How to get hired at Braintrust

How hiring works

Braintrust is a talent network: clients post jobs, you apply, and a client hires you on a contract through Braintrust. Its AI-training page describes a shorter route, with a profile, an AI skills interview and then gig tasks chosen from your dashboard, but its help centre has no article on these gig tasks. Every process it describes is for client jobs.

On the public job board, AI-training work appears as job posts by AI-data companies. On 2 November 2026, about 94 of the 149 open jobs came from DATAmundi (28), SuperAnnotate (23), Turing (17), Outlier (15), “Leading AI Lab” (6), Braintrust AI (3) and Toloka (2). Many of them run their own selection after Braintrust’s, so treat each listing as an application to that company and read its own requirements.

1. Create an account and complete your profile to 100%.
2. Apply to a job: answer the client’s questions, set your rate and attach a CV.
3. Verify your ID and take the AI interview if Braintrust asks you to after your application.
4. Get approved, usually within 24 hours. Your applications are then shown to clients.
5. Pass the client’s own screening, which can be another AI interview, a task or a video call.
6. Accept the offer on Braintrust, then invoice through Braintrust and get paid through Wise or Stripe.

Braintrust says you’re screened only after you apply, so you aren’t vetted for jobs it doesn’t have.

Sources: AI training · Getting a job · Becoming approved · Job board

Before you start

• Your age. 18 or over. Braintrust is for business use only.
• Where you live. Braintrust isn’t available to people in or from Cuba, Iran, North Korea, Syria, Crimea, the Donetsk and Luhansk regions, or other countries under US embargo, and makes no exceptions. Each job also sets its own locations, and some require them strictly, such as “United States only”. Outlier’s posts list countries they exclude.
• Where you can be paid. Braintrust pays you directly if your bank is in the United States, Canada, Mexico, Brazil, Argentina, Chile, Colombia, Peru, the UK, Germany, France, Spain, Switzerland, Norway, Denmark, Poland, Italy, Ireland, the Netherlands, Belgium, Sweden, Portugal, Australia, New Zealand, Japan, Singapore, India, Hong Kong, South Korea, Malaysia, the UAE, Israel, South Africa, Egypt or Kenya. Anywhere else, your job feed shows only jobs where the client pays you directly, marked as such.
• Your experience. Braintrust’s approval list asks for 3 or more years of professional experience and being able to start right away.
• Your ID: depending on your country, a driving licence, passport, passport card, state ID, permanent resident card, non-citizen travel document, visa or work permit, and a phone to take the check on.
• No VPN. Using a VPN or similar to get round Braintrust’s territory rules is prohibited, and it may block IP addresses and devices.

Sources: Terms · Where Braintrust sends payments · Becoming approved · ID verification · Turing job post · Outlier job post

Creating your account

1. Go to app.usebraintrust.com and sign up. Give your name, why you want to join (your career, connecting with people, referrals or earning BTRST tokens) and your interests (professions, sectors, professional development).
2. Enter your email and a password, and accept the Terms and Privacy Policy.
3. Verify your email. If the email doesn’t arrive, clear your browser’s cache and cookies and try again, then open a ticket.
4. Complete your profile to 100%. You can’t apply to any job before that. Braintrust says a new sign-up for AI-training work takes about 20 minutes.

Keep to one Talent account unless Braintrust agrees in writing. Each account needs its own email address.

Sources: Becoming approved · Email verification · Your profile · AI training · Terms

Your profile and CV

What the profile asks for

• Your full name, the same as on LinkedIn and your CV, and your location (required).
• A role and role type from a fixed list. You can’t add your own role.
• At least 5 skills, with your top 3 marked as “Superpowers”.
• Your work history (title, company, dates, description) and years of experience.
• Optional links: website, LinkedIn, GitHub, Twitter.
• For AI-training work, your specialisation: Healthcare & Medicine, Legal, Software Engineering, Data Science & ML, Finance, Education, Creative Writing, Science & Research, Marketing & Copywriting, Product Management, Design & UX, or Operations & Strategy. Braintrust says no AI background is needed.

What Braintrust says makes a strong profile

• Your story told in your own voice, with a friendly photo, a one-line bio and your biggest achievement.
• 10 to 15 focused skills, with Superpowers that match the job.
• Certificates and degrees listed.
• Your most relevant project first, described as the product, your role, your contribution (with numbers) and the team.
• Links to your portfolio, LinkedIn and GitHub in your bio.

Braintrust also advises adjusting your profile to the job you’re applying for.

Sources: Becoming approved · Your profile · AI training · Getting a job

Applying to a job

An application asks for the client’s written questions (usually one or two), your hourly rate (within the client’s range, or your own), when you can start (right away, two weeks after an offer, or after a date), a CV and any other files you want to add.

• Attach a CV. Braintrust strongly recommends it, and says applications with a high CV match score get noticed first.
• Answer the questions exactly. On AI-training posts they are screening questions: the country and state you’re in, licences or degrees (such as a US J.D. or bar admission), years of practice, weekly hours, your language level on the CEFR scale and experience with rubrics.
• Check market rates on the network dashboard before you set your rate.
• Apply to every job you qualify for.
• Act in time. Jobs pause automatically 90 days after they’re posted unless the client extends them.

Since 31 October 2026, Braintrust’s help centre says candidates whose application meets a role’s requirements “may then be prompted” to verify their ID and take a screening interview, so not everyone is asked.

You don’t need to buy anything to apply. Braintrust has offered paid extras in BTRST tokens: Application Boost (3 credits for 39 BTRST) and Application Insights (20 BTRST for 30 days). They can’t be refunded and don’t guarantee a job; its pages on them date from 2024.

Sources: Getting a job · Outlier legal job post · SuperAnnotate job post · Job pausing · Screening process · Application Boost · Application Insights

The ID check

Braintrust checks your identity through Persona when you apply to jobs.

1. Use a phone if you can; Braintrust suggests one.
2. Take a photo of your government ID.
3. Take a selfie.

• You have two attempts in total. Sending blurry photos again doesn’t use one up, but five blurry submissions fail the check.
• If the check fails, your application isn’t processed. You can ask support for another try.
• Your ID and selfie aren’t shown to clients. Only Braintrust’s Talent Matchers and admins see the result.

Sources: ID verification · Becoming approved

The AI interview

Braintrust’s AI interviewer, AIR, asks questions and follows up on each answer, so the interview changes with what you say. Braintrust’s candidate help calls it a video interview, and its product page a voice interview.

Braintrust’s pages disagree on the length: its screening guide says 5 to 10 minutes, its candidate guide that most take 15 to 20, and its certification page 15 to 30. Allow 30 minutes. Braintrust tells clients to aim for 5 to 8 questions.

What you need

• The link, which comes by email or text. There is nothing to download and no account to make.
• A phone, laptop or desktop.
• A quiet, well-lit place where you won’t be interrupted.
• A steady connection. Most interviews let you resume if you lose it.

What it asks about

In Braintrust’s own screening: how you solve problems and adapt, how the role fits what you want, how you communicate, your experience and its results, and your pay expectations and work authorisation. Braintrust says “This is not a technical assessment.” For AI-training work, its AI-training page says the interview judges your expertise and places you at a task level and pay grade.

During the interview

• You usually get one chance at each question.
• Questions are also shown as text, and AIR is built to understand a wide range of English accents.
• It is in English unless the client turns on another language: Spanish, Portuguese, French, German, Japanese, Korean, Hindi or Italian (the product page says more than 16). You can’t switch language during the interview, and the scorecard is always in English.

How it is scored

AIR scores what you say against criteria set for the job and produces a scorecard. Braintrust says it doesn’t score your appearance, tone or background, but communication and storytelling can be among the criteria. Reviewers also see a CV match score, a behavioural analysis, a communication rating, a technical assessment, intent and motivation, language level, and a fraud and identity check of the session. People make the final decision. Braintrust’s pages describe no practice interview for candidates.

Sources: What to expect from AIR · AIR · Becoming approved · Certification · Interview scoring · AIR FAQs · Interview languages · AI training

Approval and retakes

Braintrust’s decision usually comes by email within 24 hours, or up to 72 hours if you finish on a Friday, at the weekend or on a holiday. Once approved you get a vetted badge, your applications start being shown to clients, and you can message Braintrust’s Talent Matchers and clients. Until then you can’t contact them.

What Braintrust looks for

• a detailed CV, and skills that match what clients need now;
• a completed ID check and a passed AI interview;
• strong communication;
• 3 or more years of professional experience;
• being able to start right away;
• authorisation to work in your country.

An older help page lists being able to work on a W-2, 1099 or C2C (your own company) contract in place of work authorisation. Be ready to show both.

Retakes

• For a job’s interview, the client sets the number of retakes: none, one, two, three or unlimited. Only finished interviews count, and attempts under 2 minutes don’t.
• At the limit, you can send one retake request with a short reason, such as a lost connection. An approval comes by email; a refusal shows only in the app, and the decision is final.
• If you retake, reviewers see a “Multiple interview attempts” flag.
• If Braintrust doesn’t approve you, you can be screened again after 6 months: update your profile and open a ticket in the help centre. Braintrust’s talent page says you can retake some sections after a waiting period without saying how long; go by the 6 months.

Sources: Becoming approved · Screening process · Re-screening · Interview attempts · Retake requests · For talent

Screening by client companies

After Braintrust approves you, the company behind an AI-training post may screen you again. What the posts read on 2 November 2026 asked for:

• SuperAnnotate: an AI interview, a task in your field and an interview with a recruiter. One post says there is “no immediate project for this role”.
• Turing: asks whether you’ve applied to any Turing role in the last three months. One post asks for a file from your own Gemini account, pays $50 once if you’re hired, needs 40 hours a week for about 16 weeks, and says the workload is not guaranteed.
• Outlier: rates and work may depend on a skills assessment, and onboarding or assessment work may be paid at a different rate.
• Pay for approved work only: some posts pay only for work that passes quality checks, such as “$1.00 USD per approved asset”. One post says the final rate depends on where you are.

Braintrust tells AI labs that every contributor it supplies is assessed by AIR, ID-checked, background-checked, under an NDA and calibrated with test rounds, and that getting up to speed on specialised work, such as medical RLHF, typically takes one to two weeks. Its certification page calls the background check optional, and it names no provider or cost.

Sources: SuperAnnotate job post · Turing job post · Outlier job post · Per-asset job post · FEA job post · AI training data · Certification

AI tools and conduct

Braintrust publishes no rule telling candidates whether AI tools are allowed in the interview. Clients can turn on AI Assistance Detection for a job: it checks the transcript and the timing of answers for signs of AI-assisted or scripted answers, and flags an interview only when highly confident. It doesn’t reject you or tell you by itself; the client decides. AIR also shows reviewers signs that the person in an interview may not be the real candidate. Rules on AI at work depend on each client project.

What can get you removed

• more than one Talent account without written permission;
• copying, sharing, selling or giving away an account, or presenting another person’s profile as yours;
• a VPN or similar to get round territory rules;
• false or misleading details about your identity, location or skills, which can lose you the account and any linked accounts without warning;
• faking the hours, keystrokes or mouse clicks Braintrust records, or billing someone else’s hours as yours;
• working directly with a client you met on Braintrust within 12 months, without written consent, which can mean a permanent ban.

Braintrust has zero tolerance for fraud and misrepresentation, with immediate deactivation, and may suspend or close accounts at its sole discretion, at any time and without notice. Clients can end a project at once for poor performance.

Sources: AI Assistance Detection · AIR · Terms · Talent terms · Network standards

Client interviews, offers and contracts

Clients who are interested in your application contact you to set up an interview, almost always by video call. Braintrust advises a quiet, uncluttered setting, business dress, prepared talking points and questions for the client. Hiring timelines vary by client.

• Accept offers only on Braintrust. Offers there come only from clients checked by Braintrust’s sales team or who have paid a $500 refundable deposit.
• The contract is between you and the client. Braintrust is not a party. By default your work belongs to the client, you keep its information confidential for 2 years afterwards, you may work for others, and either side can end the contract early with 2 weeks’ notice.
• You are an independent contractor, not an employee of Freelance Labs, Inc. (“Talent Node”), the company that runs Braintrust.

Sources: Getting a job · Screening process · Scams and fraud · Client deposits · Terms · Talent terms

Pay, tax and hours

• When: Braintrust’s pages differ. The AI-training page says payments are processed weekly. For client jobs, the newest help page says you’re paid when the client pays your invoice, an older one says 30 days after each invoice (sooner if the client pays early), and the fee terms say Braintrust starts payment within 30 days. Plan for up to 30 days after each invoice unless your job says otherwise.
• Invoices: weekly unless the client says otherwise, and only at app.usebraintrust.com/talent/invoices. You need two-step authentication and a tax form on file to submit one. “Processing Payment” takes from hours to days; contact support if it lasts more than 10 days.
• How: through Wise and Stripe, straight to your bank in the countries listed under Before you start. An older help page suggests, if your country isn’t on Wise’s list, trying another currency, a Wise multi-currency account or Payoneer details.
• Fees: Braintrust charges you no fee to receive pay, though banks and payment services may. Clients pay Braintrust a 15% fee.
• Tax: under Profile Settings, Payments, upload a W-9 if you work in the US, or a W-8BEN (individuals) or W-8BEN-E (companies) if not. Braintrust sends a 1099 or equivalent at the end of the year. You report all your income yourself.
• Time tracking: depends on the client: an invoice alone, a timesheet, or the client’s own system, whose hours must match your Braintrust invoice. Otherwise Braintrust suggests Google Sheets or Clockify.
• Hours: the AI-training page says “No minimum hours. No schedule requirements.” Individual posts set their own, such as up to 20 hours a week, 15 to 20 hours, or 40 hours a week for about 16 weeks. Go by the post. The job search filters by 5 to 40 hours a week.

Sources: AI training · When do I get paid · Invoice payment · Service fee terms · Invoicing · Processing payment · Where Braintrust sends payments · Bank details · Client fees · Tax forms · Talent terms · Outlier legal job post · FEA job post

Why applications stall

Braintrust publishes no typical time from approval to first paid work. The reasons its own pages give for applications going nowhere:

• a profile below 100%, which blocks applying;
• a thin CV, or skills that don’t match what clients need now;
• under 3 years’ experience, not being able to start right away, or no work authorisation;
• a failed ID check, or the ID check or interview left unfinished;
• a country Braintrust can’t pay, which limits your job feed;
• many qualified applicants per role: not every application gets a reply.

What Braintrust’s advice adds up to: a profile at 100% with a specialisation, a CV adjusted to the post, exact answers to the client’s questions, the ID check on a phone in good light, the interview somewhere quiet with a steady connection, concrete examples of your experience and its results, and applications to every post you fit. Support tickets can take 48 to 72 hours.

What applicants report

Braintrust scores 1.7 from 20 reviews on Trustpilot, from May 2024 to September 2026. It hasn’t invited reviews, so the sample is small and self-selected. About five reviewers didn’t expect a video or AI screening before their application reached the employer. About five describe a screening interview that failed, wouldn’t load or stayed broken for over a week, without explanation, and about three got no feedback after screening. Single reviews describe an AI interview that repeated its questions, pay after onboarding lower than advertised, and pressure to buy tokens for application hints; two describe few jobs and difficulty deleting the account. These are a handful of reports, not a measure of how often it happens.

Sources: Becoming approved · Your profile · ID verification · Where Braintrust sends payments · Screening process · Support times · Trustpilot reviews

Official addresses and scams

• Braintrust’s sites are usebraintrust.com, app.usebraintrust.com and support.usebraintrust.com. Invoices are only ever at app.usebraintrust.com/talent/invoices.
• Addresses on its pages: [email protected], [email protected] (the AI interview), [email protected] and [email protected].
• Interview links come by email or text, so a text with a link isn’t a warning sign in itself. Check where the link goes.
• Warning signs Braintrust names: being asked for your Braintrust login, to sign an offer off the platform, to keep an offer from Braintrust, or to start work without an offer or contract.
• In a warning about token scams, Braintrust says it will never ask you for personal information or credentials. The Persona ID check inside the app is part of the real process.
• People pretend to be Braintrust staff on social media, and phishing emails come with attachments. Check the sender’s address.

Sources: Terms · Invoice payment · What to expect from AIR · Scams and fraud · Token scams · Phishing · Network standards · Our official-sites checker