Chemistry PhD - Quantum Specialist

Obsidian; Greater London; On-site; GBP 55,000 - 83,000; Part time

Job summary

Mercor is hiring PhD and Master's scientists to author AI evaluation tasks (Sci Code). You will author original, executable research problems that today\'s frontier models cannot solve. Mercor partners with leading AI labs on a new benchmark for scientific computing.

You will source materials, write prompts, and build grading criteria, while calibrating against frontier models to ensure tasks challenge the strongest models.

Qualifications

• PhD in chemistry, physical chemistry, theoretical chemistry or computaional chemistry.
• Depth in quantum chemistry and computational chemistry required.
• Proficient in Python, R or similar scientific computing language.

Responsibilities

• Source your own material: paper, Kaggle dataset, open-source repo, or designed scenario.
• Write scientific prompts based on input.
• Build grading criteria defining a correct answer.
• Calibrate against frontier models with strong gating.

Skills

Python

R

Git

Docker

Education

PhD in chemistry or closely related field

Tools

GitHub

Docker

Job description

Mercor is hiring PhD and Master's scientists to author AI evaluation tasks (Sci Code)

Mercor is partnering with leading AI labs on a new benchmark for scientific computing. You will author original, executable research problems that today's frontier models cannot solve.

Domains — depth required in at least two subdomains (with a coding focus)

• Chemistry — quantum chemistry, computational chemistry

What you'll do

• Source your own material: a published paper, a Kaggle dataset, an open-source repository, or a scenario you design

• Write scientific prompts based on the input

• Build the grading criteria that define a correct answer

• Calibrate against frontier models — a task ships only when strong models fail it more often than they succeed

Required

• PhD in chemistry, physical chemistry, theoretical chemistry, computational chemistry, or a closely related field

• Demonstrated depth in both of the following subdomains: quantum chemistry and computational chemistry

• Working proficiency in Python, R, or another relevant programming language for scientific computing

• Comfortable with Git/GitHub and running code in Docker — authoring runs through a pull-request workflow with automated quality checks

Preferred

• Publications in peer-reviewed journals

• Prior scientific software or research engineering experience

Engagement

• Duration: 6 weeks

• Commitment: part-time, 20+ hours per week

• Start date: immediate