Propulsion & Effects Engineer

Mercor; India; Remote; INR 8,408,000 - 9,701,000; Part time

Job summary

Mercor is building a panel of propulsion experts to red-team frontier AI models. You will craft challenging prompts across benign, dual-use and adversarial levels, and judge responses against policy standards.

You will also write the reference answer and the technical reasoning behind it, ensuring clear justification for decisions. This contract role emphasizes rigorous technical writing and the ability to explain misuse scenarios in your field to non-specialists.

Qualifications

• Background in propulsion design or warhead effects engineering.
• Experience with red-teaming and safety evaluation of AI prompts.
• Proven technical writing skills with clear, auditable rationale.
• Ability to write and assess domain-specific misuse scenarios.

Responsibilities

• Write challenging domain prompts labeled benign, dual-use, and adversarial.
• Evaluate model responses against a defined policy standard.
• Draft reference answers and the technical reasoning for correct responses.
• Document judgments clearly for non-specialists.
• Contribute to misuse-scenario analysis in propulsion/ORDnance domain.

Skills

Technical writing

Red-teaming experience

Education

Munitions or warhead design and effects engineering

Propulsion system design, test and qualification (solid/liquid/hybrid)

Terminal effects modelling (blast, fragmentation, penetration)

Fuzing, safe-and-arm, initiation system engineering

Test range engineering and propulsion/ordnance instrumentation

Job description

Propulsion & Effects Engineer

Company: Mercor

Compensation: $65-$75 per task

Commitment: Contract

Location: Remote

Referral Reward: Earn up to $250 per successful referral.

Referral Link: https://t.mercor.com/tiTMp

About the work

Mercor is assembling a panel of energetic materials and propulsion experts to red-team frontier AI models. The goal is to test whether a model can correctly judge the misuse potential of a technical request answering legitimate questions fully while refusing genuinely dangerous ones. You will: Write challenging single-turn prompts in your domain, labelled across three levels: benign, dual-use, and adversarial. Evaluate the responses that come back against a defined policy standard, and judge whether each was handled correctly. Write the reference answer what a correct response looks like, and the technical reasoning for why. This domain lives on the dual-use line more than most. The same propulsion analysis that qualifies a motor for flight describes a capability; the same safe-and-arm logic that keeps a system inert is the part someone would want to defeat. A model that refuses a routine performance or qualification question is failing as badly as one that answers a question it shouldn't. Drawing that line reliably is why we need practitioners rather than generalists.

Examples of relevant backgrounds (ideally with red-teaming experience):

• Munitions or warhead design and effects engineering
• Solid, liquid or hybrid propulsion system design, test and qualification
• Terminal effects modelling blast, fragmentation, penetration
• Fuzing, safe-and-arm and initiation system engineering
• Test range engineering and instrumentation for propulsion or ordnance

What this role demands beyond technical depth

This is writing-intensive work. Every judgment you make needs a written rationale that a non-specialist can follow. Prior technical writing, published research, or expert witness experience is a strong signal; please include a sample or link. You will also be reading and writing about misuse scenarios in your field for sustained periods. We brief experts on this in advance, and you can pause or step away at any point without penalty.

Before you apply: Your work here will not involve, and must not draw on, classified or export-controlled information, or anything covered by an NDA or prepublication review obligation. If you hold such obligations you may still be a good fit; tell us in your application and we will scope the work accordingly.

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