[Contract] Applied Chemistry Benchmark Specialist

1000scholars; United States; Remote; USD 60,000 - 100,000; Part time

Job summary

Mercor is 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 and Question Verification, with responsibilities to create or edit questions, rate difficulty, and provide

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.

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

Graduate-level concepts

Academic problem design

English writing

Education

PhD or doctoral candidate in Chemistry/Biochemistry/Chemical Engineering

Master's degree considered for specialization

Job description

[Contract] Applied Chemistry Benchmark Specialist

Mercor

Remote

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


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

Contract and Payment Terms

• You will be engaged as an independent contractor


• This is a fully remote role that can be completed on your own schedule


• Projects can be extended, shortened, or concluded early depending on needs and performance


• Your work at Mercor will not involve access to confidential or proprietary information from any employer, client, or institution


• Payments are weekly on Stripe or Wise based on services rendered


• Please note: We are unable to support H1-B or STEM OPT candidates at this time