Biology PhD - Assessment Specialist

Mercor; Greater London; On-site; GBP 35,000 - 60,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Remote work

Flexible schedule

Job summary

Mercor is seeking expert biologists to author or verify high-quality academic assessment content for an AI research initiative. You will craft and review challenging biology MCQs, evaluate solution quality, and help set gold-standard benchmarks used to advance AI capabilities.

Role involves asynchronous, fully remote work with a focus on deep conceptual testing across domains like Pharmaceutical Manufacturing, Industrial & Synthetic Biology, and Medical Research.

Qualifications

• PhD or doctoral-level expertise in biology, molecular biology, biochemistry, neuroscience, or closely related field.
• Excellent written English and ability to express complex ideas clearly and concisely.
• Strong grounding in experimental design and data interpretation.

Responsibilities

• Author original biology questions that test deep conceptual understanding.
• Rate difficulty levels and provide 1 correct answer with 9 plausible distractors.
• Write step-by-step Chain-of-Thought solutions in Markdown format.
• Provide 1–5 academic references per question from reputable sources.
• For verification tasks: flag clarity/solvability issues and justify edits.

Education

PhD in Biology or closely related field

Master's degree in related field

Job description

Role Overview

We are seeking expert biologists to author and review high-quality academic assessment content for an AI research initiative. You will write and verify rigorous multiple-choice questions across core biology domains, evaluate solution quality, and help establish gold-standard benchmarks used to advance AI capabilities.

You will be assigned one of two task types:

• Question Authoring — Create original, challenging multiple-choice questions in your area of biology expertise, rate their difficulty, and submit them for review.
• Question Verification — Review pre-written questions for accuracy, clarity, and rigor. Edit where needed, rate difficulty, and document any changes made.

Biology Domains Covered

Pharmaceutical Manufacturing, Industrial and Synthetic Biology, Medical Research & Drug Discovery, Agricultural, Environmental & Food Biology.

Key Responsibilities

• Author original biology questions that test deep conceptual understanding, not surface-level recall
• Ensure questions are unambiguous, self-contained, and precisely defined — all necessary information must be 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 (peer-reviewed journals, university repositories)
• For verification tasks: flag issues with clarity, completeness, precision, or solvability and justify any edits made

Ideal Qualifications

• PhD or doctoral candidate in Biology, Molecular Biology, Biochemistry, Neuroscience, or a closely related field
• Master's degree considered for candidates with exceptional depth in a specific subdomain
• Strong command of graduate-level biological concepts, experimental design, and data interpretation
• Research publications or laboratory experience in biological sciences is a strong plus
• Excellent written English and ability to express complex ideas clearly and concisely

More About the Opportunity

• Expected commitment: 10+ hours/week
• Asynchronous, fully remote work