentor people breaking into AI through 1:1 sessions on Topmate. Rated 5/5. Topmate →
beyond the work
making art · quiet escapes · intentional living · reading
Elsewhere