Chemistry PhD - Scientific Expert

About the job

Mercor connects elite creative and technical talent with leading AI research labs. Headquartered in San Francisco, our investors include Benchmark, General Catalyst, Peter Thiel, Adam D'Angelo, Larry Summers, and Jack Dorsey.

Position: Chemistry - Scientific Domain Expert
Type: Contract
Compensation: $90–$130/hour
Location: San Francisco
Duration: 6 months
Commitment: 40 hours/week

Role Responsibilities

• Design chemistry-focused tasks and model evaluation workflows to test scientific reasoning.
• Translate chemistry expertise into clear instructions, rubrics, grading criteria, and review processes.
• Read and synthesize scientific papers and technical materials for model training.
• Evaluate model-generated outputs for scientific correctness and rigor; provide clear written technical feedback.
• Partner with research and engineering teams to improve data quality and evaluation design.
• Collaborate with other subject matter experts to ensure consistency and accuracy in training data.

Qualifications

Must-Have

• PhD or equivalent research experience in chemistry or a closely related field.
• Strong scientific reasoning to assess correctness and rigor of chemistry-related claims and model outputs.
• Hands-on technical fluency with datasets, notebooks, Python, LLMs, and scientific software.
• Ability to commit to 40 hours/week, fully onsite in San Francisco for 6 months.
• Strong written communication skills to explain scientific decisions clearly.

Preferred

• Experience in computational chemistry, cheminformatics, molecular modeling, or adjacent computational research.
• Prior Mercor annotation/evaluation experience (2+ projects).

Application Process (Takes 20–30 mins to complete)

• Upload resume
• AI interview based on your resume
• Submit form

Resources & Support

• For details about the interview process and platform information, please check: https://talent.docs.mercor.com/welcome
• For any help or support, reach out to: support@mercor.com

PS: Our team reviews applications daily. Please complete your AI interview and application steps to be considered for this opportunity.