Energetic Materials Expert - Redteaming in San Francisco

Energy Jobline ZR; San Francisco (CA); Remote; USD 90,000 - 103,000; Full time

Job summary

Mercor is seeking an Energetic Materials Expert for Redteaming to work remotely. The role involves crafting challenging prompts in explosives and energetic materials, labeling outputs, and evaluating AI model responses for safety.

You will write reference answers with technical reasoning and identify potential misuse, coordinating asynchronously to meet project deadlines. Required background includes hazardous device specialization, propulsion experience, and incident analysis.

Qualifications

• Hazardous device safety expertise and render-safe procedures.
• Experience in incident analysis or forensic identification.

Responsibilities

• Write challenging prompts in explosives and energetic materials.
• Label prompts as benign, dual-use, or adversarial.
• Evaluate model responses against a policy standard.
• Write reference answers with correct responses and reasoning.
• Identify misuse potential and ensure dangerous queries are refused while legitimate ones are answered.
• Work independently and asynchronously to meet deadlines.

Skills

Hazardous Device Specialist

Public Safety Professional

Specialty Materials Chemist

Propulsion & Effects Engineer

Commercial Blasting Engineer

Job description

Job DescriptionJob 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: Energetic Materials Expert for Redteaming
Type: Contract
Compensation: $65–$75 per task
Location: Remote

Role Responsibilities

• Write challenging single-turn prompts in the domain of explosives and energetic materials. Label them as benign, dual-use, or adversarial.
• Evaluate model responses against a defined policy standard. Judge the correctness of each response.
• Write reference answers that include correct responses and the technical reasoning behind them.
• Identify misuse potential in technical requests. Ensure models refuse dangerous queries while answering legitimate ones.
• Work independently and asynchronously to meet deadlines while improving AI model performance.

Qualifications

Must-Have

• Hazardous Device Specialist / Public Safety Professional experience with render-safe procedures and device assessment.
• Specialty Materials Chemist expertise in pyrotechnics or propulsion.
• Federal Certified Materials Specialist / Incident Analyst with forensic identification skills.
• Propulsion & Effects Engineer background in munitions and propulsion system design.
• Commercial Blasting Engineer experience in specialty materials handling.

• Prior AI evaluation or red-teaming experience.
• Technical writing, incident or post-blast reporting, published research, or expert witness experience.