Frontier Physics Researcher & Golden-Reference Auditor

Mercor; Greater London; Remote; GBP 82,000 - 138,000; Full time

Job summary

Mercor seeks expert physics researchers to author and verify golden reference solutions for the CritPt benchmark, a frontier research-level physics challenge. You will work asynchronously on end-to-end problems with verifiable derivations, code, and peer-reviewed references.

Responsibilities include decomposing problems, creating Python templates with auto-grading, auditing and adjudicating parallel solutions, and documenting reasoning and test cases.

Qualifications

• PhD or postdoc in the relevant subfield (senior PhD student minimum).
• Postdoc or junior professor in the relevant subfield (PhD minimum).
• Full professor or industry research PI in the relevant subfield (senior postdoc or junior professor minimum).
• Hands-on familiarity with at least two canonical methods of the target subfield, demonstrable through publications.
• 3–5 representative publications (arXiv ID or DOI), ideally within the last ~5 years and in the target subfield.
• Working proficiency with LaTeX, Python, Jupyter, and SymPy
• Strong written English (B2/C1/C2 minimum; native or near-native preferred)

Responsibilities

• Solve research-level physics challenges end-to-end with verifiable derivations, code, and peer-reviewed references
• Decompose challenges into standalone checkpoint sub-problems that require genuine physical reasoning
• Author Python answer templates with auto-grading functions for symbolic or numerical answers
• Audit submitted solutions for correctness, scope, and method soundness; deliver actionable feedback across iterations
• Adjudicate between parallel solver attempts and decide which solution becomes the golden reference
• Document chain-of-thought reasoning, error tolerances, equivalent symbolic forms, and verification test cases

Skills

Research-level physics

Problem solving

Auditing solutions

Strong English writing

Education

PhD or postdoc in relevant subfield

Tools

LaTeX

Python

Jupyter

SymPy

Job description

Mercor seeks expert physics researchers to author and verify golden reference solutions for the CritPt benchmark, a frontier research-level physics challenge. You will work asynchronously on end-to-end problems with verifiable derivations, code, and peer-reviewed references.

Responsibilities include decomposing problems, creating Python templates with auto-grading, auditing and adjudicating parallel solutions, and documenting reasoning and test cases.