Hands-on Preclinical R&D Scientist - AI-Driven Drug Discovery

Obsidian; New York (NY); On-site; USD 83,000 - 124,000; Part time

Job summary

Mercor is seeking a hands-on preclinical R&D expert to help guide AI-driven drug discovery projects. You will work across drug modalities, review real-world R&D data, and annotate outputs to improve model performance.

The role blends wet-lab insight with translational science and AI model development. Ideal candidates have 5+ years in preclinical R&D, experience taking programs toward clinic, and familiarity with multiple drug modalities.

Qualifications

• Must have hands-on, non-administrative preclinical R&D experience at a company that develops its own drug assets in-house and has taken programs to the clinic.
• Experience across discovery biology, medicinal chemistry, protein/antibody engineering, computational, in vivo/translational pharmacology/toxicology, or CMC/formulation is valued.
• Hands-on experience with one or more drug modalities (small molecules, antibodies, peptides, mRNA, siRNA, ADCs, etc.) is required.

Responsibilities

• Review technical materials and real-world R&D data in your area of expertise
• Label, classify, and annotate scientific data and model outputs to improve model performance
• Provide expert perspective on key scientific and development decisions (target/modality selection, optimization, trade-offs, risk)
• Help define structure and quality standards for the client's dataset pipeline
• Participate in expert discussions, interviews, and research engagements

Skills

Preclinical R&D

Data labeling/annotation

Biology/Pharmacology

Cross-functional collaboration

Drug modalities knowledge

Job description

Mercor is seeking a hands-on preclinical R&D expert to help guide AI-driven drug discovery projects. You will work across drug modalities, review real-world R&D data, and annotate outputs to improve model performance.

The role blends wet-lab insight with translational science and AI model development. Ideal candidates have 5+ years in preclinical R&D, experience taking programs toward clinic, and familiarity with multiple drug modalities.