Applied Physics PhD - Question Author

About the role

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.

Pay

$61–$77/hour

Schedule

Contract position, remote, 10+ hours per week

Responsibilities

• Author original physics questions that test deep conceptual understanding.
• Ensure questions are unambiguous, self-contained, and precisely defined.
• Rate each question's difficulty: Medium (intro undergraduate), Hard (advanced undergraduate), or Expert (post-graduate and above).
• Provide 1 correct answer and 9 plausible but subtly incorrect alternatives to challenge expert-level solvers.
• Write step-by-step Chain-of-Thought solutions with clear, concise intermediate steps in markdown format.
• Supply 1–5 academic references per question from reputable sources such as peer-reviewed journals and university repositories.
• For verification tasks, flag issues with clarity, completeness, precision, or solvability and justify any edits made.

Qualifications

• PhD or doctoral candidate in Physics, Applied Physics, Astrophysics, or a closely related field.
• Master's degree considered for candidates with exceptional depth in a specific subdomain.
• Strong command of graduate-level physics concepts and mathematical formalism.
• Excellent written English and ability to express complex ideas clearly and concisely.

Preferred Experience

• Experience with rigorous academic problem design or physics olympiad writing is a strong plus.