MercorOperationsSpecial ReferralChemistry Domain Expert
Remote — United States
About the role
Help define how frontier AI models reason about chemistry.
We are looking for senior chemists to improve how frontier AI models reason about real chemistry research.
Your scientific judgment is the substance of this role. You will review the quality of chemistry reasoning tasks and model outputs, write the problem specifications and reference solutions that define what "correct" looks like, and design benchmarks that show whether a model is genuinely improving. We are looking for a practicing specialist rather than a generalist.
This role is fully remote.
Scope of Work
- Expert review: Assess chemistry tasks and model outputs, catching implausible mechanisms, infeasible reactions, stoichiometric and thermodynamic errors, misread spectra, and answers that read well but would not survive peer review.
- Problem specs and reference solutions: Write precise problem statements and rigorous reference solutions that reflect how research chemistry is actually done.
- Benchmarks: Design challenging, research-level problems and evaluation sets in your area of specialization.
- Calibration: Work with other researchers and experts in adjacent fields to turn tacit expert judgment into explicit, teachable criteria.
What you’ll bring
- Education: PhD in chemistry, chemical engineering, or a closely related field.
- Seniority: A faculty appointment, principal investigator, staff or senior scientist, or an equivalent senior research role at a university, national laboratory, or research organization.
- Domain depth: Genuine specialization in at least one area, for example organic and synthetic chemistry, physical and computational chemistry, inorganic and materials chemistry, analytical chemistry, or chemical biology.
- Research record: A strong peer-reviewed publication record. Recognition such as competitive fellowships or awards is a plus.
- AI fluency: Hands-on use of large language models in your work, and the judgment to tell a sound argument from a plausible-sounding wrong one.
- Communication: Excellent written communication and the ability to give precise, well-structured feedback.
- Location: Based in the United States.
Benefits
Not provided in the source listing.
Contract & Payment Terms
- We consider all qualified applicants without regard to legally protected characteristics and provide reasonable accommodations upon request.
- You will be engaged as an independent contractor.
- This is a fully remote role that can be completed on your own schedule.
- Projects can be extended, shortened, or concluded early depending on needs and performance.
- Your work at Mercor will not involve access to confidential or proprietary information from any employer, client, or institution.
- Payments are weekly on Stripe or Wise based on services rendered.
- Please note: We are unable to support H1-B or STEM OPT candidates at this time.
Where you can work
This role is open to people based in: United States.
Remote does not always mean work from any country. Always check the employer’s location and working-hour requirements.
