Applied Chemistry Benchmark Specialist
Position: Applied Chemistry Benchmark Specialist
Type: Hourly Contract
Compensation: $61–$77/hour
Location: Remote
About the Opportunity
Mercor is seeking expert chemists to author and verify high-quality academic assessment content for an AI research initiative. You will develop rigorous chemistry questions, evaluate solution quality, and help establish gold-standard benchmarks designed to measure and advance AI capabilities across multiple chemistry domains.
You may contribute through Question Authoring or Question Verification, depending on your expertise and project needs.
Responsibilities
- Author original, challenging multiple-choice questions that assess deep conceptual understanding rather than surface-level recall.
- Ensure questions are unambiguous, self-contained, precisely defined, and contain all information necessary for solving.
- Rate question difficulty as Medium, Hard, or Expert based on academic level.
- Provide 1 correct answer and 9 plausible but subtly incorrect alternatives designed to challenge advanced solvers.
- Develop clear, step-by-step solutions with concise intermediate reasoning in Markdown format.
- Provide 1–5 reputable academic references for each question, including peer-reviewed journals and university repositories.
- Review pre-written chemistry questions for accuracy, clarity, completeness, precision, and solvability.
- Identify and document issues found during verification and justify any edits or corrections.
- Help maintain consistent academic rigor and quality across benchmark content.
Chemistry Domains
- Materials, Polymer & Electronic Chemistry
- Industrial & Process Chemistry
- Energy Storage & Environmental Chemistry
- Pharmaceutical & Agrochemical Chemistry
- Consumer, Food & Specialty Chemicals
Required Qualifications
- PhD or doctoral candidacy in Chemistry, Biochemistry, Chemical Engineering, or a closely related field.
- Strong command of graduate-level chemistry concepts.
- Demonstrated understanding of reaction mechanisms and quantitative chemical analysis.
- Ability to design and evaluate rigorous academic chemistry problems.
- Excellent written English.
- Ability to communicate complex scientific concepts clearly and concisely.
- Strong attention to accuracy, precision, and logical consistency.
- Ability to work independently in an asynchronous environment.
Preferred Qualifications
- Master's degree with exceptional depth in a specific chemistry subdomain.
- Experience designing rigorous academic assessments or problem sets.
- Experience writing chemistry olympiad questions or comparable advanced academic content.
- Strong expertise in one or more of the covered chemistry domains.
- Experience reviewing or validating technical/scientific educational content.
- Familiarity with academic literature and reputable scientific reference sources.
Compensation
- $61–$77 per hour
- Hourly contract engagement
- Fully remote and asynchronous
- Expected commitment of 10+ hours per week
Eligibility
- Open to qualified candidates with the required academic and chemistry expertise.
- Reasonable accommodations are available upon request.
- Selection is based on qualifications without regard to legally protected characteristics.
Application Process
- Submit your application highlighting your chemistry background and area(s) of expertise.
- Specify relevant academic qualifications and specialized chemistry domains.
- Demonstrate experience with advanced chemistry problem-solving or academic content creation where applicable.
- Selected candidates may be assigned question-authoring or verification work based on their expertise.
- Complete assigned benchmark tasks while following the project's quality and formatting standards.