Analytical Chemist

Mercor; United States; Remote; USD 90,000 - 130,000; Full time

Job summary

Mercor is assembling a panel of chemistry and chemical safety experts to red-team frontier AI models. You will craft prompts across benign, dual-use, and adversarial categories and rigorously evaluate the responses against a policy standard.

You will write the reference answers with clear technical reasoning for safe handling of sensitive topics. This writing-intensive role requires experience with hazardous compounds analysis and proven ability to communicate complex judgments to

Qualifications

• Experience in identifying and validating methods for hazardous compounds.
• Proven ability to produce clear, audience-friendly rationales.
• Experience in environmental or emergency-response contexts preferred.

Responsibilities

• Write challenging prompts in benign, dual-use, and adversarial categories.
• Evaluate model responses against a policy standard and document judgments.
• Draft reference answers with detailed technical justifications.
• Assess sustained misuse scenarios and provide actionable feedback.

Skills

Hazardous compounds analysis

Red-team experience

Technical writing

Education

PhD in Chemistry

Tools

GC-MS

LC-MS/MS

IR

NMR

Job description

About the work Mercor is assembling a panel of chemistry and chemical safety 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.
• You will be writing prompts that sit exactly on that line, then judging whether the model held it.

Background we're looking for

We're looking for analysts who have built and validated methods for hazardous compounds - people who know what a detection limit really means and what it implies.

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

• Detection and identification of hazardous compounds - GC-MS, LC-MS/MS, IR, NMR
• Method development and validation for trace-level analysis
• Environmental, occupational or emergency-response sampling and analysis
• Reference standards, spectral libraries and unknown identification
• Laboratory accreditation, QA/QC and proficiency testing

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.

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.