Physics PhD - Quantum Computing Expert

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

As a Physics PhD Coding Expert, you will source material, design scientific prompts, and calibrate tasks to improve AI model performance. This is a remote contract position for 6 weeks, requiring a commitment of 20+ hours per week at $70/hour.

Responsibilities

• Source material from published papers, Kaggle datasets, open-source repositories, or self-designed scenarios.
• Write scientific prompts based on sourced inputs.
• Build grading criteria to define correct answers.
• Calibrate tasks against frontier models, ensuring tasks ship only when strong models fail more often than they succeed.
• Work independently and asynchronously to meet deadlines while improving AI model performance.

Requirements

• PhD in physics, applied physics, or a closely related field.
• Depth in at least two subdomains: condensed matter, optics, quantum information/computing, computational physics, astrophysics, particle physics.
• Working proficiency in Python, R, or another relevant programming language for scientific computing.
• Comfortable with Git/GitHub and running code in Docker.

Qualifications

• Preferred: Publications in peer-reviewed journals.
• Preferred: Prior scientific software or research engineering experience.

Start Date: Immediate

Interview Process

• Upload your resume and application form.
• A 25-minute conversational interview covering your background, experience, and motivations.
• Follow up within a few days with next steps and onboarding.

Pay

$70/hour

Schedule

• Duration: 6 weeks
• Commitment: 20+ hours/week