Engineering PhD - Benchmark Specialist

mercor; Deutschland; Remote; EUR 75,000 - 95,000; Part time

Job summary

Mercor is seeking an Applied Engineering Benchmark Specialist on a contract basis. The role focuses on authoring deep conceptual engineering questions, ensuring unambiguous, self-contained problem statements, and rating difficulty levels from undergraduate to post-graduate.

The position emphasizes rigorous explanations, references, and verification tasks. The remote, contract-based role requires a PhD or doctoral candidate, with a strong background in engineering principles, applied mathematics,

Qualifications

• PhD or doctoral candidate in Engineering or a closely related field.
• Master's degree considered for candidates with exceptional depth in a specific subdomain.
• Strong command of graduate-level engineering principles, applied mathematics, and domain-specific standards.
• Professional engineering licensure ( PE ) or industry experience is a strong plus.
• Excellent written English and ability to express complex ideas clearly and concisely.

Responsibilities

• Author original engineering questions that test deep conceptual understanding, not surface-level recall.
• Ensure questions are unambiguous, self-contained, and precisely defined. Include all necessary information in the problem statement.
• Rate each question's difficulty: Medium (intro undergraduate), Hard (advanced undergraduate), or Expert (post-graduate and above).
• Provide 1 correct answer and 9 plausible but subtly incorrect alternatives that challenge expert-level solvers.
• Write step-by-step Chain-of-Thought solutions with clear, concise intermediate steps in markdown format.
• Supply 1–5 academic references per question from reputable sources like peer-reviewed journals or university repositories.
• For verification tasks: flag issues with clarity, completeness, precision, or solvability and justify any edits made.

Skills

Engineering principles

Applied mathematics

Domain standards

Written English

Education

PhD or doctoral candidate

Master's degree

PE licensure

Job description

About the job 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 .

Position: Applied Engineering Benchmark Specialist

Type: Contract

Compensation: $61–$77/hour

Location: Remote

Commitment: 10+ hours/week

Role Responsibilities

• Author original engineering questions that test deep conceptual understanding, not surface-level recall.
• Ensure questions are unambiguous, self-contained, and precisely defined. Include all necessary information in the problem statement.
• Rate each question's difficulty: Medium (intro undergraduate), Hard (advanced undergraduate), or Expert (post-graduate and above).
• Provide 1 correct answer and 9 plausible but subtly incorrect alternatives that challenge expert-level solvers.
• Write step-by-step Chain-of-Thought solutions with clear, concise intermediate steps in markdown format.
• Supply 1–5 academic references per question from reputable sources like peer-reviewed journals or university repositories.
• For verification tasks: flag issues with clarity, completeness, precision, or solvability and justify any edits made.

Qualifications

• PhD or doctoral candidate in Engineering or a closely related field.
• Master's degree considered for candidates with exceptional depth in a specific subdomain.
• Strong command of graduate-level engineering principles, applied mathematics, and domain-specific standards.
• Professional engineering licensure ( PE ) or industry experience is a strong plus.
• Excellent written English and ability to express complex ideas clearly and concisely.