Preclinical R&D Scientist - Drug 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

We are looking for a Preclinical R&D Expert to support in-house drug development through technical review, data annotation, and expert guidance to improve AI model performance in the pharmaceutical domain.

Responsibilities

• Review technical materials and real-world R&D data in your area of expertise to improve AI model performance.
• Label, classify, and annotate scientific data and model outputs to enhance model accuracy.
• Provide expert perspective on key scientific and development decisions, including target and modality selection.
• Help define structure and quality standards for the client's dataset pipeline.
• Participate in expert discussions, interviews, and research engagements to guide AI platform development.

Requirements

• Hands-on, non-administrative preclinical R&D experience at a company that develops its own drug assets.
• Work in a core R&D function: discovery biology, medicinal chemistry, protein/antibody engineering, computational, in vivo/translational, pharmacology/PK-PD, toxicology, or CMC/formulation.
• Hands-on experience with one or more drug modalities (small molecules, monoclonal antibodies, peptides, ADCs, bispecifics, mRNA, siRNA, ASOs, PROTACs, molecular glues, cell therapies, gene therapies, radioligand therapies, etc.).
• 5+ years of relevant industry R&D experience.

Qualifications

• Experience taking a program through lead optimization or IND-enabling/preclinical development (preferred).
• Experience at mid-sized, emerging, or resource-constrained biotech (preferred).

Pay

$85–$142/hour

Schedule

Contract, remote