Life, Physical & Social Science Expert

Mercor; India; Remote; INR 7,761,000 - 15,522,000; Full time

Job summary

Mercor is seeking Life, Physical & Social Science Experts for remote, independent contractor work evaluating AI models. You’ll craft research problems, grade model outputs, and flag inconsistencies in reasoning. This is a standing pool with per-project rates, not a fixed opening.

Compensation ranges from $60 to $120 per hour, paid weekly via Stripe or Wise. Candidates with graduate science degrees and strong written communication are invited to join the pool and be matched to projects as

Qualifications

• A graduate degree in a life, physical, or social science, with research experience.
• Clear written communication, since most of the work involves explaining your reasoning.
• Comfort with ambiguous tasks, and willingness to flag unclear instructions.

Responsibilities

• Writing a research problem from your own field, with the system, the data, and the assumptions, plus the reference answer a model's attempt gets graded against.
• Grading model-written analysis and interpretation: whether the method suits the question, whether the statistics support the claim, whether the conclusion follows from the evidence
• Flagging where a model produces a result that is internally consistent and would not survive peer review, given the design, the sample, or what the measurement can actually show

Skills

Research experience

Written communication

Ambiguity tolerance

Education

Graduate degree in life, physical or social science

Job description

Life, Physical & Social Science Expert

Company: Mercor

Compensation: $60

Commitment: Talent network

Location: Remote

The research teams behind the best-known AI models come to Mercor for scientific judgment they can't generate on their own. Your standards and expertise become the rubric that frontier AI is graded against. This is a standing listing for researchers who want AI training and evaluation work, not a specific job opening. It stays open whether or not a matching project is running this week. New projects start on short notice, so instead of posting and pulling a listing each time, we keep one open per field and draw from it when one begins.

What the work looks like

• Writing a research problem from your own field, with the system, the data, and the assumptions, plus the reference answer a model's attempt gets graded against
• Grading model-written analysis and interpretation: whether the method suits the question, whether the statistics support the claim, whether the conclusion follows from the evidence
• Flagging where a model produces a result that is internally consistent and would not survive peer review, given the design, the sample, or what the measurement can actually show

Projects across these fields have posted at $60 to $120 an hour, set per project by scope and depth.

What we're looking for

• A graduate degree in a life, physical, or social science, with research experience
• Clear written communication, since most of the work involves explaining your reasoning
• Comfort with ambiguous tasks, and willingness to flag unclear instructions

This pool spans the sciences, including:

• Biology, biotechnology, chemistry, and materials science
• Physics and astronomy; mathematics
• Earth and environmental science; agriculture
• Psychology; sociology and anthropology
• Economics; political science and policy research

Where you trained matters less than whether you designed the studies and interpreted the data yourself, recently enough to explain the calls you made.

Finishing the domain expert interview and joining every network you qualify for both improve your odds of being matched.

When a project needs your field, we invite matching people from the pool to that specific listing. It names the rate, the hours, and the client, and any hiring decision is made there.

We consider all qualified applicants without regard to legally protected characteristics and provide reasonable accommodations upon request.

Contract and Payment Terms

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.

About Mercor

Mercor partners with leading AI labs and enterprises to train frontier models using human expertise. You will work on projects that focus on training and enhancing AI systems. You will be paid competitively, collaborate with leading researchers, and help shape the next generation of AI systems in your area of expertise.