Biotech Specialist - AI Trainer

Obsidian; Houston (TX); Hybrid; USD 12,834 - 16,182; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Competitive pay based on task quality

Performance bonuses for top performers

Potential transition to hourly compensation

Job summary

Obsidian is seeking experienced professionals to build realistic enterprise environments for AI training on Project Atlas. You will leverage your expertise from pharma and biotech to create high-fidelity environments simulating regulated enterprise workflows.

Ideal candidates hold a PhD or equivalent with at least 3 years of industry experience, particularly in drug discovery, clinical development, or regulatory affairs, and are proficient in tools such as Medidata Rave and Schrödinger Suite.

Qualifications

• PhD / MD / PharmD or MS with deep experience; industry fellowship training a plus.
• 3+ years of full‑time experience at a Fortune 500 pharma / biotech or top academic / translational research center.
• Background in target ID, drug discovery, preclinical research, biotech R&D, clinical development, or regulatory affairs.

Responsibilities

• Build a realistic digital workspace centered on daily used documents.
• Design multi-step tasks that reflect real workflows.
• Collaborate with pharma and biotech experts to refine tasks.

Skills

Analytical thinking

Writing skills

Knowledge of drug discovery

Education

PhD / MD / PharmD or MS

Tools

Medidata Rave

Oracle Clinical One

Schrödinger Suite

Benchling

Job description

Role Overview

Mercor is partnering with leading AI labs on Project Atlas — an initiative to build realistic enterprise environments that frontier AI agents are trained and evaluated in. We’re seeking experienced professionals from Fortune 500 pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies (e.g., Pfizer, Merck, J&J, AbbVie, Lilly, Bristol‑Myers Squibb, Roche/Genentech, Novartis, Moderna, Regeneron, Amgen, Gilead, Vertex) and major academic and translational research centers to recreate the digital workspaces they run every day and design the tasks that genuinely challenge state‑of‑the‑art AI.

This world combines pharmaceutical clinical development and biotech R&D operations into a single environment — spanning the bench‑to‑clinic lifecycle from discovery and lab research through clinical trials, regulatory submission, and CMC. You’ll bring your expertise across drug discovery, preclinical / translational research, clinical development, bioprocess / lab operations, or regulatory / CMC to build a high‑fidelity environment that mirrors the tools, files, and workflows of a regulated pharma‑biotech enterprise — and then author tasks grounded in the programs you actually run today.

Key Responsibilities

• Build a realistic digital workspace centered on the Drive folders you use day‑to‑day — study protocols, investigator brochures, IND / NDA / BLA drafts, pharmacology and biomarker analyses, assay and bioprocess development records, CMC technical reports, DMC briefing documents, lab notebooks, and email threads that reflect how you actually organize your work — with some representation of the platforms that support it (e.g., Medidata Rave / Oracle Clinical One, Schrödinger Suite, Benchling / LabArchives)
• Design multi‑step tasks grounded in your real workflows that require navigating multiple apps, files, and stakeholders in a way that meaningfully challenges frontier AI agents
• Collaborate with other pharma and biotech experts to design the environment, shape task scope, and review each other’s scenarios for realism and rigor
• Work asynchronously with research teams to refine task designs and evaluation criteria for pharma / biotech agent benchmarks
• Contribute to frontier AI research and benchmarking — the work you produce directly informs how leading labs train and evaluate the next generation of AI systems

Ideal Qualifications

• PhD / MD / PharmD or MS with deep experience; industry fellowship training a plus
• 3+ years of full‑time experience at a Fortune 500 pharma / biotech or top academic / translational research center
• Background in one or more areas such as:
  • Target ID / drug discovery (medicinal chemistry, biology, HTS, DMPK)
  • Preclinical / translational research (PK/PD, tox, biomarker)
  • Biotech R&D / bioprocess (molecular & cell biology, assay development, upstream / downstream process development, analytical development)
  • Clinical development (Phase I–IV, biostatistics, clinical operations)
  • Regulatory affairs (IND, NDA, BLA, EMA) or CMC
  • Real‑world evidence / HEOR / pharmacovigilance
• Day‑to‑day use of Medidata Rave / Oracle Clinical One, Schrödinger Suite / MOE (CCG), and Benchling / LabArchives
• Strong analytical thinking and writing — able to translate pharma / biotech R&D workflows into structured task specs

Compensation Note

• Task Completion Pay: Competitive and based on task quality (~$1,150 – $1,450 per completed task, subject to change as the project evolves)
• Performance Bonus: Top performers receive a weekly bonus incentive on top of their per task rate!
• Hourly Opportunity: Top performers may be invited to transition to an hourly compensation model based on sustained quality and throughput.