Drug Discovery Scientist - PhD

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.

Responsibilities

• Design realistic research problems for AI models in drug research and development.
• Build a data room from real, source-grounded data with every decisive value tracing to a real source.
• Write a grading document that scores a submitted memo on substance, not style or method.
• Validate and run verification and calibration before submission.
• Revise and own the rework if a reviewer requests changes.
• Work independently and asynchronously to ensure high-quality deliverables.

Qualifications

• Working expertise in mechanistic enzymology, structure-guided peptide or antibody design, fragment-based discovery, or structure-based medicinal chemistry.
• PhD or equivalent industry track record.
• Ability to pose a problem whose answer can be defended rigorously.
• Comfortable judging reasoning quality, not just final answers.

Pay

$60–$90/hour

Schedule

Remote; 20–40 hours/week