Chemistry PhD - Assessment Specialist

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.

About the role

We are looking for an Applied Chemistry Benchmark Specialist to author original chemistry questions and verification tasks on a contract basis. This is a remote role requiring a commitment of 10+ hours per week.

Responsibilities

• Author original chemistry questions that test deep conceptual understanding, not surface-level recall.
• Ensure questions are unambiguous, self-contained, and precisely defined with all necessary information included.
• Rate each question's difficulty as Medium, Hard, or Expert, and provide 1 correct answer with 9 plausible alternatives.
• 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 like peer-reviewed journals.
• For verification tasks, flag issues with clarity, completeness, precision, or solvability and justify any edits made.

Requirements

• PhD or doctoral candidate in Chemistry, Biochemistry, Chemical Engineering, or a closely related field. (Master's degree considered for candidates with exceptional depth in a specific subdomain.)
• Strong command of graduate-level chemistry concepts, reaction mechanisms, and quantitative analysis.
• Excellent written English and ability to express complex ideas clearly and concisely.

Skills

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

Pay

$61–$77/hour

Schedule

10+ hours/week (contract, remote)