Chemistry PhD - Assessment Specialist

Mercor; New York (NY); On-site; USD 28,000 - 62,000; Part time

Benefits offered by this job

Fully remote

Job summary

Mercor is seeking expert chemists to author and review high-quality academic assessment content for an AI research initiative. You will create and verify rigorous chemistry multiple-choice questions, rate difficulty, and supply 1–5 references per question.

This is a fully remote, asynchronous role requiring 10+ hours per week. Ideal candidates hold a PhD or are doctoral candidates with strong writing and communication skills.

Qualifications

• PhD or doctoral candidate in Chemistry, Biochemistry, Chemical Engineering, or closely related field.
• Master's degree considered for candidates with exceptional depth in a specific subdomain.
• Strong command of graduate-level chemistry concepts, reaction mechanisms, and quantitative analysis.
• Experience with rigorous academic problem design or chemistry olympiad writing is a strong plus.
• Excellent written English and ability to express complex ideas clearly and concisely.

Responsibilities

• Author original chemistry questions that test deep conceptual understanding, not surface-level recall
• Ensure questions are unambiguous, self-contained, and precisely defined — all necessary information must be in the problem statement
• Rate each question's difficulty: Medium (intro undergraduate), Hard (advanced undergraduate), or Expert (post-graduate and above)
• Provide 1 correct answer and 9 plausible but subtly incorrect alternatives that challenge expert-level solvers
• Write step-by-step Chain-of-Thought solutions with clear, concise intermediate steps in markdown format
• Supply 1–5 academic references per question from reputable sources (peer-reviewed journals, university repositories)
• For verification tasks: flag issues with clarity, completeness, precision, or solvability and justify any edits made

Skills

Chemistry expertise

Question authoring

Question verification

Academic writing

Education

PhD in Chemistry

Doctoral candidate

Job description

Role Overview

We are seeking expert chemists to author and review high-quality academic assessment content for an AI research initiative. You will write and verify rigorous multiple-choice questions across core chemistry domains, evaluate solution quality, and help establish gold-standard benchmarks used to advance AI capabilities.

You will be assigned one of two task types:

• Question Authoring — Create original, challenging multiple-choice questions in your area of chemistry expertise, rate their difficulty, and submit them for review.

• Question Verification — Review pre-written questions for accuracy, clarity, and rigor. Edit where needed, rate difficulty, and document any changes made.

Chemistry Domains Covered

Materials, Polymer & Electronic Chemistry, Industrial & Process Chemistry, Energy Storage & Environmental Chemistry, Pharmaceutical & Agrochemical Chemistry, Consumer, Food & Specialty Chemicals.

Key Responsibilities

• Author original chemistry questions that test deep conceptual understanding, not surface-level recall

• Ensure questions are unambiguous, self-contained, and precisely defined — all necessary information must be in the problem statement

• Rate each question's difficulty: Medium (intro undergraduate), Hard (advanced undergraduate), or Expert (post-graduate and above)

• Provide 1 correct answer and 9 plausible but subtly incorrect alternatives that challenge expert-level solvers

• Write step-by-step Chain-of-Thought solutions with clear, concise intermediate steps in markdown format

• Supply 1–5 academic references per question from reputable sources (peer-reviewed journals, university repositories)

• For verification tasks: flag issues with clarity, completeness, precision, or solvability and justify any edits made

Ideal Qualifications

• PhD or doctoral candidate in Chemistry, Biochemistry, Chemical Engineering, or a closely related field

• Master's degree considered for candidates with exceptional depth in a specific subdomain

• Strong command of graduate-level chemistry concepts, reaction mechanisms, and quantitative analysis

• Experience with rigorous academic problem design or chemistry olympiad writing is a strong plus

• Excellent written English and ability to express complex ideas clearly and concisely

More About the Opportunity

• Expected commitment: 10+ hours/week

• Asynchronous, fully remote work