Chemistry Expert - Fully Remote | Upto $225/hr Part-time

mercor; United States; Remote; USD 172,000 - 310,000; Part time

Job summary

Mercor, headquartered in San Francisco, is seeking a part-time Chemistry Researcher for remote work. The role focuses on authoring and reviewing chemistry problems to train frontier AI models and evaluating outputs in retrosynthesis, mechanism prediction, and spectral interpretation.

This contract position (via Cincinnatus LLC) offers 8–20 hours per week with compensation of $125–$225 per hour. A PhD-level chemistry background and independent collaboration are required.

Qualifications

• First-author or co-first-author publications in top journals like JACS, Nature Chemistry, or Science.
• Doctoral or postdoctoral training at a top-20 global institution for chemistry or STEM.
• Competitive fellowships such as NSF GRFP, Hertz, or Sloan Research Fellow.
• Issued patents, spin-out companies, or grants as a named PI or co-PI.
• International Chemistry Olympiad (IChO) Gold/Silver/Bronze medalist.

Responsibilities

• Author and review challenging chemistry problems to train and evaluate frontier AI models.
• Evaluate model outputs on tasks like retrosynthesis, mechanism prediction, and spectral interpretation.
• Identify areas where current models fail, focusing on mistakes a working PhD chemist would catch.
• Collaborate with a small program team and other senior contributors.
• Work independently and asynchronously to meet deadlines while improving model performance.

Skills

First-author publications

Independent work

Collaborative research

Remote collaboration tools

Education

PhD or postdoc in chemistry

Job description

About the job

Mercor connects elite creative and technical talent with leading AI research labs. Headquartered in San Francisco, our investors include Benchmark, General Catalyst, Peter Thiel, Adam D'Angelo, Larry Summers, and Jack Dorsey.

Position: Chemistry Researchers (Part-time) Type: Contract Compensation: $125–$225/hour Location: Remote Commitment: 8–20 hours/week

Role Responsibilities

• Author and review challenging chemistry problems to train and evaluate frontier AI models.
• Evaluate model outputs on tasks like retrosynthesis, mechanism prediction, and spectral interpretation.
• Identify areas where current models fail, focusing on mistakes a working PhD chemist would catch.
• Collaborate with a small program team and other senior contributors.
• Work independently and asynchronously to meet deadlines while improving model performance.

Qualifications Must-Have

• First-author or co-first-author publications in top journals like JACS, Nature Chemistry, or Science.
• Doctoral or postdoctoral training at a top-20 global institution for chemistry or STEM.
• Competitive fellowships such as NSF GRFP, Hertz, or Sloan Research Fellow.
• Issued patents, spin-out companies, or grants as a named PI or co-PI.
• International Chemistry Olympiad (IChO) Gold/Silver/Bronze medalist.
• Active research role: PhD candidate, postdoc, instructor, faculty, principal scientist, or industry researcher.

Engagement

• Part-time: 8 to 20 hours per week.
• W-2 employment with Cincinnatus LLC; payroll, benefits, and compliance handled by Cincinnatus.
• Compensation reflects research seniority and credentials.
• No fixed end date; contributors continue as long as the program needs their expertise.