Engineering PhD - Benchmark Specialist

Mercor; New York (NY); On-site; USD 55,000 - 110,000; Part time

Job summary

Mercor is seeking expert engineers to author and review high-quality academic assessment content for an AI research initiative. You will craft and verify rigorous MCQs across core engineering domains, evaluate solution quality, and help establish gold-standard benchmarks used to advance AI capabilities.

You will work asynchronously from anywhere, committing roughly 10+ hours per week. The role emphasizes deep conceptual problem design, precise wording, and clear explanations suitable for

Qualifications

• PhD or doctoral candidate in Engineering required or highly preferred.
• Excellent written English and concise technical communication.
• Strong command of graduate-level engineering principles and applied mathematics.

Responsibilities

• Author original engineering questions that test deep conceptual understanding.
• Rate difficulty and provide 1 correct answer plus 9 plausible distractors.
• Review and edit pre-written questions for accuracy and rigor.
• Provide step-by-step Chain-of-Thought solutions in markdown format.
• Supply 1–5 academic references per question.
• Flag clarity and solvability issues when verifying questions.

Skills

Graduate-level engineering principles

Technical writing

English proficiency

Education

PhD or doctoral candidate in Engineering

Master's degree in engineering

Job description

Role Overview

We are seeking expert engineers 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 engineering 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 engineering 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.

Engineering Domains Covered

Semiconductor Design & Manufacturing (VLSI), Control Science and Engineering, Mechatronics, Reactor, Plant Design & Separations, Reservoir Engineering & Maintenance, Bioinstrumentation & Biotechnology.

Key Responsibilities

• Author original engineering 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 Engineering or a closely related field
• Master's degree considered for candidates with exceptional depth in a specific subdomain
• Strong command of graduate-level engineering principles, applied mathematics, and domain-specific standards
• Professional engineering licensure (PE) or industry experience 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