Drug Discovery Scientist - PhD

Mercor; San Francisco (CA); On-site; USD 120,000 - 180,000; Full time

Job summary

Mercor is seeking a science-focused role to design evaluation challenges for frontier AI models in drug research. You will build data rooms grounded in real sources and write graders to assess reasoning quality, with 20–40 hours weekly commitment.

Tools include Claude Code and Claude Max, in-browser studio work. The role requires deep expertise in mechanistic enzymology or related areas, and the ability to defend non-obvious conclusions.

Qualifications

• PhD or equivalent industry track record in related field.
• Ability to pose defensible problems with rigor.
• Comfort judging reasoning quality, not just final answers.

Responsibilities

• Design the challenge to ensure a unique, defendable solution.
• Build the world by assembling a data room with traceable sources.
• Write the grader to score memo substance over style.
• Validate the framework through verification and calibration steps.
• Revise the framework as requested by reviewers.

Skills

Mechanistic enzymology

Structure-guided design

Fragment-based discovery

Medicinal chemistry

Reasoning evaluation

Education

PhD or equivalent industry track record

Tools

Claude Code

Claude Max

Job description

About the role

This is an evaluation framework for frontier AI models in drug research and development. Domain experts write realistic research problems wrapped around messy evidence worlds. The model works offline in a sandbox with open-source scientific tooling, receiving incomplete, indirect and sometimes misleading data, and must reach a defensible conclusion. The answer is present in the evidence but never stated.

Your job is to build a research problem so realistic and well-constructed that the model has to genuinely reason to solve it — it can't pattern-match or look the answer up.

What you'll deliver

1. Design the challenge — identify the hidden basin and the forcing chain that makes one conclusion inevitable.


2. Build the world — assemble a data room from real, source-grounded data. Every decisive value traces to a real source.


3. Write the grader — a grading document that scores a submitted memo on substance, not style or method.


4. Validate it — run verification and calibration before submission.


5. Revise it — you own the rework if a reviewer requests changes.

You are the final authority on every scientific and difficulty question in your task.

Who we're looking for

• Working expertise in mechanistic enzymology, structure-guided peptide or antibody design, fragment-based discovery, or structure-based medicinal chemistry — PhD or equivalent industry track record.


• You can pose a problem whose answer you can defend rigorously, but which a strong solver cannot shortcut.


• Comfortable judging reasoning quality, not just final answers.

Commitment

Minimum 20 hours per week, up to 40.

Tooling

Work happens in a browser-based studio plus Claude Code. A Claude Max subscription is required and is fully reimbursed.