Biology Specialist
Position: Biology Specialist
Type: Hourly Contract
Compensation: $60–$75/hour
Location: Remote
About the Opportunity
This opportunity is for expert biologists and biological science researchers to contribute to an advanced AI research and evaluation initiative with Mercor.
You will author and verify rigorous academic assessment content across specialized biology domains, helping establish gold-standard benchmarks used to evaluate and advance AI capabilities. The work emphasizes deep conceptual understanding, experimental reasoning, data interpretation, and scientific accuracy.
Responsibilities
- Author original, challenging multiple-choice biology questions that assess deep conceptual understanding rather than surface-level recall.
- Review and verify pre-written biology questions for accuracy, clarity, completeness, rigor, and solvability.
- Ensure questions are unambiguous, self-contained, and precisely defined, with all necessary information included.
- Assign difficulty ratings as Medium, Hard, or Expert based on the level of biological knowledge required.
- Provide one correct answer and nine 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.
- Identify and document issues involving clarity, precision, completeness, or solvability during verification.
- Apply rigorous scientific standards to ensure assessment content supports high-quality AI benchmarking.
Required Qualifications
- PhD or doctoral-level study in Biology, Molecular Biology, Biochemistry, Neuroscience, or a closely related field.
- Strong command of graduate-level biological concepts, experimental design, and data interpretation.
- Deep expertise in at least one of the covered biology domains.
- Strong ability to formulate, solve, and critically evaluate advanced biological problems.
- Excellent written English and ability to communicate complex scientific concepts clearly and concisely.
- Strong attention to detail and commitment to scientific accuracy and rigor.
- Ability to work independently in an asynchronous, fully remote environment.
- Availability for approximately 10+ hours per week.
Preferred Qualifications
- Master's degree with exceptional depth in a relevant biological subdomain.
- Research publications in biological or life sciences.
- Hands-on laboratory or research experience.
- Experience designing rigorous academic biology assessments or problem sets.
- Expertise in areas such as drug discovery, synthetic biology, pharmaceutical manufacturing, agricultural biology, environmental biology, or food biology.
- Experience reviewing peer-reviewed scientific literature.
- Previous experience with AI evaluation, benchmarking, or technical content verification.
Compensation
- $60–$75/hour
- Hourly contract engagement.
- Expected commitment of 10+ hours per week.
- Fully remote and asynchronous.
- Opportunity to contribute to gold-standard biology benchmarks for advanced AI systems.
Eligibility
- Candidates with a PhD or doctoral-level background in Biology, Molecular Biology, Biochemistry, Neuroscience, or a closely related field.
- Master's-level candidates may be considered where they demonstrate exceptional expertise in a relevant subdomain.
- Applicants should have expertise in one or more of the following areas:
- Pharmaceutical Manufacturing
- Industrial & Synthetic Biology
- Medical Research & Drug Discovery
- Agricultural Biology
- Environmental Biology
- Food Biology
Application Process
- Apply for the Biology Specialist position.
- Complete the required screening process.
- Demonstrate relevant biological expertise and academic or research experience.
- Complete any required assessment or sample problem-design task.
- Complete onboarding if selected.
- Begin authoring or verifying high-quality biology benchmark questions for the AI research initiative.